Sapphire's Grave

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by Hilda Gurley Highgate


  as did Rahab

  whose faith saved a people from ruin

  as our faith has brought us to this place

  once

  we understood

  but they took away our God

  gave us others to impress

  and a robe of pure white

  they asked us to deserve

  no saving grace

  for the daughters of Sapphire

  no flowers for her

  grave

  no mourners there

  but a contempt-laden epitaph

  to young women buried beneath the loam

  her sons did not understand

  once

  we knew

  of places where the women never cried

  or ’pologized

  for never crying

  or thought it unusual

  to never cry

  we have known those places within us

  Sapphire still lives

  there

  eyes anxious heart racing in the

  dark

  hands groping for her empty

  grave

  reading group companion

  Who or what does the title character, Sapphire, represent, and what is the significance of the title, Sapphire’s Grave? The book ends with a poem that describes Sapphire’s grave as “empty.” Why is the grave empty?

  Sapphire and Sister both become known for being eloquently caustic. Are some people just born this way? How did each woman’s circumstance and experience shape her personality?

  Why does Prince become Queen Marie’s sole ambition? Why does he, in fact, become her God?

  Queen Marie speaks briefly to Vyda Rose after reading a newspaper article about Vyda Rose’s demise. Does Vyda Rose drown in the Hudson River? Does she survive and visit Queen Marie before going into hiding, or is Queen Marie experiencing an alcoholic hallucination?

  Was Jewell naïve to believe that she could raise Clovey in her home alongside her other children without consequence? Could she have predicted the effect her choice would have on Covey? What accounts for Jewell’s actions in this regard?

  After her experience at the High Point School for Girls, Clovey returns home and begins sculpting bridges. What do Clovey’s bridges represent?

  How does societal racism, specifically its effect of valuing whiteness in general while devaluing black women in particular, shape Aldridge’s perception of, and relationship with, his mother? His wife, Clovey?

  When Rae’ven is born, she is said to be, “rising, on great black wings bearing without shame the scarlet past.” What is the significance of this character to all women who live beneath the shadow of a shame-filled history?

  Sapphire’s Grave was inspired by the often contradictory stereotypes still applied to black women today. In Sister, Queen Marie, Vyda Rose, Jewell, and Clovey, the reader sees aspects of the Mammy, Jezebel, Sapphire, and Tragic mulatto stereotypes. How does each character differ from these formulaic images?

  For the most part, the women of Sapphire’s Grave live unapologetically, making the choices they believe best for themselves with little regard for the effect on others. How does this square with the cultural mandate of black women to be self-sacrificing and to “uphold the race”? To what extent did Clovey take on this burden that was rejected by her foremothers?

  Sapphire’s Grave hints that Sapphire’s mother understood something crucial about God that was eventually lost by her ancestors. Each character in Sapphire’s Grave perceives her relationship to God differently. How do these perceptions shape their lives?

  Published by Harlem Moon, an imprint of Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

  SAPPHIRE’S GRAVE. Copyright © 2003 by Hilda Gurley-Highgate.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information, address: Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

  Visit our website at www.harlemmoon.com

  First Harlem Moon trade paperback edition published 2003

  PS3607.U55 S36 2003

  813’.6—dpc21

  2002073871

  www.randomhouse.com

  eISBN: 978-0-307-41921-7

  v3.0

 

 

 


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