Enrichment Activities Featuring Author, Ciahnan Darrell
Cianhan Darrell
Blood at the Root
Ciahnan Darrell
In the novel Blood at the Root by author Ciahnan
Darrell, the reader meets a character named Elroy. Born in the Mississippi Delta, Elroy was orphaned by the age of ten. He slowly made his way through the south to New York where he eventually became a chauffeur to the character Fairchild, an elderly billionaire. The reader learns that Elroy has been on his own since the age of ten and that his survival and success as Black American is in part due to his keen sense of observation and ability to
listen. He essentially uses his perceived invisibility to his advantage.
This is established at the beginning of the chapter
in the following way:
Elroy didn't mind his name--it sounded like someone you wouldn't notice nohow, someone you'd walk right past if you was anybody and that was exactly the way he liked it.
People didn't see you, you couldn't get in no trouble.
People didn't see you, they'd say things in front of you they wouldn't never say otherwise. (142)
ACTIVITY 1: Your Name as a Mirror
Consider your own name and your personality. If you were a character in a book, how might your name be described? How could such a description reflect elements of your personality?
Write an author-like description of your name that begins with the phrase,
(Your name) didn't mind (his/her/their) name--it sounded like someone you
wouldn't ______________.
Then, continue for 3-5 sentences to describe your name.
For example,
Tara didn't mind her name--it sounded like someone who wouldn't ignore
you if you were sad and who might also be a great dancer. Tara was a name
that meant business. Tara was a girl who would never let her friends down
even if it meant getting in trouble sometimes. Tara would do hard things if it
meant fair treatment for others.
Later in the chapter about Elroy, we learn that he has spent lots and lots of
time in jazz clubs listening to some of the most prominent jazz and blues
musicians in 20th century America.
The author Darrell writes,
So Elroy told him [Fairchild] about meeting Robert Johnson, Chester
Burnett, Huddie Leadbetter, Billie Holiday, and Albert King, about seeing
them play, seeing Blind Willie McTell, Johnny Lee Hooker, Lonnie Johnson,
Muddy Waters and others. (149)
