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738 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
"... it don't never do no good to tell nobody how to act right; they certainly never can learn when they ain't got no sense right to know it, and you never have no sense right Melanctha ... I don't never want any more to see you come here ... you don't never know the right way, any kind of decent girl has to be acting ... we don't never any more want you to be setting your foot in my house here ... just go along now, Melanctha Herbert, you hear me, and I don't never wish no harm to come to you" (Stein, p. 455).Rose shuts the door on Melanctha, and Melanctha is crushed. She goes to Jem, the man she met after Jeff had left her, only to hear him say, "'I just don't give a damn now for you any more ...'" (p. 456). Melanctha eventually starts to live somewhat of a regular life, with a job and a home, until she dies.
got a bad fever and went into the hospital where they took good care of her and cured her.Consumption is defined as "a progressive wasting away of the body esp. from pulmonary tuberculosis" (Webster's, p. 282). Even if it is assumed that Melanctha died of tuberculosis, that disease has been listed as an ARC, or AIDS-related condition, meaning that it can result from the immune system breakdown brought on by AIDS. In any case, AIDS is most definitely marked by "a progressive wasting away of the body." That AIDS was not referred to as such until after 1977 is irrelevant. It is this writer's opinion the the condition can be caused by a profuse mixing of different body chemistries within a single body, thus taxing the immune system to the point of exhaustion. Promiscuity provides such an opportunity for the mixing of body chemistries, and the present day has no copyright on promiscuity.
... Then Melanctha got very sick again, she began to cough and sweat and be ... weak ...
Melanctha went back to the hospital, and there the Doctor told her she had the consumption, and before long she would surely die. They sent her where she could be taken care of, a home for poor consumptives, and there Melanctha stayed until she died (Stein, p. 457).
It happened in a way that the time was perfect and there was the growth of a whole divided time so that where formerly there was no mistake there was no mistake now. For instance before when there was a separation there was a waiting, now when there is separation there is the division between intending and departing. This made no more mixture than there would be if there had been no change (Stein, p. 500).Sometimes what is being said seems to make sense, but for the most part taken as a whole it does not. If Gertrude is describing anything, she is describing life during her lifetime. Human life is precious but expendable. People are to be protected but exploited. Wars are fought so that we may have peace. I am hitting myself on the head with a hammer because it feels so good when I stop.