Building Bridges

“Building Bridges”

       Kids do what they see or learn from the society around them. What children learn stick with them throughout their lives and can affect them in both good and bad ways. In the short story “Building Bridges” by Andrea Pinkey, a teenage girl named Bebe has a passion for engineering and wants to work on the Brooklyn Bridge. She has all the qualifications to go but there is only one thing that is holding her back. Bebe is raised by her grandma, Mama Lil who needs to sign the permission paper for Bebe to work on the bridge. But Mama Lil thinks engineering is not a suitable job for a girl and only white men are able to do it. Throughout this short story, Bebe tries to convince Mama Lil to sign the permission paper. Andrea Pinkey, through Mama Lil and Bebe, shows the reader that a person’s experiences shape their opinions, knowledge, and ultimately their behavior.

       One thing that we all learn as children is how to dress. The styles change as the years go by. On page 18 Mama Lil s insults Bebe like usual, “How are you ever gonna land a decent man with them chunky arms and those hoochie cut T-shirts that put your navel on parade? No self respecting seventeen year old should be letting it all hang out like that.” Mama Lil points out about getting a decent man. She seems to have a different way of dressing that she thinks would attract men. Also she specifically observes that Bebe shows a lot of her body. Mama Lil thinks that girls Bebe’s age shouldn’t be doing that, which can mean Mama Lil didn’t do it when she was that age. Mama Lil continues to judge Bebe saying, “Them natty braids you call dread locks look like the fright ‘do of a zombie”. Again, Mama Lil thinks that Bebe’s style is off. Her braids aren’t good enough for Mama Lil. Probably because it doesn’t fit her requirements of finding a decent man as she says in her quote, “how are you gonna land a decent man…” We can conclude that Mama Lil’s opinions tells us that she was raised to dress for the men and not to show off a lot of her body. We can also analyze that Bebe was taught differently than Mama Lil. She seems to not care how she looks because “she lets everything hang out.”

       Some kids grew up going to school and loving it; other kids go and can’t wait to go home. But there are also children that don’t even go to school. On page 20 Bebe explains her plans saying, “The project would last a summer, pay good money, and help me get to college where I wanted to study engineering.” Bebe is very committed to her dream of becoming an engineer. She understands that to live in this world, you have to have a job that pays money. We can tell that the society she was raised in taught her how to live and that studying hard can fulfill your dreams. But then, there are kids that weren’t taught these things. On page 20 Bebe says describing Mama Lil “Also, Mama Lil couldn’t read or write very well – I read most of her mail to her, and helped her sign her checks – and she hated to admit it.” Reading and writing is the most important things learned in school. If Mama Lil didn’t know how to do either, then we can say she didn’t have an education. Also Mama Lil hated to admit that she couldn’t read or write, maybe because she was afraid of what she didn’t know. This means that she regrets not going to school or she didn’t even have a choice whether to go to school or not. We can agree that Mama Lil’s and Bebe’s knowledge can tell us if they grew up with an education.

       In our society now, there isn't any racial segregation to be worried about. We can eat and work wherever we want, no matter our skin color. But, it seems to be a problem in the time period of this short story. On page 21 Mama Lil states her argument to Bebe saying, “Whatever you call it, it’s a white man’s work. You ain’t got no place messing with it. We should stick with our own kind, Bebe – colored women trying to cross the white man’s line is asking for trouble.” Mama Lil is being very cautious about what she thinks are rules. This tells us that she understands the consequences of breaking rules and following them is important. Also, she says that Bebe needs to stick with her own kind and its dangerous if you don’t. She is implying that she believes black and white people are different. Mama Lil was probably raised with segregation around her to know that it’s dangerous for black people to do what white people do. But then Bebe thinks to herself, “I knew from the get-go that if I hoped to become an engineer, my road would be lonely and hard. But I wanted to build bridges more than anything.” She explains that she understands just as well as Mama Lil that becoming an engineer would be difficult. This gives us a clue that she was also raised to know about segregation and differences for black and white people. But when she continues her claim, she expresses that becoming an engineer is important to her. And the problems that come with her journey don’t matter as long as she is doing what she cares about. From this, we can infer that Mama Lil’s beliefs tell us that she was taught about segregation and was raised to be careful of what she does. But Bebe beliefs tell us she was taught about segregation but was raised to follow her dreams no matter the problems that come with it.

      Andrea Pinkey describes in this story that a person’s perspective and comprehensions of things can tell a lot about what they were taught as a child. Societies around them while growing up can teach them things too. This is probably why Mama Lil and Bebe have different understandings of the world. Mama Lil was growing up around a society that is two generations away from Bebe. In that time, things could have changed and Bebe could have learned different knowledge of life than what Mama Lil learned. But change can be a good and bad at times. If society never changed, the world would be a different place from how it is now.