Snapshots of Grace
Henderson-Holmes, Safiya
Genre: Short Story
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Annotated by:
- Wear, Delese
- Date of entry: May-17-2006
Summary
This story presents a denial of breast cancer so deep that it may cost a woman her life. Arranged by discrete sections labeled "photographs," the story is a chronology of Grace from age five to her present middle age. The story ends after her surgery, and readers are left with the insight that for Grace--and many other women--breasts were more than sexual appendages that warranted admiration from others, visual affirmation of her womanness, or sexual enticements. They were her body, her self, and removal of her breast was not simply removal of a peripheral part.
Primary Source
Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction
Publisher
Penguin
Place Published
New York
Edition
1990
Editor
Terry McMillan