BLACK ICE: A VOICE FOR THE BLACK ABSTRACT: A lecturer in creative writing, Lorene Cary wrote Black Ice in 1991 to commemorate her adolescent years spent in Saint Paul’s school in New Hampshire. In this cheerful autobiography we hear the chirpy voice of a Black woman whose frolicsome nature and flair for life is the literary equivalent of playful sunshine on black ice. Her spirited reminiscence show how today Black American woman have sloughed off the sapping memories of the bygone years and can revel unpretentiously in the choices they make and the effort they put in to make life meaningful. BLACK ICE: A VOICE FOR THE BLACK (Full paper) Lorene Cary’s Black Ice, published in 1991 is an absorbing autobiographical account of the two years she spent at Saint Paul’s, an elitist school in New Hampshire which had just become a co-ed school after years of being an exclusively all boys institution. Before she enrolled everyone in her family in Philadelphia was keen on seeing her move on to acquire a position none of her ancestors had thought possible. Cary herself was eager to get away from home because she was just fifteen and her head was among the stars. In fact, Black Ice reveals all the traumas an ambitious adolescent Black girl …show more content…
What is important is that this wafer-thin autobiography, far from being an assault on the past deeds of white Americans, is as Houston Baker says “A journey into selfhood that resonates with sober reflection, intelligent passion and joyous love.” (Black Ice Back cover)Black Ice brings out most of the significant observations, experiences and reflections that Cary makes as she speaks of her grandparents, parents friends and family members in the context of her life as a student at St. Paul’s show all that enabled her to be rid of her illusions and develop and honestly discover what it means to grow up as a Black in