Dialectical Analysis, Translation and Reflection

Narrative 1: 8-year-old African American girl (from files of Bliss, Covington & McCabe)We went to the dentist before, and I was gettin’ my tooth pulled. And the doc, the dentist said, “Oh, it’s not gonna hurt.” And he was lying to me. It hurt. It hurted so bad I coulda gone on screamin’ even thought I think some…(I don’t know what it was like). I was, in my mouth like, I was like, “Oh that hurt!” He said no, it wouldn’t hurt. Cause last time I went to the doctor, I had got this spray. This doctor, he sprayed some spray in my mouth and my tooth appeared in his hand. He put me to sleep, and then, and then I woke up. He used some pliers to take it out, and I didn’t know. So I had told my, I asked my sister how did, how did the man take (it out). And so she said, “He used some pliers.” I said, “Nah, he used that spray.” She said, “Nope he used that spray to put you to sleep, and he used the pliers to take it out.” I was, like, “Huh, that’s amazin’.” I swear to God I was so amazed that, hum…it was so amazing, right? That I had to look for myself, and then I asked him too. And he said, “Yes, we, I used some plier to take our your tooth, and I put you to sleep, an, so you wouldn’t know, and that’s how I did it.” And I was like, “Ooouuu.” And then I seen my sister get her tooth pulled. I was like, “Ooouuu” cause he had to put her to sleep to, hmm, to take out her tooth. It was the same day she got her tooth pulled, and I was scared. I was like, “EEEhhhmmm.” I had a whole bunch cotton in my mouth, chompin’ on it ‘cause I had to hold it to, hmm, stop my bleeding. I, on day I was in school. I took out my own tooth. I put some hot water in the night, the, the night before I went to school. And I was taking a test. And then it came out right when I was takin’, when I finished the test. And my teacher asked me, was it bleeding. I said, “No, it’s not bleeding, cause I put some hot water on it.” And so my cousin, he wanted to take out his tooth, and he didn’t know what to do, so I told him. “I’m a Pullin’ Teeth Expert. Pull out your own tooth, but if you need somebody to do it, call me, and I’ll be over.”

Narrative 2: 10 year old African American girl (from files of Tempii Champion)Adult: Have you ever been a hero?Child: yes I been a hero to my brother, my brother an’ my friends. Well I was ridin’ my bike da street, an um, an my friend who was goin real fast cause I was taggin’ ‘er. An I da thing and had a race to see who’d won. An I was an I an I was tweeny seconds cause I had had had big gear. An’ I zoomin’ an’ she comin’ slow. I woulda had forty seconds. I was countin’ myself an she counts so she says twenty seconds. An’ I said your turn. I had a timer watch. An’ she was racing down da street. An’ she run she was zoomin on da bike. She’s use my bike. She didn know how da gear. An’ she run she was zoomin on da bike. She’s use my bike. She didn know how da gear. An’ I said do you know how? An’ she says she did ‘cause she always like to be you know know-it-all. An’ I said don’ say you know if you don’. She said ‘I know.’ An’ den a little girl was walkin’ across da street an comin across da street. A’ she’d been runnin’. She was goin’ real fast. An I an I said her name was Kim. An’ I said, “Watch out! Watch out!” An’ she didn’ hear me cause she had a walkman on. An I an I run as fas’ I could. An I just in time before she wa’ close to her pushed her aside. An an den um an den she an den den um she an I pushed her aside. An I moved aside so she wouldn’ hit her. An den den she said, “Whe where was dat little girl at?” An I said, “She came across da street an you almos’ hit her. An she got she pick da little girl up. She said sorry. An da last thing dat happened was she jus’ threw my bike in da road. An now I need a nother one. I have a kickstand, but she didn’ put it down. She jus threw it. I said da bike- I said “Da little girl was importan’, but you didn’t have throw it down. An’ I saved ‘er. You were gonna hit’er. And dat’s all.

From: McCabe, Allyssa and Lynn Bliss (2003). Patterns of narrative discourse: a multicultural, life span approach. Pearson Education, Inc. Chap. 4.