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A Sense of Place in Dori Sanders' Clover
Laura M. ZaidmanKenneth L. Donelson and Alleen Pace Nilsen's Literature for Today's Young Adults defines young adult literature as any book freelychosen by someone between twelve and twenty (p. 2). This certainly describesDori Sanders' Clover (1990). Narrated by ten-year-old Clover Hill, thebook has been marketed for adults but enjoyed by teenagers as well.Clover's popularity with teens was evident when Clover [South Carolina]High School students told Sanders during her September, 1990, visit how muchthey liked the book's realism, humor, and honesty. Not only high schoolstudents but also college students agree that the book appeals to teenagereaders. My children's literature students who read the novel and heardSanders lecture in October, 1990, considered Clover an excellent choicefor young adult reading lists.
Attractively packaged in a colorful jacket, this 183-page book is accessible toyoung readers. The first-person point of view offers an immediacy of sharedexperiences and an authenticity of voice; also, its details of setting andcharacterization ring true. Although Sanders offers entertaining, humorouscomments, she presents challenging, serious themes of parental death and racialprejudice. Because the canon of American literature includes relatively fewblack women writers and few portrayals of interracial families, Cloverwould be a good choice in the classroom to encourage dialogue about both theunusual plot (a white stepmother raising a black child) and the theme of racialand cultural stereotypes.
Sanders provides a fascinating look into the progress of the New South.Driving down Highway 321 in upstate South Carolina between York and Clover, onecan see Sanders' Peach Stand, where the author sells peaches, watermelons, andvegetables. When Clover garnered enthusiastic reviews in the majornewspapers across the country, Sanders could not believe her sudden fame.Having made the front cover of B. Dalton's Discover Great New Writers,she admitted, "I tell you it's just amazing. Me, a peach farmer from Filbert... why, it's just hard to comprehend that all of this is happening." Yet shecontinues to work the land from sunup to sundown because "once the dirt getsunder your fingernails, you can't give it up." Indeed, Sanders' authenticvoice in Clover convincingly demonstrates the Southern farmer's love ofthe land.
"A Sense of Belonging Somewhere"
Eudora Welty identifies "a sense of belonging somewhere, to a part ofthe country" as an especially strong characteristic in Southern people. Sheobserves that, if you understand where you live and the people around you, youcan better understand other people; thus, instead of cutting you off, a senseof place liberates you.
Sanders shares this belief in a close identification with a specificgeographical area having its own unique cultural heritage and language. Thatquality makes her rural South Carolinian characters believable. Noted Southernwriter Ernest J. Gaines pointed out that Sanders "really sees well, nature andpeople, and she can describe the emotions of a young girl with the best ofthem." A Publishers Weekly review compares Sanders' Southerners tothose of Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, and Zora Neale Hurston.
By portraying familiar people and places -- such as the rural peach farm whereshe grew up, near Rock Hill, South Carolina -- Sanders creates believablecontent. To add realism, Sanders mentions specific things and places. Shementions the Charlotte Observer. She mentions Clemson University. Shementions the cities of Columbia and Charleston. She mentions the small townsof Denmark, Sweden, and Norway ("Norway was so little, you could spit cleanacross it" [p. 172]). The fictional Round Hill setting of the story is notmuch of an imaginative leap from Rock Hill, and real people inspired thestory's characters. Clover's father, a school principal and peach farmer, wasmodeled after Sanders' father, also a principal and peach farmer. She makesher characters realistic by linking them closely to their cultural heritage,their land, and their family.
A Story of the New South
Sanders explores a segment of the modern-day South through the eyes ofClover, a perceptive black girl. Three days before the narrative begins,Clover's father, Gaten Hill, had married a white woman, Sara Kate, and hourslater he was killed in a car accident. The narration goes back and forth intime as the confused child deals with this traumatic death and with her strangestepmother, who resolutely accepts responsibility for Clover because shepromised Gaten she would. However, Sara Kate steps in against the wishes ofthe Hills, the rest of Clover's family. Clover's Uncle Jim Ed and AuntEverleen, who work the family's peach orchard, distrust this "uppity," "MissHigh-and-mighty" outsider. Working the family peach stand in the blazing heatwhile Sara Kate stays home designing textiles, Everleen resents her newsister-in-law. Racial prejudice also creates disharmony, as when Everleentells her niece that Sara Kate, like "all white women," donates money to animalshelters only "because they feel so guilty over the way their people treatedus. They think by being extra kind to animals, it'll get them into heaven"(pp. 68-69).
