A Pulitzer Prize winning piece

Crossing Over 

Here is my analysis of this piece.

1. “Crossing Over” is a feature story about a town called Gee’s Bend and follows the life of a woman named Mary Lee Bendolph. Moehringer combines literary elements with journalism, giving an essay feel to the story. He uses journalistic skills and literary elements to report the facts and to portray his subjects as the human beings. He observes his environment and speaks with a lot of people. He uses the river to portray the racial tensions between blacks and whites in Gee’s Bend since before the Civil War. He also uses the river as a metaphor for “crossing over” to the other side because Mary Lee was always preoccupied with dying.
2. Moehringer’s reportage is very thorough because he speaks with all the right sources and he carefully observes his environment to portray the subjects as human beings. Moehringer follows Mary Lee around to focus on her life so he can write about Gee’s Bend. The analysis said that Moehringer had trouble writing the story until he realized that in order to write about a place he needed to focus on someone who lives there. He did a lot of historical research to learn about Bee’s Bend, too. His research shows in his use of background information about Gee’s Bend. Moehringer writes that the river in Gee’s Bend has divided blacks and white in Gee’s Bend for 180 years. He wrote that Gee’s Bend is where the Civil War came and went, but the slaves of Gee’s Bend stayed. Moehringer brings in other historical examples of places like Gee’s Bend. He said that the South was once “dotted” with such places, where slaves remained after Lincoln abolished slavery. He explains that Gee’s Bend is so isolated because of the geography. The land is U-shaped, dividing it from the 20^th century. Moehroinger incorporates these facts to put Gee’s Bend into perspective for the readers. He did his research on it so he could better understand it. When the reporter understands what she is writing about, she can better explain it to her readers. He interviewed Hollis Curl, the racist reporter who fought against the Civil Rights movement. Despite is regrettable past; Moehringer does not show bias toward Curl. Instead, he presents the past Curl and the Curl of the present. He interviewed Curl to show that he is a changed man and he regrets his past. Moehringer’s reportage portrays the human qualities of the people in Gee’s Bend. Specifically focusing on Mary Lee, Moehringer shows her “many strengths and few flaws”, as the analysis said. He uses few quotations, but when he does he shows Mary Lee’s quirky foibles. One example is her botching of certain words such as “confusionment” and “interpretate”. Moehringer does not do this to show her ignorance but to show how charming and sweet she is.
3. Moehringer does not interview a lot of people in the story, but he does do a lot of research and focuses on the people that matter to the story. He focuses on Mary Lee to give the story focus. Moehringer said in the analysis, “When you write about a place, it’s often best, or at least easier, to write about one person’s experience of that place.” He gets the background information by researching the history of Gee’s Bending. He interviewed Curl about the newspaper he wrote for and its relevance to the area. He probably interviewed Mary Lee and the people who live in Gee’s Bend to understand the relevance of the river and the ferry. It is important to explain the relevance of the river to the readers because there are rivers everywhere, so what makes this one so special? Moehringer did a thorough job of showing the reader’s the relevance of the river. He interviewed Mary Lee and found out that the Benders would ride the ferry into Camden for groceries and medicine. He discusses how, like Mary Lee, “rivers have their faraway looks too”. Despite the dangers that lurk at the bottom, Mary Lee describes it as a “strong brown god”. Camden was the only place the Benders could go for their basic needs, and the ferry took them there. He researched why Martin Luther King Jr. was important to Wilcox County. This is all information he could have gotten by interviewing Mary Lee and the people who live in Gee’s Bend. Because her memory may not be accurate, Moehringer would need to confirm the historical information with texts and documents. Moehringer quoted the neighbor Lucy about the quilts the slave women made. Lucy told him it was their only way to keep warm.
4. The story is very detailed and written like prose. He uses a lot of details and literary elements. He frequently uses a literary element called anaphora to create an emotional impact on the readers. Some examples of anaphora are, “lonelier than a leper colony”, “like a raindrop down a dirty window”, “The headstones tilt this way and that, like the earth's rotted teeth”. The first example refers to how the whites did everything they could to make the Gee's Bend “lonelier than a leper colony”. Moehringer writes that the Benders were proud of their capacity for solitude, but the racist whites made them lonely by segregating them with the river. He personifies the river, “”But rivers have faraway looks too. Slow, timid, her river typically keeps to itself...On hot summer days, it goes through the steaming fields at about the speed of a Model T, giving no signs of its quick temper.” Here Moehringer compares the river to Mary Lee's temperament. It has a “faraway look too” like Mary Lee. The river seems calm on the outside, but it is guarded by venomous snakes and alligators at the bottom in the summer. Moehringer also uses a lot of repetition to create sentences that stop the readers their tracks. “She” is repeated a lot in the lead paragraph. For instance,
