May We Be Forgiven Analysis

A. M Holmes’ May We Be Forgiven and T. Geronimo Johnson’s Welcome to Braggsville both explore themes of gender. May We Be Forgiven was published in New York in 2012. It follows Harry Silver, a middle-aged author, as he navigates his divorce, his brother’s incarceration after murdering his own wife, and his relationship with with his niece and nephew (Nate and Ashley) after he becomes their legal guardian. Welcome to Braggsville was also published in New York, three years later. It follows D’aron (aka Daron), a sophomore at UC Berkley. D’aron and three friends visit his family’s home in Braggsville, Georgia to protest the town’s annual Civil War reenactment. When one of their friends is killed by a war reenactor, the remaining three (D’aron, Charlie, and Candice) must work to rebuilt themselves and their relationships with each other and the world around them. The portrayals of Candice, Ashley, though superficially divergent, both ultimately work to …show more content…
She calls home sobbing, and tells Harry that she “need[s] to talk to [her] mom” (196, Holmes). When Ashley tells the school nurse that she just got her first period, nurse gives her “a big biology lecture” that she finds “all very confusing” (196, Holmes). Ashley ends up putting the tampon in “the farthest-back hole” (197, Holmes) and can’t get it out. Harry is able to help coach her through getting it unstuck over the phone. This sudden biological change thrusts her closer to adulthood, but leaves her feeling like she needs her mom more than ever. By describing Ashley’s first experience with ‘coming of age’ as uncomfortable and embarrassing, while later representing Nate’s experience with puberty through his bar mitzvah, Holmes highlights early evidence of gender-inequality in children. The boy gets a party, while the girl gets menstrual blood and accidentally anally penetrates