Nana (Grandmother) Character Analysis in Black Girl, Call Home

Overview

In Jasmine Mans’ poetry collection Black Girl, Call Home, the figure of Nana—the speaker’s grandmother—appears as a quiet but resonant presence. Unlike the speaker’s mother, whose voice and actions dominate several poems, Nana is evoked primarily through sensory memory and symbolic weight. The most explicit reference occurs in Chapter 14: “South 14th Street: Nana’s House Smells Like Cigarettes”, a title that immediately grounds her in a specific place and atmosphere. Nana does not speak in the poems; she is remembered. Her role is less that of an active character than a touchstone for themes of home and belonging, generational legacy, and the body’s endurance across time.

The text’s evidence is sparse but potent: a house on South 14th Street, the smell of cigarettes, and a single line from Chapter 20: “Because I Am a Woman Now”: “Nana’s heart sits between two cancers. / The left and right lung.” This medical image ties her to mortality while also linking her to the natural world—dandelions and metaphors. The acknowledgment section (Chapter 119) thanks “grandparents” among those loved and lost, confirming that Nana is part of a legacy the poet honors.

This analysis treats the grandmother as a constellation of impressions rather than a fully drawn character. Interpretation is clearly marked where the text leaves gaps.

Plot Role

Nana does not drive a narrative arc; Black Girl, Call Home is a lyric collection, not a plot-driven story. Instead, her presence shapes the speaker’s sense of origin. The poem “South 14th Street: Nana’s House Smells Like Cigarettes” situates her as a fixed point in the speaker’s childhood geography. She is the keeper of a home that predates the speaker’s own struggles with identity and healing. Through Nana, the collection anchors its meditation on family legacy and the physical spaces that hold memory.

Her plot role is symbolic: she represents a generation that lived through what the speaker must now understand. The single detail of her heart sitting “between two cancers” implies that she endured illness—and by extension, the kind of quiet suffering that often goes unspoken in families. The speaker does not narrate Nana’s death, but the poem “Even After” (Chapter 118)—a single-line title with no body—could be read as a meditation on what persists after loss, including the memory of a grandmother.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

• Resilience: The fact that Nana’s heart is “between two cancers” suggests she survived a disease that threatened her life. The poem does not tell us how she coped, but the image implies endurance against bodily fragility.
• Domesticity: The house on South 14th Street is her domain. The smell of cigarettes is a sensory detail that marks her presence. Interpretation: cigarette smoke might suggest a habit, a comfort, or a marker of time spent indoors—perhaps a working-class home where she smoked while caring for family.
• Silent Legacy: Nana does not speak in the poems. Her actions are inferred: she lived, she occupied a house, she held a heart that kept beating through illness. Her traits are communicated through what the speaker remembers (the smell, the house) rather than through dialogue or narrative event.
• Connection to Nature: In “Because I Am a Woman Now,” the line about “Nana’s heart” is immediately followed by “I have reason to believe / God made dandelions / and metaphors / on the same day.” This juxtaposition suggests that the speaker associates her grandmother with natural growth and symbolic meaning—something wild, resilient, and capable of spreading.

These traits are drawn from the text. The poem does not list motivations, but we can infer that Nana’s life was lived in service to family, as her home becomes a memory site for the speaker’s identity.

Chronological Arc

The collection does not follow a linear timeline. Nana appears early in the book (Chapter 14) and is referenced later in the middle (Chapter 20). Because the poems are ordered thematically rather than chronologically, we cannot fix dates. However, we can arrange events relative to the speaker’s life:

• Childhood: The speaker visits Nana’s house on South 14th Street, where she is steeped in the smell of cigarettes. This memory is foundational—it appears early in the collection.
• Adolescence or adulthood: The speaker writes “Because I Am a Woman Now,” which includes Nana’s illness. This suggests the speaker has grown old enough to understand the body’s vulnerability.
• After Nana’s death (implied): The acknowledgments (Chapter 119) thank “deceased loved ones,” presumably including Nana. The poem “Even After” could be read as a reflection on what continues after a grandmother’s passing.

All dates are absent. The arc is emotional: from sensory memory to elegy to gratitude.