As a way to emphasize differences in backgrounds, Sanders points out that thedivergent cultural perspectives of blacks and whites clash when it comes tofood. Contrasting tastes in food emphasize the cultural differencesthat threaten to keep Sara Kate an outsider. Whether at large familygatherings, the wedding feast, the wake, or everyday meals, food reflectsfamily traditions, regional habits, and racial differences. The first timeSara Kate eats at a Hill family gathering, not wanting to offend anyone, sheeats everything offered to her, including fish cooked in boiling grease,biscuits, ham, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, and fried chicken.
Although fascinated at the spectacle of Sara Kate's eating like a crazy personjust to make a good impression, Clover sympathetically brings her a foamingglass of Alka-Seltzer and cold, damp cloth for her forehead when she gets "sickas a dog." Sara Kate has much to learn; she doesn't even know that "mountainoysters" are pig, sheep, or bull testicles. But, seeing her father's happiness,Clover grudgingly accepts Sara Kate. That is not to say Clover feelscomfortable with the clash of black and white cultures. At her father'sfuneral, Clover describes how Sara Kate is squeezed in between her and Jim Edon the crowded bench for Gaten's funeral "like vanilla cream between darkchocolate cookies" (p. 22). Then the child considers this irony: her daddy isdead and all she can think of is an Oreo cookie. At this point, however, shesees Sara Kate, not as an individual but only as the striking differencesbetween vanilla and chocolate.
Partly responsible for Clover's emotional conflicts, Everleen confuses herniece with mixed messages about Sara Kate. On the one hand, she tells Clover,"You'd better eat with your daddy's wife tonight. I'm sick and tired of allthe junk food your uncle piles in at this stand. If you drink another Pepsi yougonna turn into one. It's not good for you. I believe in a balanced nutritiousdiet." On the other hand, Clover knows her aunt doesn't know "beans about abalanced meal. Not a woman who cooked macaroni and cheese, corn pudding, friedokra, potato salad, turnip greens, candied yams, and fried chicken for anordinary Sunday dinner" (p. 58).
Everleen, while approving of Sara Kate's cooking, vents her frustration at thiswoman's sudden intrusion in her family: "Now remember, Clover ... we neverrepeat the things we talk about here at the peach shed. This is family talk."The aunt continues, "Now, remember Sara Kate is family, so be nice and tell her[that] her cooking tastes real, real good. You know how white women are. Theywant you to brag on `em all the time. To tell them you love `em. They don'tcare whether it's the truth or not" (p. 59).
In still another instance of contradictory messages, Everleen admonishes Clovernot to hurt Sara Kate's feelings. Thus, having been told that most white women"have been sheltered and petted all their lives. The least little thing justtears them up," Clover lies about her stepmother's watery grits and chickenswimming in tomatoes and green peppers: "This chicken is some kind of good,Sara Kate" (p. 64).1
Differences in clothes reflect still another contrast in lifestyle, as seenwhen the novel opens with this symbolic clash of black and white:
They dressed me in white for my daddy's funeral. White from my head to mytoes. I had the black skirt I bought at the six-dollar store all laid out towear. I'd even pulled the black grosgrain bows off my black patent leathershoes to wear in my hair. But they won't let me wear black. I know deep downin my heart you're supposed to wear black to a funeral. I guess the reason mystepmother is not totally dressed in black is because she just plain doesn'tknow any better. (p. 1)
Clover's annoyance at the white dress suggests the deeper anger at being thrustinto the care of a white stranger who does not have the good sense to knowproper attire for a funeral.
Yet the cultural clash is not as simple as black and white, good and bad, rightand wrong. Even though Clover and her relatives admire how the very attractiveMerlee Kenyon, Gaten's former girlfriend, dresses in "tight white pants, red,red, blouse and high-heeled red sandals," they are quick to recognize that shewould not fit into the Hill family because she wasn't about to take on aready-made family and, having earned a master's degree in music, spend the bestyears of her life taking care of someone else's child, especially a child whogot on her nerves. On the other hand, Clover overhears Sara Kate telling Gatenabout what a beautiful little girl Clover is. Clover confesses, "this woman'sgot the smarts to say the right thing at the right time. She may not havewanted me any more than Miss Kenyon.... [but] she had sense enough not to sayit" (p. 51).
