Multicultural Clover
A canon is any comprehensive list of books within a certain field. The American canon includes the nature of the American identity and the nature of American literature. America is considered a melting pot because it has many diverse ethnicities combined and blended together. This is a good analogy due to the large scale of immigration for a wide range of cultures in America. Because American has so many unique cultures, it is known as a “nation of immigrants.”Being a nation of various people, is a big part of the American identity. This is why novels containing multicultural experiences belong in the American canon. Dori Sanders’ Clover successfully blends African American culture with one of diverse customs, making this novel part of the American canon.
In Filbert, South Carolina in York County, Dori Sanders grew up on an eighty-one acre farm. Sanders’ farm is one of the oldest African-American farms in the region, operating since 1915. Ever since she was young, she loved to read, however never imagined herself as a professional writer. Writing, for her, started as a way of passing down family history to the next generation. "I guess I started writing because I wanted to leave something for my nieces and nephews, as a way to tell them what life was like on the farm, because I know when my generation passes, this farm will pass out of our family," Ms. Sanders said. Her father, a teacher, also encouraged his children to write. With a family of ten children, he always made the children write down their grievances or complaints and then turn it in to him. He believed this help maintain order in the household. Clover is Sanders first novel, written in 1990. She write it after seeing two funeral processions pass by one day while working at her peach stand on her family’s farm. An African American girl and crying white women she saw, inspired her two main characters, Clover and Sara. Sanders writes from point of view. This means she could...