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Initial Thoughts on "Getting Mother's Body"

EmmaP's picture

One things that struck me in particular while reading "Getting Mother's Body" was the informal language used. Specifically, the inconsistent replacement of the word "your" with "yr". When I first noticed it, I was hoping to find some kind of pattern for when "yr" was used instead of "your", but there doesn't appear to be any clear rules for which one Parks uses. Within the span of a few pages, Billy says both "Penny for yr thoughts" and "Penny for your thoughts". I wonder if this was done to emphasize the complexity of the characters in "Getting Mother's Body", and how capable they are of taking of various roles. It also may be that Billy, in particular, has a knack for adjusting her speech and behavior in order to exploit what she calls Holes. This idea of a "Hole" seems central to the novel, partially because it is one of the strongest connections that Billy has to Willa Mae.