Silver Sparrow Literary Analysis

In the book Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones, the secret family of James Witherspoon, Gwen and Dana, believe that they have a certain power over the other family. They show that they believe they have power by saying, “We never doubted that we enjoyed at least one peculiar advantage when it came to what really mattered” (Jones 5). Throughout the book power is shown in three instances by Gwen and Dana knowing about Laverne and Chaurisse, Dana being more physically and mentally appealing, and James Witherspoon making Dana and Gwen keep their life a secret. James Witherspoon and Gwen both met whenever he was buying his only wife at the time an anniversary present, quite ironic. This eventually leads Gwen to agreeing to marry James, even when knowing

The silver girl in this book would be Dana. Dana’s power originates from her natural beauty. In the book, Dana begins to feel insecure about James having another family, so Gwen takes Dana to see Chaurisse and Dana described her as “utterly ordinary. Dana has better hair, skin figure, and was more intelligent than Chaurisse. This is described on their way to Chaurisse’s school and Dana can sing a song in French, knows her “at” words, and her numbers (Jones 14). Unlike Dana, who was a natural beauty, Chaurisse was what she described as “pretty in a jar.” Pretty in a jar meaning she has to use cosmetics to keep up her appearance (Jones 196). The advantages Dana has on Chaurisse was that she was much prettier. Unlike Dana believing she has a power over Chaurisse because she knows of James Witherspoon bigotry Dana’s beauty was a true power. The first time Chaurisse laid eyes on her, in the drug store, she was mesmerized by her beauty so much so she wanted to kiss her (Jones 199). This is not just some made up power this is a true power. This is the power of