Anthills of the Savannah Lesson Plan

Discuss Beatrice's relationship with her family. What does it tell us about the role of women in society?

Beatrice has a strained relationship with her family. She grew up as the youngest of four daughters. Her father was stern and abusive: "his whip was famous not only in our house and in the schoolhouse next door..." Beatrice suspects that her father was also abusive towards her mother but never saw anything happen with her own eyes. Her mother seemed to resent Beatrice for being a girl after she had prayed so desperately to give her husband a boy. Ultimately, growing up, BB had the sense that she was alone in her own world; her parents had their own world, too,...