54 pages 1 hour read

Terry McMillan

Waiting to Exhale

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992

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Essay Topics

1.

Waiting to Exhale has been hailed as a book that changed the perception of professional Black women in literature and, via its film adaptation, is further credited with opening a dialogue about Black women in R&B music. Discuss how Black women were previously represented in literature and how this novel impacted the representation of Black women in literature, film, and music.

2.

Why does McMillan alternate between first-person narration (Savannah and Robin) and a third-person narrator? What impact does this structure have on characterization and on the text as a whole?

3.

Discuss the characterization of Gloria’s 16-year-old son, Tarik. How is he depicted? What does his characterization and storyline suggest about the lives of young Black men in the early 1990s?