Boy Snow Bird and Race
The novel "Boy, Snow, Bird" combines historical realism and interpretation with the use of fairy tales in a thought-provoking way. While seemingly different, these two forms coexist in the novel, with Oyeyemi using fairy tale elements to explore and comment on real-world social issues of the 1950s American context in which the novel is set (Oyeyemi, 2014).
The presence of social problems, such as racism and sexism, creates both possibilities and problems for the novel and the reader. On the one hand, the novel's use of fairy tale elements can serve as a powerful tool for critiquing and subverting social norms and expectations. On the other hand, the presence of these social problems can also make the novel difficult to read, particularly for readers who have experienced similar forms of...
I found the clash to be somewhat jarringbut maybe that was the point.
Oyeyemi, I think, wants to jar the reader by creating complicated albeit nuanced characters who are both products of their time and actively working to resist social structures that oppress them. Boy, Snow, and Bird all struggle with issues of race, gender, and identity in different ways. For Boy, the...
…adds another layer of complexity to the novel's use of fairy tale elements. The world of the novel is a mixture of the real and the fantastical, with elements of both the mundane and the magical existing side by side. This creates a sense of disorientation and uncertainty that echoes the characters' own struggles with identity and belonging. All in all, I would say that the combination of historical realism and interpretation with the use of fairy tales in "Boy, Snow, Bird" is a powerful and thought-provoking combination that raises important questions about the relationship between stories, social norms, and individual…
