Reminscenes and disappoints: Sweet Summer

My book Sweet Summer by Bebe Moore Campbell is about Bebe’s past reminiscences about life living in Philadelphia with her mother during the school year and in North Carolina with her disabled father in the summertime because they weren’t married. Good memories and bad memories; including when her father died. His method of dying was somewhat predictable taking into account he crippled himself the same way he died: car accident. As she gets older she begins to notice that the longing of her father virtually connects her to all ties in her life, her friends, her father figures, her motives. At a young age her best friends were girls who also didn’t have their fathers, “…What made us soulmates was this: we were daddy’s girls without daddies.” (Campbell 87).

 The book slowly shifts away from her father and leans towards her coming-of-age. She comes to discover why her dad divorced her mom and her reaction was not a wwelcomed one, “My mind had painstakingly woven the image of his innocence; now that tapestry was slowing unraveling, leaving me angry and confused” (Campbell 200). She found out her dad had accidently killed a boy while driving, making it three car accidents. As she blossoms into womanhood she finally realizes that although her parents are separated they’ll always be a family and even though her father was absent, she was not fatherless.

            In this quote she's reflecting as she's walking down the aisle, as she strolls her father down the aisle and sees her uncles and all the men that helped her become who she is. She says, “I have grown strong and whole from the blessings of my many fathers” (Campbell 255). It represents the meaning of all the stories, all the characters that carved their signature in her heart. She says “many fathers” which indicates that all the other men, including her uncles, pastor, neighbors and older father figures were and played the role of her father while her actual dad wasn’t. They covered the holes her dad dug up unwillingly. They all loved and guided her to be that woman who they saw walking the aisle into marriage. They all formed her. This quote made me reflect on my father and my other father figures and I realized I only have my dad; I don't have any blood uncles and all my aunt's husbands are either nonexistent or not close to my heart. To realize how crappy my relationship with him is I want to change it before it's too late, and I might not change his urine duct or have long talks at night. I can't especially empathize with the author because my dad can walk and he's been around my whole entire life. But it made me realize the importance of a father, because you only miss him when he's not there.