Why is Granada incapable of seeing the emotional abuse Mistress Amanda wreaks on her? Why is she so resistant to the notion of her mother being a slave and to working for Polly when she arrives?
Created: 01/28/12
Replies: 19
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Join Date: 04/22/11
Posts: 26
I think Granada viewed the Mistress as a mother figure having been taken away from her own mother at infancy. She did not know or understand how a mother loves. Also, the clothes the Mistress gave her made her feel special, set her apart from the other slaves. She didn't realize that it was Sylvie, the cook, who truly loved her like a mother.
Join Date: 04/21/11
Posts: 324
Join Date: 09/11/11
Posts: 132
Granada loved the attention. She thought she was special even when she was laughed at or regarded as a freak. I agree with the prior two postings. She didn't know what mother love was and sought out the attention of Mistress Amanda.
Join Date: 02/02/12
Posts: 8
I also agree with Lorettaf in that Granada longed for a Mother and also to be "special". If Granada can attract and keep the attention of the Mistress of the house then she can believe herself to be different than the other slaves, and perhaps destined for a better life. Her behavior is typical child like behavior-any attention is good- and felt this aspect of the book was partcularly well written
Join Date: 01/12/12
Posts: 11
Granada suffered from a "slave's mentality". She was under the impression that she was somehow special because all the other indicators in her life showed slaves were not "good" but for her to receive affection and attention and gifts to boot made her "feel" special.
I agree with all the other readers' comments that she was confused by the affections of Mistress Amanda, not knowing any better. And she was naive and loved attention.
Not to mention our innate need for human affection was in full affect with her, having been snatched from her own mother at such a young age.
Join Date: 06/16/11
Posts: 410
Granada thought the way she was treated was normal. It is all she ever knew so it was okay. Just as with modern day children who are abused emotionally and physically they, most of the time, do not want to be separated from their abuser because that is all they know. I have seen this many times personally in my past work with abused and neglected children. It is hard for most of us to understand because most of us have never been there and feel they would be happy away form that.
Join Date: 09/11/11
Posts: 132
I agree with Joyces. Emotionally abused children are drawn to their abusers and go back for more and more of the same. They are also groomed for the abuse. The clothing and attention were both things that led Granada to believe that she wanted more of the same, no matter what others said or how she may have felt.
Join Date: 01/16/12
Posts: 6
Granada's desire to be special and work in the house clouded her vision of reality. Working in the house also provided her with more comforts than living outside. At her young age, she didn't see Miss Amanda's mental illness, only that Miss Amanda was treating her in a special way.
Join Date: 08/11/11
Posts: 11
Granada so craved the special attention she received from Mistress Amanda that she could not see a bad side to it. She observed that the house slaves had a special status above the others and she was aware that the closer you were to the Master's family, the more special your position, as with Silas. Granada was devoted to Mistress Amanda because she had named her and saved her from being a "swamp slave" and had given her special status of being by her side on "Preaching Sundays".
Join Date: 12/04/11
Posts: 10
Granada had a great life! She had beautiful clothes to wear and a pseudo-family in the kitchen help. She didn't have to do the manual labor of the swamp slaves and was included in the Masters activities. She knew no other life and didn't realize she didn't belong.
Join Date: 05/16/11
Posts: 17
I sometimes forgot, as I was reading, that Granada was a very young girl. She reacted to her role as "daughter" to Mistress Amanda as any child in her deplorable situation would have. The emotional abuse was not recognizable to one so young and needy.
Join Date: 07/17/11
Posts: 4
That was all she knew, and I agree with cherylk, that as a reader, I would picture Granada as older, and it was only when a reference was made to her numerical age, that it reminded me how young she was.
Any type of emotionally abusive situation can be hard to recognize, particularly when that relationship has always been that way between the two individuals.
Join Date: 05/31/11
Posts: 166
Granada lives in a rarified atmosphere between three worlds on the plantation. She is treated as a dress-up doll by the mistress, used by the mistress, than put back in the 'closet' until the next chance to humiliate the master. In the kitchen she is treated as a necessary annoyance, but with some fondness, on the part of the cook. She learns that to be a swamp slave is the worst possible existence. She is literally taken from her mothers arms and raised in this conflicting situation without any real understanding of her true self. How could she possibly understand the abuse of the mistress? She is a child!! And all the house slaves conspire to keep the mistress happy by making Grenada available to the mistress. She wants to belong to something or someone and the mistress offers her the most beautiful things to look forward to. She emotionally attaches to what gives her the most pleasure. That she ever finds herself is the miracle. Bless Polly.
Join Date: 10/20/10
Posts: 63
What is that called when a victim gets attached to her kidnapper? Stockholm Syndrome? I think Granada's feelings for Mistress Amanda were a bit like that. I also think Granada felt pity for the way Mistress Amanda was disregarded by her neighbors and husband. She felt a kind of kinship with her in that way.
Join Date: 01/01/12
Posts: 3
Join Date: 08/23/11
Posts: 128
joyces says it exactly in that as an abused child the attention received from the caregiver is always misconstrued as love when a child has known nothing different. Granada has no knowledge of her place in society. She is only responding to what she has known and experienced since she can remember and Mistress Amanda is the only "mother" figure she had known.
Join Date: 04/14/11
Posts: 201
I kept forgetting how young Granada really was. She was rasied in this environment from the time she was an infant so it was her idea of normal life. I don't think she saw herself as abused or made fun of -- all she saw was that she was getting attention and that was how she was brought up to see herself.
Join Date: 08/14/11
Posts: 27
Join Date: 04/24/11
Posts: 16
Mistress Amanda gave Granada a chance to rise above her slave status, at least Granada believed she did. Granada was not able to see herself as a valuable human being. Therefore she accepted any abuse which she thought gave her status.
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