peculiar habit of referring to herself and others by using their first and last names is also o

increasingly difficult for her to refer to herself by her first name because, "The names "Avey" and "Avatara" were those of someone who was no longer present, and she had become Avey Johnson even in her thoughts, a woman whose face, reflected in a window or mirror, she sometimes failed to recognize" (141). This void that infected both she and her husband resulted directly from their denial of the past. They were no longer worried about who they were or where they came from but rather where they were going in life. Even though they were improving their financial situation, they were also sacrificing the

feel what seemed to be hundreds of slender threads streaming out from her navel and from the place where her heart was to enter those around her" (190). The dream mainly consists of her great aunt beckoning to her in an attempt to draw her back into this tapestry of past "threads" that she had been cut off from. Avey talks about the burden that her aunt's story of the Ibos had instilled in her when she was younger saying that, "the old woman had entrusted her with a mission she couldn't even name yet had felt duty-bound to fulfill. It had taken her years to rid herself of the notion" (42). The dream reopened that feeling of obligation in Avey, and it isn't until she partakes in the excursion that she fulfills her duty by celebrating her ethnicity and remembering the

joyous part of her roots. As she's witnessing the ceremonious part of the excursion she thinks for an instant that the maid is actually her aunt. She winds up passionately reveling in the dancing, instinctually mimicking the stature of her previous ancestors. The ritual unleashes the threads that had been missing from her life; those severed ties that were responsible for leaving her in a state of separated autonomy.

calling them by their full names. She talks about Jay's transformation after the fight they have on Halsey Street, saying that when he became obsessed with his work and started berating other Negroes, "it was Jerome Johnson who spoke. While continuing to call him Jay to his face, she gradually found herself referring to him as Jerome Johnson in her thoughts" (132). This nothingness that had infected her husband inevitably crept into her soul. Even their friends started teasing them about how much they had started to resemble each other by referring to them jokingly as twins. As the years past it had become

Avey's identity isn't complete until she acknowledges that part of her past and ethnic background worth celebrating. Earlier in the novel, when she is thinking about what it would have taken to keep she and Jay from selling out, she cites these four essential components: an awareness of the worth they possessed, a vigilance to protect it, the strength to withstand glitte

Some common words found in the essay are:
Lebert Joseph, Robert Fulton, American Dream, Halsey Street, Avey Johnson, Jerome Johnson, Bianca Pride, , Aunt Cuney, Island Looking, black community, halsey street, dream aunt, infected husband, avey johnson, affluent surroundings, social bonds, avey isn't, jerome johnson, using names,
Approximate Word count = 1882
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)