Relationships

• With the speaker: The relationship is one of remembered closeness. The title “Nana’s House” implies the speaker spent enough time there to associate it with a signature smell. The speaker later uses Nana’s physical suffering as a metaphor for her own womanhood. There is no conflict described—only warmth and a sense of grounding.
• With the speaker’s mother: The poems do not depict Nana interacting with Momma. However, the mother’s own intense faith and controlling nature (Chapter 2) may be reactions to or departures from Nana’s quieter presence. Interpretation: Nana might represent a different style of motherhood—less verbal, more embodied.
• With the poet’s broader family: The acknowledgments thank grandparents generically, so Nana is part of a larger web. Her home likely hosted gatherings; the cigarettes and kitchen could have been communal spaces.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Nana makes no explicit decisions in the text. Instead, her life choices are implied by the details Mans includes:

• Living on South 14th Street: Choosing to stay in a particular neighborhood, perhaps Newark, where Mans grew up. Consequence: This home becomes a landmark in the poet’s emotional geography.
• Smoking despite illness? Not stated, but cigarettes are a strong sensory mark. If she smoked even as her heart sat between two cancers, it suggests a refusal to give up a small pleasure—or a habit that contributed to the illness. The poem does not judge.
• Raising children/grandchildren: The fact that the speaker remembers her house implies Nana was present and welcoming. Consequence: She helped form the speaker’s early sense of home and safety.

Because the poems are lyric, these are interpretations. The text only gives the house, the smell, and the heart-cancer image.

Theme and Symbol Connections

• Home and Belonging: Nana’s house is a literal home and a symbol of ancestral roots. The smell of cigarettes is a marker of authenticity—unvarnished, lived-in. This connects to the collection’s title, Black Girl, Call Home, where “home” is both a place and a state of self-acceptance. Reading further on the home and belonging theme page explores this.
• Black Womanhood and Resilience: Nana’s heart sitting between two cancers embodies the strength of Black women who endure illness and loss. Her silence in the poems echoes the “silent ceremony between mother and daughter” described in Chapter 5. She is part of a lineage of women who carry heavy burdens without complaint. See Black womanhood and resilience for related poems.
• Trauma and Healing: Though Nana herself is not presented as traumatized, her physical suffering is a form of bodily trauma. The speaker processes this by turning it into metaphor (“God made dandelions / and metaphors / on the same day”), turning pain into art. This aligns with the collection’s trauma and healing theme.
• Mother-Daughter Relationship: Nana is the mother of the speaker’s mother. Her presence in the background of the mother-daughter dynamic (examined more fully in the mother-daughter relationship theme*) adds a third generation. The speaker may be trying to understand her mother through her grandmother.
• Identity and Self-Acceptance: By remembering Nana’s house and scent, the speaker claims part of her own identity. The act of “calling home” includes calling on Nana’s memory. The identity and self-acceptance theme page discusses how such memories inform the speaker’s sense of self.

Frequently Asked Questions About Nana

1. Is Nana a major character in the collection?
   No. She appears in only two poems by name (Chapter 14 and Chapter 20), but her symbolic weight is significant. She represents the ancestral home and inherited resilience.

2. What does the line “Nana’s heart sits between two cancers” mean?
   The text tells us her heart is literally between two lung cancers. This line in “Because I Am a Woman Now” connects her mortal illness to the speaker’s own coming of age. The speaker then mentions dandelions and metaphors, suggesting that even in suffering there is beauty and meaning.

3. Why does Nana’s house smell like cigarettes?
   The poem does not explain. The smell is a sensory trigger for memory. It likely means Nana smoked, which was common in many homes of her generation. The detail grounds the speaker’s recollection in a vivid, physical reality.

4. Does Nana speak in the poems?
   No. She never has a line of dialogue. She is remembered, not dramatized. This silence aligns with the collection’s theme of honoring what is unspoken (Chapter 5: “the silent story”).

5. How does Nana relate to the book’s ending?
   The final chapters are a reflection on poetry and community. Nana is part of the family legacy invoked in the acknowledgments (Chapter 119). The poem “Even After” (Chapter 118) may implicitly include her memory. For a full discussion of the collection’s closing, see the ending explained page.

For further discussion of the collection’s characters and themes, visit the questions and answers page or return to the main book page.