#664 The Creation- Maxine Clair
An outsider should be able to recognize another outsider. Irene has befriended the only girl from Redtown that goes to her school. The community of Redtown is a kind of closed-off religious sect. Irene likes that her new friend is a bit different and she likes that she is from the same town as the strange but intriguing boy that comes by the house each weekend selling chickens.
She is learning a poem called The Creation for an oration competition. She goes to her new friends house in Redtown to practice saying aloud to strangers but they scoff and drive her away, all except Dell, the boy she likes. He is a great storyteller, and they share a lot of time together while she is preparing for the competition. Things happen that force her friend from the school and Dell from coming by anymore, and suddenly her connections to Redtown are all but cut.
She can now focus on the competition, but something bad happens. She learns that the competition is not desegregated yet, and she will not be allowed to compete. It was a the mistake of her teacher—the only white teacher in school—to not take that into consideration. She has never been an outsider, how would she know?
Notable Passage: “We can use the same words you use, but it doesn’t mean we speak the same language.”
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