Two or Three Things I Know for Sure

Allison’s understanding of bodies evolves from seeing the body (especially a woman’s body) as something to be despised or ignored to seeing it as a source of power and love. What accounts for the shift in her understanding of the body?

Most of the memoir explores how Allison’s relationships with women, especially those in her family, shaped her identity. What does Allison learn about her identity from each of the significant female figures in her life?

Two or Three Things I Know for Sure is a working-class memoir, but it’s also a memoir about lesbian coming of age in the South during the 1960s and 70s. What rites of passage does Allison describe, and how did they shape her self-identity?

For the most part, Allison only indirectly represents much of the violence she experienced as a girl, and the most direct violence in the memoir is when she and her sister Anne turn on their stepfather with knives to stop him from beating them. Carefully examine the instances of violence in the memoir and offer an argument about Allison’s choices in representing violence. Why do you think she chose mostly indirect representation of this violence?

What storytelling devices does Allison use, and how do her ideas about what she can do with storytelling change over time?

Re-read the memoir’s final paragraph. What do you think the dream means? How does it help reinforce the memoir’s major themes?

Choose one of the memoir’s photographs and describe it. How does it reinforce the message of the surrounding text? If it doesn’t support the surrounding text, explain why you think Allison chose to place the photo there.

Zoom out to consider the memoir’s overall structure, which includes photos, narratives, and italicized lines at the ends of sections. What pattern (if any) do you detect in how Allison constructed the work? How does this structure (or lack of it) reinforce her perspective on storytelling?