Not only is Sara Kate a stranger to this region, but also being white,well-educated, and well-dressed makes her even more the outsider in the blackfarming community. Clover hears the women talk about Sara Kate:
"Can't you just die from all that beige and taupe she's wearing?"
"Girl, them some Gloria Vanderbilt's pants."
"Aw shucks now, go on, girl."
"Wonder what's wrong with her?"
"I don't know, but there is something that's caused her to be rejected by herown men."
"Well, something's wrong with her. Why else would she take up with a blackdude?" (p. 42)
But this gossip does not totally prejudice Clover, for she likes the way herfather and Sara Kate act together: "They are not all over each other, huggingand kissing like some courting people. Every now and again she touches him whenhe is near, her hand lightly touching his, or an elbow resting on his knee" (p.43).
As Clover gradually accepts her stepmother's love, it is as if her father werereaching out from the grave to comfort and assure her that she will be in goodhands. The turning point of the story occurs after Clover defiantly cursesSara Kate about her cooking. When Everleen sides with her sister-in-law andmakes Clover apologize, Clover begins to understand her stepmother's sinceredevotion. The rest of the family and the community then open their hearts toSara Kate when she saves Jim Ed's life by giving him mouth-to-mouthresuscitation after he's stung by yellow jackets in the peach orchard.
This book celebrates the growing acceptance of differences in skin color, food,clothing, and values. Sanders' metaphor of growth ties all the literaryelements into an aesthetic whole. Indeed, the title's image suggeststhis organic growth: clover enriches the soil for more valuable pasturage justas Clover enriches the Hill family life. The peach orchard that remains at thecenter of the family heritage of proud traditions and close ties is aptlypictured on the book jacket with bountiful peaches and beautiful peachblossoms.
A Sense of Place Can Liberate
The novel concludes with the characters' resolving cultural clashes andbridging various gaps that separate them. Insights into each other's behaviorallow Sara Kate, Clover, and the rest of the family to change their racialattitudes; they begin to empathize with each other without the culturalblinders of stereotypes. The blossoming peach orchard works well as a metaphorfor this family's growth toward a common humanity. Certainly Cloveroffers young adults the chance to be liberated from the narrow confines oftheir own culture so they can celebrate individual differences. Sanders thussupports quite well the truth of Welty's point that a strong allegiance toplace need not isolate people, for they can transcend racial and culturaldifferences. In this sense, students can see that Southern literature is notonly for Southerners, nor is black literature only for blacks.Clover is a timely novel for today's society -- one no longersegregated but still challenged by racial distrust.
Endnote
1. The writer herself knows about facing unfamiliar food. According toElizabeth Kastor in the Washington Post, Sanders' tastes in food arethose of Southern country people, so when she went to New York to promoteClover, she was "confronted by an assortment of mysterious and trendyobjects residing in a New York salad." Sanders admits, "the only kind oflettuce I really like is iceberg ... and there wasn't any iceberg at all. Someof the things in this salad looked like flowers, and then there were theseendives" she wasn't supposed to eat. Sanders' Northern host told her, "No,Dori, it's not red cabbage, it's raaadicchiooo!" -- as Sanders tells thestory, embellishing the foreign, elegant-sounding word. No wonder she canimagine Clover's misery when forced to eat Sara Kate's strange cooking.
References
Gaines, Ernest J. Algonquin Press publicity material, 1990.
Kastor, Elizabeth. "Southern Seeds of a First Novel." Washington Post,May 6, 1990, pp. F1, 9.
Review of Clover. Publishers Weekly, January 19, 1990, p. 50.
Sanders, Dori. Clover. Algonquin, 1990.
Welty, Eudora. The Atlanta Constitution, June 24, 1978, pp. 7-8,magazine section.
Laura M. Zaidman, Professor of English at the University of South Carolinaat Sumter, teaches courses in children's literature, composition, and Americanliterature.
