Dorothy Allison’s personal essay “Context”(1994) asserts that knowing a person requires a knowledge of a person's personal experience and familial background. Allison supports this claim by using comparisons and flashback to express her views on judgment assumptions. Allison uses flashback and comparisons in order to show that context gives perceptions, and if not appropriately perceived, it can represent false assumptions. Allison writes to the general public because everyone makes judgments, but however she explains how context, experiences and background plays a vital role in perceiving an individual.
Personally, it's very easy to relate to the memory Allison shared of her family vacation. She spoke about the look the man in the gift shop gave her because of her stepfather's comment. We've all been in those situation regardless of wanting to be in them or not. Sometimes it could be because of the people we choose to put ourselves around or sometimes we're too naïve to understand the situation we're in. It's hard sometimes to face judgment from people because of situations we know they don't understand. It's especially difficult when we're judged by people on situations we do not want to put them in either. That's what I feel Allison was trying to get across.
According to google the word context means, “the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect”. Allison writes this short story about a man who is fearful for his lover to meet his family. In this story, the man came from a poverty-ridden childhood and the lover is from a well off family. The man talks about how the lover says, “I thought I understood what you meant when you said ‘working class’ but I just didn’t have a context”(Allison 132) meaning she had no idea what the mother meant. Allison then writes about how even the circumstances of his family and how ashamed the man might be about his family, he can’t help but wonder what his lover would think of his past and how he took things into context.
According to google the word context means, “the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect”. Allison writes this short story about a man who is fearful for his lover to meet his family. In this story, the man came from a poverty-ridden childhood and the lover is from a well off family. The man talks about how the lover says, “I thought I understood what you meant when you said ‘working class’ but I just didn’t have a context”(Allison 132) meaning she had no idea what the mother meant. Allison then writes about how even the circumstances of his family and how ashamed the man might be about his family, he can’t help but wonder what his lover would think of his past and how he took things into context.
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