Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - English grand avenue grand avenue In the novel Grand Avenue. Greg Sarris uses the theme thread of poison to connect all of his separate stories about the Toms’, a Pomo Indian family. He proves that the roots of a family are the basis which gives the family its structure, even if those roots are bad. In the Toms’ family they’re roots were poisoned from the very founding of the family starting with Sam Toms’. His poison was not the fact that he tried to steal a married woman away, but that he was filled with secrets, deceptions, and self hatred. His family was founded on these poisened roots and passes the poisen down generation after gerneration. The only way to stop the poison, or inner self hatred taken out in other forms, was to let go of past and talk about the secrets and lies. Once a person does this they are able to learn from their mistake , in a sense the break free from the poison. If Sam Toms’ , the founder or root of the family,would have broken free of his poisen by talking about his mistake he made, his whole family per haps would have turned out completely different. As a result of his secrets and lies his family was rasied to make the same immoral desisions as he made throughout his life. His family, like Sam, didn't take responcilblity for their mistakes, which spread the poison onto the next generation. Tracing the poison throughout the Tom’s beginning at the roots, shows just how important the roots indeed are. In the first story, entitled The Magic Pony, one learns about the “Man Poison”. The story is narrated by Jasmine, who lives with her Auntie Faye Faye tells her daughter Ruby and Jasmine that all men are poisoned because of a mistake from her past She stole her cousin Anna’s boyfriend Joaquin, by lying to him, telling him Anna was cursed. He ended up leaving Anna and marrying Faye. He soon died and she married his brother whom died also. Faye never took responsibly for her wrong actions. She blambed all her faults on outside sources, such as her Uncle who poisoned the family, and men in general; never herself. If Faye simply spoke of her past, apologized to Anna, and moved onto the future instead of living in the past, than this “poison” would have been stopped. But her family raised her not to speak about her mistakes. Her whole family, starting at the roots was based on secrets and living in the past. She chose to follow the family roots, in doing so she passed on the poison to her daughte r Ruby and Jasmine, instilling in them the practice of keeping secrets and blaming outside sourses for bad things in their life. In the ninth story, The Secret Letters, we learned about Steven Pen, ho is poisoned by his seacret son whom he had with Pauline. Unfotuantly for Steven, his father had a secret also. Pauline was his secret daughter, which meant that Pauline and Steven were half brother and sister. Steven is different than some of the others the family, although for the most part of the story he is poisoned, he was able to, in the end rid his inner poison. Steven Pen, who is the speaker, was never told that Pauline was his sister. They had a child together out of wedlock. Steve was told by his father to forget about Pauline; he listened to his father and stood her up. Steven moved on with his life yet his secret poison stayed with him and grew stronger. The thought of Tony, his secret son consumed his mind. Eventually he began to secretly write letters to Tony incognito as a teenage girl. Steven soon confessed to Tony about the letters and about being his father. In doing this, he was able to break free of his poison. He didn't have his secret to consume him any longer, he could now talk about his past openly. Steven was able to move on with his life and embrace Tony openly as his son, which is what he longed for all along. In the eighth story called Indian maid, we learn how one can use the Toms’ family poisen in a positive way. Stella. Zelda’s youngest daughter. learned from her mothers life by listening to her mother’s family stories. Stella was unlike her older sisters whom carried on the Toms’ family poison of self hatred and descete. She was filled with goals and dreams ot anger and living in the past. Her sisters, Fay, Billyrene. Frances, and Rita fell into latched on to the family roots of poison. Unlike Stella, their childhood was filled with Zelda's strange men and having to work on a fruit farm from a young age. They weren't filled with hope as Stella was. Stella didn't have to deal with the reality of disappointments such as a whore mother from a young age like her older sisters did. They were forced to grow up realisticly and pesstimisticly due to the world around them. Although Stella did not have to deal with all the obstacles as her sisters had, she still could have easily fallen into the family t rap of poisen which were in her roots. Stella’s life was not lll good times, she also had disappointments such as loosing her job. Unlike her predecessors, she took responsibility for the hard times in her life and worked through them. When she lost her job as a secretary, instead of felling angry and blaming the family “ poison” someone else started in the past, she instead took matters into her own hands and got a new job. She never once felt sorry for herself or blamed others for her problems. Although Stella’s older sisters did have a harder childhood than Stella, they still would have been able to break free from the poison as Stella did by talking responsibility for their lives, talked about their mistakes, and didn't live in their mother’s bad judgments. In conclusion, by using poison, which one finds out is in actuality self hatred and hidden lies not an outside sourse; Serris proves that a family learns and grows from each other starting from the roots. Although most members fell into the routine of self hatred, others were able to break free by taking control of their lives as Stella did and letting go of their secrets as Steven Pen did. The patriarch of the Toms’ was a deceitful man who attempted to steal away a married woman. Through his example which was the foundation roots of the Toms', he instilled his immoral values onto his children and their children. His poison of secrets and and self hatred spread like a disease thought his entire family, connecting them together as one dysfunctional unit. All members, except a privedged few such as Anna, Stella, and Alice who broke free of the poison, lived their lives as Sam Toms’ did who rooted the family. They as he did lied, cheated, manipuled, and kept secrets to try to live a happy life which in actuality their lives were anything but. The strong Toms’ that broke free of the poison spoke of their problems and took responsibility for them. The rest just followed in their ancestors footsteps and lived unhappy and immoral lives as they did. The Toms’ family poison connected the whole family, generation after generation together, and helps to prove how important an influential a families’ roots really are. Bibliography: The rest just followed in their ancestors footsteps and lived unhappy and immoral lives as they did. The Toms’ family poison connected the whole family, generation after generation together, and helps to prove how important an influential a families’ roots really are. Word Count: 1254
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