Fledgling 3

This is a very long overdue post, but my final judgement of "Fledgling" is that it got much better towards the end, and I started to see much more symbolism. The idea of memory was one of the most important ideas I saw. Shori's memory loss is much like the present African American community's loss of memory for the pasts of their ancestors, as was also suggested in "All Aunt Hagar's Children." She doesn't remember anything about her past or her family. She does not feel she belongs anywhere, yet she is instructed to, "...seem more Ina than they" (272). She is also seen as a threat to many of the Ina families because of her genetic differences, as African Americans were seen as a threat to white Americans, and sometimes still are. A passage that was very thought-provoking to me was when Joan told Shori at the trial, "You begin to overshadow your dead" and, "Remember your dead...Keep them around you. And remember what you want" (245). The whole idea of Shori overshadowing her dead was interesting to me. Was this supposed to suggest that African Americans today are overshadowing the turmoils of their ancestors? I don't know, however, I think that Butler was trying to make the same statement as Jones that African Americans today are forgetting where they came from and must remember their histories if they want a chance at equality or justice.
Another tie I saw between the story and the real world was the Ina's initial denial of racism within the Ina people. Wells insisted that race meant nothing to them when looking for symbionts, and that they were happy about Shori's genetic superiority. This seemed equal to many Americans' views that racism is no longer an issue in America. As in America, the Ina soon found out that there was still much bitter racism going on, and it was the main cause for all of the recent Ina deaths. My favorite passage in this book, because it reminded me of the African American sense of dislocation and search for equality, was when Shori said, "My memory of them is gone. I can't even mourn them properly because for me, they never really lived. Now I have begun to relearn who I am, to rebuild my life, and my enemies are still killing my people. Where is there safety for my symbionts or for me?" (271). This is what I think the current African American community is going through: relearning, rebuilding, and the ever-present sense of dislocation.