Now we see that Laymon has started a new eating disorder, before it was overeating, now is not eating and doing more exercise just because of being bullied by white people in his college. He still couldn’t accept himself as he is. He was expelled from his college and was transferred to a new one due to racism. Later on, he becomes academically successful like his mother and becomes an English Teacher at Vassar. His mother started to get more money and more money from him, and he discovered her addiction too gambling. Due to exercise he broke his leg and after a while he regains all the weight he lost. Laymon was really down during this time, he begun to gamble like mother. Laymon reunites with his mother in a hotel room in a casino where he tells his mother to tell each other the truth of what they been through. At the end of the book Laymon makes clearly the following ““The most abusive parts of our nation obsessively neglect yesterday while peddling in possibility.” “I’m not sure if any of us are okay.” This is so deep and real, it shows that we all have our own insecurities, our own problems, our own worries, and our own experiences that has been the main instrument of our own destruction.
Lit Circles
ENG 111 at Lehman College, Fall 2021 (Prof. Dalton)
I enjoyed reading your summary. I noticed you talked about Laymon’s struggles as he grew up and was being bullied and got kicked out of his college. Also Laymon through all his hardships was successful and became a teacher. This relates to “Ordinary Girls” because both Jaquira and Laymon had many struggles throughout their lives and became successful in society.
Hello Nayely, I can see through all the summaries you have written about Laymon, that the racism towards him is endless because wherever he is, people discriminate against him. But that achievement that he obtained with his mother can show white people that color does not matter and that because you are black does not mean that you cannot be successful.