Two or Three Things I Know For Sure by Dorothy Allison

I think it would be appropriate for my first blog post about this collection to be about the title and the meaning of the "Two or Three Things I Know For Sure..." passages within the book itself. These passages exist at the end of almost all of the stories Allison tells. Each displays a bit of knowledge, or lack of knowledge, on something relating to her life or the story she's told. Each piece describes something she has learned or something she can't learn due to lack of knowledge, or wanting to know, and leads the reader into a path of thinking for the continuation of the book. I think Allison clues the reader in greatly on their purpose when she writes, "Behind the story I tell is the one I don't. Behind the story you hear is the one I wish I could make you hear. Behind my carefully buttoned collar is my nakedness, the struggle to find clean clothes, food, meaning, and money. Behind sex is rage, behind anger is love, behind this moment is silence, years of silence." (Page 39). In this quote Allison describes how there are things she wants to tell by writing her story that can not be said through any amount of description she can give. I feel as though the "Two or Three Things..." pieces she can get across a story that she cannot tell any other way. It was mentioned in a class of ours that if you take those pieces out of the context of her stories and read them seperately it gives the reading a totally different feel. That "different feel" could very well be the "Story... I wish I could make you hear" that she mentions within her writing. I think it is also important to note that this piece ends a piece about her being unbreakable and not allowed to be beautiful and is a transition into the story of her being raped at the age of five. I feel it is important to note that she is not being dramatic when she says this, but is merely trying to convince the reader that she may know something about being scared or beaten down, or alone. Each one of her bits of knowledge thrown into her story lines acts as a transition between what she's experienced and what she's gained, and shows the reader that there is more to the story than merely what is on the paper.