CONTEXT
The personal essay “Context”,
written by Dorothy Allison, (1994), explores the importance of context when
looking at different situations, and that making a presumption without proper
context can lead to irrational fears that cloud our own perceptions. Allison demonstrates this assertion by taking
us down memory lane with a vivid depiction recounting the time she brought her
lover to meet her family, she shares her fear, doubts, and how she assumed her
lover would react to her family. Allison’s
essay purports the significance of context and its impact on our understanding
of one another. Her intended audience,
members of the LGTBQ community, or the general public at large to gain a
different perspective at understanding one another by placing things in their
proper perspective.
This essay elicited a variety of responses from the members
of this group. For one, the response was
invoked memories of her own childhood and reminders of how she was raised. I found it interesting how a misunderstanding
in the context led the author to assume how her lover would react to her
family. She became fearful because she
was basing her assumption from the perspective of her own life experiences and
not her lovers. Her fears were more
revealing of her personal feelings about her family than her lovers. Her statement, “Don’t go deaf and blind to what
this feels like, remember it” (119), stood out for me in that even as a child
she recognized that this behavior was wrong, and she wanted to remember so that
she would not be guilty of treating someone in that manner.
Dorothy
Allison utilizes her personal experience of taking her lover to meet her family
and childhood memories to asserts the relevance of context to our understanding
of one another. Fear can cause us to act
irrationally, to make assumptions not based in facts. Allison assumed that her lover would look at
her differently based upon how she felt about her family, “I was afraid that she
might see me through new eyes, hateful eyes, the eyes of someone who suddenly
knew fully how different we were.” (118).
She was right in that her lover did see her with new eyes, just not in
the way she thought. Later, when she
reflected on meeting her lovers family, she began to see that she gained an
better understanding of her lover by meeting them, “ Seeing where she had grown
up, meeting some of her family, I had understood her better” (119). Allison ends the piece by reminding us that our
experiences, even the shameful ones are a part of who we are, but do not define
who we are, we can choose to be different from our experiences. Placing things in the proper context
encourages growth and maturity, as the author said, “Context is so little to
share, and so vital.”(120).
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