Avey's Voyages

In Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow, the main character Avey reflects on her past after she abandons the cruise ship she was on, the Bianca Pride. The Bianca Pride represents whiteness (Bianca is loosely translated as ‘white’), and Avey’s assimilation into the white community, and how out of touch she is with her own culture. Avey goes on cruises filled with white people to feel luxurious and important, and her two friends that she travels with are also very out of touch with their roots, and one nearly passes for white. The Bianca Pride is a large commercial boat, with several upper class restaurants and several stories.
When Avey sees the Emanuel CC, which Lebert Joseph has convinced her to ride on the expedition, she is shocked. The boat is old, tattered, and beaten up and can barely hold all of the people loaded into it. It had been on many expeditions and seemed about ready to fall apart. The Emanuel CC represents Avey’s voyage to the island, where she got in touch with some African roots and accepted and delighted in them. The boat is very old and beaten up, but still works and many people chose to take the same one they had for years. The name Emanuel is significant because of its biblical roots, and symbolizes a type of salvation and enlightenment for Avey. Avey abandons the Bianca Pride, or her whiteness, and takes a journey of faith on the Emanuel CC to the island, where she becomes acquainted with her roots and culture, and learns to participate in it and accept it.

--Ashley Smith