as did Rahab
whose faith saved a people from ruin
as our faith has brought us to this place
once
we understood
but they took away our God
gave us others to impress
and a robe of pure white
they asked us to deserve
no saving grace
for the daughters of Sapphire
no flowers for her
grave
no mourners there
but a contempt-laden epitaph
to young women buried beneath the loam
her sons did not understand
once
we knew
of places where the women never cried
or ’pologized
for never crying
or thought it unusual
to never cry
we have known those places within us
Sapphire still lives
there
eyes anxious heart racing in the
dark
hands groping for her empty
grave
reading group companion
Who or what does the title character, Sapphire, represent, and what is the significance of the title, Sapphire’s Grave? The book ends with a poem that describes Sapphire’s grave as “empty.” Why is the grave empty?
Sapphire and Sister both become known for being eloquently caustic. Are some people just born this way? How did each woman’s circumstance and experience shape her personality?
Why does Prince become Queen Marie’s sole ambition? Why does he, in fact, become her God?
Queen Marie speaks briefly to Vyda Rose after reading a newspaper article about Vyda Rose’s demise. Does Vyda Rose drown in the Hudson River? Does she survive and visit Queen Marie before going into hiding, or is Queen Marie experiencing an alcoholic hallucination?
Was Jewell naïve to believe that she could raise Clovey in her home alongside her other children without consequence? Could she have predicted the effect her choice would have on Covey? What accounts for Jewell’s actions in this regard?
After her experience at the High Point School for Girls, Clovey returns home and begins sculpting bridges. What do Clovey’s bridges represent?
How does societal racism, specifically its effect of valuing whiteness in general while devaluing black women in particular, shape Aldridge’s perception of, and relationship with, his mother? His wife, Clovey?
When Rae’ven is born, she is said to be, “rising, on great black wings bearing without shame the scarlet past.” What is the significance of this character to all women who live beneath the shadow of a shame-filled history?
Sapphire’s Grave was inspired by the often contradictory stereotypes still applied to black women today. In Sister, Queen Marie, Vyda Rose, Jewell, and Clovey, the reader sees aspects of the Mammy, Jezebel, Sapphire, and Tragic mulatto stereotypes. How does each character differ from these formulaic images?
For the most part, the women of Sapphire’s Grave live unapologetically, making the choices they believe best for themselves with little regard for the effect on others. How does this square with the cultural mandate of black women to be self-sacrificing and to “uphold the race”? To what extent did Clovey take on this burden that was rejected by her foremothers?
Sapphire’s Grave hints that Sapphire’s mother understood something crucial about God that was eventually lost by her ancestors. Each character in Sapphire’s Grave perceives her relationship to God differently. How do these perceptions shape their lives?
Published by Harlem Moon, an imprint of Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
SAPPHIRE’S GRAVE. Copyright © 2003 by Hilda Gurley-Highgate.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information, address: Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
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First Harlem Moon trade paperback edition published 2003
PS3607.U55 S36 2003
813’.6—dpc21
2002073871
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eISBN: 978-0-307-41921-7
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