Girard is a Ph.D candidate at Wayne State University who has taught many introduction-to-literature classes. In the essay below, she offers an introduction to "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird," focusing on its qualities as a told story grounded in the African-American oral tradition.

The short story as a literary form is unique in that it "does what it does in a hurry," as Toni Cade Bambara said in an interview with Beverly Guy-Sheftall in 1979. Bambara also commented that "it's quick, it makes a modest appeal for attention, it can creep up on you on your blind side." Those are a few of the reasons that Bambara prefers to write short stories as well as read them. The short story "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird" was written in 1971 and, as Bambara says, manages to take you by surprise and blindside you. Toni Cade Bambara accomplishes many things...