One Crazy Summer Identity

Muhammad Ali joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name to reflect his newfound beliefs. Pa recognizes this and calls Ali by his new tag. Big Ma, on the other hand, calls him by his original name. To her, that's Muhammad Ali's real identity.

It doesn't matter how much people change or how much time passes; things are remembered a certain way in Big Ma's head. She shows us that it's tough to change someone's identity once they are thought of a certain way around town.

Delphine thinks the way people dress shows off their identity. Is she totally incorrect about this? Or is there some truth? Where is the line between using appearances to glean clues about someone's identity and using appearances to make snap judgments? Over to you, Shmoopers.

You go, girl. Or should we say, Fern? Even though she's just a little kid, Fern calls it like she sees it. She knows there's a big deal over her name so she makes a point of telling Cecile how she'd like to be identified. Fern wants to be acknowledged, and when her mom calls her "little girl," she's refusing a part of Fern's identity.

Now and again we get glimpses of how people grow up and change. Some of this is inevitable (like with Fern changing from a baby to a young girl), but other things aren't so set in stone. Like, say, Cecile not knowing much about her kids' lives, for example. Identity is in flux, it seems.

Instead of calling the people at the Center by their names, or even directly acknowledging who they are (Black Panthers), Cecile blends them all together; they're all the same to her. One way to think of this is as collective identity instead of individual. It doesn't matter if it's Kelvin or some random guy that Delphine gives the cash to, so long as they are a part of the movement.

Keep telling yourself that, Nzila. It's as though Cecile is working over time to make sure that everyone—including the kids she abandoned—think of her as a revolutionary poet with influence. To Delphine, she's still Cecile. Delphine and her sister don't really care how much Cecile wants to change who she is; she can't for them.

For Delphine, a name isn't just a word on her birth certificate or what people call her—it helps everyone learn something about who she is. It's part of her. Since Delphine thinks of a name is equivalent to a person's identity, we get why she's so upset about her mom changing hers from Cecile to Nzila.

Delphine wishes that people could change. Based on what she's seen of Cecile, though, they can't (or don't). She was hoping her mom would be different, but it seems maternal instinct isn't really in her blood. It's a bummer for Delphine, but it says a lot about how identity is cemented in this story.

Here, Delphine explains to Fern, er, Afua, what her real name is and why it matters. To Fern, it's a weird name that people will make fun of. Hey, you don't have to tell us. Do you know what people said on the playground about the name Shmoop?