Dorothy Allison

I've seen it in some of my younger relatives. It's just, it's a devastating impact. The hard thing is to change it, to crawl out of that black depression and begin to think of yourself as a human being like other human beings instead of a monster. What helped you do that? I'll tell you the truth. I think it was feminism. It's...

I began to believe that there was an explanation for what had happened to me. And I came to it largely through a political understanding. I went away to college and somebody talked to me about Marx and showed me, you should be a communist. They said you're working class. Well, I'm not much good at that because communists need to do what they're told. But I started reading and trying to study.

I began to believe that there was an explanation for what had happened to me. And I came to it largely through a political understanding. I went away to college and somebody talked to me about Marx and showed me, you should be a communist. They said you're working class. Well, I'm not much good at that because communists need to do what they're told. But I started reading and trying to study.

I began to believe that there was an explanation for what had happened to me. And I came to it largely through a political understanding. I went away to college and somebody talked to me about Marx and showed me, you should be a communist. They said you're working class. Well, I'm not much good at that because communists need to do what they're told. But I started reading and trying to study.

Why is it that these things happen and why is it that everybody especially believe that incest and violence happens to poor and working class kids? And I lucked into a study group, a feminist study group, and all of a sudden it was bigger. It wasn't just that we were poor.

Why is it that these things happen and why is it that everybody especially believe that incest and violence happens to poor and working class kids? And I lucked into a study group, a feminist study group, and all of a sudden it was bigger. It wasn't just that we were poor.

Why is it that these things happen and why is it that everybody especially believe that incest and violence happens to poor and working class kids? And I lucked into a study group, a feminist study group, and all of a sudden it was bigger. It wasn't just that we were poor.

It was because I was a girl child and because girl children in my family are taught to endure and survive and not to fight back. And that began to let me be angry. It began to let me believe that I wasn't this monster that deserved what had happened to her, but somebody who had fallen under somebody else's madness.

It was because I was a girl child and because girl children in my family are taught to endure and survive and not to fight back. And that began to let me be angry. It began to let me believe that I wasn't this monster that deserved what had happened to her, but somebody who had fallen under somebody else's madness.

It was because I was a girl child and because girl children in my family are taught to endure and survive and not to fight back. And that began to let me be angry. It began to let me believe that I wasn't this monster that deserved what had happened to her, but somebody who had fallen under somebody else's madness.

Oh, I did something. I did a number of things nobody else in my family had done before. I was the first person in my family to graduate from high school, the first person to go to college. There have been two since. And I have come of an enormous family. It's just that both of my sisters dropped out of high school in the 9th and 10th grade.

Oh, I did something. I did a number of things nobody else in my family had done before. I was the first person in my family to graduate from high school, the first person to go to college. There have been two since. And I have come of an enormous family. It's just that both of my sisters dropped out of high school in the 9th and 10th grade.

Oh, I did something. I did a number of things nobody else in my family had done before. I was the first person in my family to graduate from high school, the first person to go to college. There have been two since. And I have come of an enormous family. It's just that both of my sisters dropped out of high school in the 9th and 10th grade.

It's just not something that we were given the idea that we could do. But a lot of it had to do with my mother. My mother believed that I was this incredibly special person, that I was... Brilliant. She thought that I was just amazing. So when I was five or six years old, she started getting me books, and she started saving money to send me to school. She would put quarters in a tip jar.

It's just not something that we were given the idea that we could do. But a lot of it had to do with my mother. My mother believed that I was this incredibly special person, that I was... Brilliant. She thought that I was just amazing. So when I was five or six years old, she started getting me books, and she started saving money to send me to school. She would put quarters in a tip jar.

It's just not something that we were given the idea that we could do. But a lot of it had to do with my mother. My mother believed that I was this incredibly special person, that I was... Brilliant. She thought that I was just amazing. So when I was five or six years old, she started getting me books, and she started saving money to send me to school. She would put quarters in a tip jar.

She did it my entire childhood. The point I went to college, she had almost $200, and she'd been saving for more than 10 years.

She did it my entire childhood. The point I went to college, she had almost $200, and she'd been saving for more than 10 years.

She did it my entire childhood. The point I went to college, she had almost $200, and she'd been saving for more than 10 years.

It wasn't exactly a life in which you could keep money. But if you make that decision with my mother's encouragement, believing that I was different, a lot of other things come along. The fact that I was so bright and won so many prizes and awards and things drove me away from my family. I didn't have any choice about leaving. I didn't know how to talk to them after a while.