ral to African and African-American motherhood. Community outreach and the caring of adjacent women have been very important to the raising of daughters in black communities.
             Although being a caring and nurturing force in a daughter's life is central to becoming a mother, other pieces we have read have supported the idea that a mother needs to teach her child to grow, and then let her go to off to find herself and her own understanding.
             In "Annie John", by Jamaica Kincaid, Annie is stunned when her mother suddenly turns her cheek on her in order to let her go and become a "lady". It is not until the end of the story that Annie r
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