Blossoms of the Savannah Lesson Plan

What does the way each character speaks (as well as the way each listens to and is affected by speech) indicate about that character? What does this seem to suggest about the potential power of language, tone of voice, and other aspects of speech and verbal communication?

Students may point to examples early in the novel in which the author both uses speech to introduce the characters (i.e., by being highly descriptive of their manner of speaking and their sensitivity to the speech of others) and points to the power of speech to articulate certain experiential realities and thus bring them more fully into being. Examples occurring early in Chapter 1 include: “...she...