Chapter 1: Making the Personal Political: Class in the Family Summary and Analysis

Bell Hooks recalls that her parents and siblings lived only for a brief period in a completely concrete house. It was a cold house and no memories about her time there lingered. Although the lack of money was always a main concern, Bell's mother fought hard to keep the worry from her children. Bell's father had married her mother when she was a teenage divorcee with two daughters. Bell's father had been a playboy and confirmed bachelor, but he was so taken with the teenage divorcee that he gave up his freedom. Bell suspected that her mother was pregnant when they married. Even though the concrete house was not a dream house, Bell's mother was finally out of her mother's domain and the tyranny that...