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Character Analysis Silver Sparrow

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What if someone 's whole life was based on a secret from someone else 's life? How could one ever live a normal everyday life? It 's simple, they can 't. Dana Lynn Yarboro is a character in Tayari Jones 's novel "Silver Sparrow," who is a secret. Her father is a bigamist which means he has two wives and one does not know about the other. Dana is the daughter of Gwen, the wife no one knows about. It is clear that is all she will ever be in her father 's eyes because he is sure to stress the importance of staying away from the wife and daughter everyone knows. Dana is not just a secret in her family life, but also in her romantic relationships so much so that it has become part of her personality and how we view her as a character.
Secrets can tear families apart, however with Dana 's family it is what their entire family is based on. James 's life is illegal and can hurt a lot of people, so Dana 's life has to revolve around keeping everything …show more content…

Dana being a secret can influence how we view her as a character. The reader has sympathy for Dana. She can not be her own person because everything she does has to take into consideration of what her half sister is doing. She is not allowed to do many of the things she wants to and the audience feels bad for her. The audience can also excuse some of the things she does that might be frowned upon by society, such as drugs, because she is going through that. She makes choices that affect her relationships and that could get her in trouble, but she always does what is best. Author Tayari Jones explains in an interview with Erika Dreifus, "I never want to write a story where the moral choices are easy," (5). Her statement allows readers to realize that Dana as a character had to make difficult choices. Her choice to talk to Chaurisse at the science fair almost got her in trouble, but it just added to the anger she held deep inside of her for her father. Dana is a character that was influenced greatly by being a secret to

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