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A Light to My Path
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Plot Summary of A Light to My Path
"

Bethany, Nov 2004, 12.99, 432 pp.
ISBN: 1556614446

In 1862 South Carolina, Confederate soldiers warn Missy Claire that 6000 Yankees are marching towards her plantation and arming slaves. Missy is angry and panicking as she orders her slaves but talks down to them as if they are cattle or pets, which is how she sees them. Field slave Grady informs house slave Kitty that he plans to run away and would like her, the woman he loves, to come with him to freedom. Kitty hesitates as she has lost the ability to make decisions having spent her life having her massahs tell her what to do.

As Kitty struggles whether to run off with Grady or stay with Missy, she reflects back to the early 1850s when she as a child met her young mistress. Kitty, called Anna, back then, had some kittens that Missy wanted, but her mother refused her request, saying that anything owned by a darkie was diseased. So Missy told her mom that she wants the darkie as her kitty. Since then Kitty has always done whatever her owner tells her to do, like a cat. Meow!

Harriet Klausner

"

Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of A Light to My Path
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - thoughtful
Time/era of story - 19th century
Political/social activism Yes
Plotlet: - slavery
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - slave
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Nationality - Black
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - society

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Deep South

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
Unusual Style: - a lot of flashback and forwards - a lot of stream of consciousness
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript
Most similar books to A Light to My Path
Echo of Lions by Barbara Chase-Riboud
The Heroic Slave by Frederick Douglass
The Sugar Camp Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini
Queen by Alex Haley
The Known World by Edward P. Jones


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Lynn Austin Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Rebecca Herman  

SCHOLARS:
Harriet Klausner  


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