Lalita Tademy Red River Analysis

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Red River written by Lalita Tademy is a powerful novel about the lives of three generations of two extraordinary African American families who are forever intertwined after the horrific aftermath of the Civil War. This novel offers many avenues of analysis on the authors background, writing style and historic events in Colfax, Louisiana as Lalita Tademy traces her roots telling the story of her courageous ancestors who are newly freed slaves fighting for their individual liberties and struggling with racial injustice yet somehow find the strength to move forward hoping for a better future for their children. Lalita Tademy is an African American novelist and former business executive who was born in Berkeley, California in 1948 and is the …show more content…
in psychology and an MBA in business administration in 1972. After college, she worked for many important companies, but she was not satisfied and felt like she was meant for something more. After doing some soul searching for a year she began researching her family tree and became interested in genealogy. It was during this time where she traveled to Louisiana, where her family originated from searching court records, interviewing people, reading letters, newspapers, diaries, etc. Her painstakingly family research led her to the discovery of her maternal and paternal ancestors. She felt especially close to her maternal side. This maternal bond led her to write Cane River her first novel based on her maternal ancestors and is in the point of view of women. Cane River differs from Red River in that it is about women and their daughters. Red River is based on her paternal ancestors and is written in the point of view of …show more content…
An example of courage in the novel is found on page 67 when young Noby Smith goes to spy on the White League who are planning on taking over the courthouse. He travels alone by foot and finds the men's secret meeting in the clearing in Summerfield Springs, just off Bayou Grappe overhearing important information regarding Sheriff Nash who was supposedly locked up in Calhoun's Sugarhouse was one of the men present at the meeting. The young boy also overhears they are planning on bringing white men from Sicily Island and other parishes. Noby Smith displays courage in this situation since he went alone and put himself in harms way for the sake of his family and

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