   “She hopes the ferry won't come, but if if it does, she'll climb aboard. She'll tremble as she steps off the landing because she can't swim, and she can't forget the many times she's crossed this ugly river only to meet more ugliness on the other side.”
   The lead is gripping because of Moehringer's use of repetition. He repeats “she” so many times that the readers know the story will be about this woman he refers to. The end of the lead stops the readers in their tracks because it is unexpected. I was not expecting to see that sentence when I finished reading the lead. I wanted to read on to find out what he meant by the “ugliness”. The ferry is used as a metaphor for death. Moehringer writes, “She'll board that ferry, if it comes, because something tells her she must, and because all the people she loves most will board with her...When the time comes to cross your river, you don't ask questions. You cross.” This is how Mary Lee sees life. She may not want to die, but when her time comes she will be ready. She is not afraid to die because the people she loves most will meet her on the other side. Her loved ones will cross over with her. Moehringer uses few quotes, but the quotes he uses are powerful. Referring to her lack of education, Mary Lee said, “I loved-ed school, but I loved-ed mens more.” The quote is powerful because it shows that she made mistakes in her life that she regrets.
5. Moehringer uses a lot of details in his writing to bring out the beauty and history of Gee's Bend. He focuses on details of Mary Lee's life to give the reader a better vantage point. He used a lot of the details form his research, interviews and observations. For instance, at the beginning of chapter four he wrote, “Mary Lee rises with the river birds and changes her 87-year-old mother's diaper, then straightens the house, then feeds her three grandchildren...” Moehringer uses these intimate details to convey that Mary Lee is tied to Gee's Bend. She will not leave because there are so many people who need her. Moehringer uses concrete details to give the story focus. He includes intimate details about Curl to show how rampant racism was. Rather than focusing on racism in general, Moehringer focuses on Curl as an example. He write that Curl was the owner of a Camden newspaper that published racist articles. Curl was also city court judge and jailed black for marching without a permit. Sheriff Lummie is another concrete example of racism. When King visited Gee's Bend the church was “a sagging barn with planks for pews” and “a pot-bellied stove gave off scant heat. A bare lightbulb hung from the ceiling”. Moehringer got these details from speaking to the people who live in Gee's Bend. He used these details to recreate the moment when King arrived in Gee's Bend. Moehringer recreates the moment when Mary Lee drank from the “whites only” water fountain. She told him “it was no different than other water. But it was colder.” This quote shows how much segregation effected society. The water in the whites only water fountains was colder than in the black only fountains., so the government must have showed more favor to the whites. Moehringer could not have gotten all of these details just by doing research at a desk. A story of this caliber requires the writer to create relationships with the subjects. A writer needs to gain the trust of the people he speaks with to get such intimate details. Moehringer writes that when the Benders boarded the ferry to join King's movement, the boat nearly capsized. This detail allows the readers to visualize how many Benders there were and how much of an impact King had on them.
6. The story is organized into chapters to break the information down for the readers. Each chapter takes the reader into a different aspects of Gee's Bend and Mary Lee's life. Each chapter title reflects what the chapter is going to be about. For example, chapter one is titled “Mary Lee's Vision”. Moehringer explains in the chapter that Mary Lee has prophetic visions. Moehringer wrote in the fifth paragraph that “Mary Lee has already seen her self crossing”. In the same paragraph he writes that Mary Lee sees the future in her dreams. In the beginning of the chapter he establishes ideas that are all related to each other and give meaning to the title. The second chapter titled “The Road To Freedom” is about Martin Luther King Jr.'s influence on the blacks of Gee's Bend. The chapter titled “A Change of Heart” is about Curl changing his mind about black people. Every chapter is titled to reflect its content. The chapters break the information down so the readers have a better vantage point. Readers can digest the information more easily.