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Uncovering the Similar Among Differences
In “After Reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed,” Rita
Dove searches among the differences throughout her black body comparing it to that of her young
white child to reveal the similarities to her daughter’s impressionable mind. ... As a precursor to this inevitable bewilderment within the child, innocently discovering her own body parts as well as the physical diversity between herself and her mother, Rita Dove tells the story of a mother trying to fade these differences in “After Reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed. ... It is probable that for the first time Aviva is able to view her mother and herself in the area of color as alike. It’s as if the black and white fade into pink, and these differences becoming blurred, are no longer as vibrant. “Momentarily we’re a lopsided star among the spilled toys” (Martin 296). ... Dove explains to her child that their serious differences are insignificant by showing her their similarities. ... Only when explaining their similar colors (the color of their vaginas) she replaces the milk with the color pink. In this way, the phrase her daughter is so accustomed to hearing before closing her eyes to sleep at night, one she is so familiar with, that she so easily recognizes is one she can use to understand. ...
Most people would agree that nearly all children’s books have a deeper meaning they don’t comprehend until they are older, and in many cases until they are reading it to their children. ... It’s as if tuning the thick pages of a big book of vivid drawings reading, “Do not cross the street without holding an adult’s hand. ... As if that between Mickey and the cooks in Sendak’s “In the Night Kitchen,” Dove further creates the book quality by adding dialog to the poem. ... I’m Mickey! ... This is an epigraph from Maurice Sendak’s children’s book In the Night Kitchen. Though too young to read, Aviva, can recognize this statement as a result of the repetition in her mother reading the book over and over before falling asleep. ... She demands to see mine and momentarily we’re a lopsided star among the spilled toys, my prodigious scallops exposed to her neat cameo” (Martin 296).
Stating the physical, things Aviva can literally see and touch, she illustrates their differences. ... The third stanza has three sentences:
“And yet the same glazed tunnel, layered sequences. ... Like the child character in The Night Kitchen enthusiastically proclaiming “I’m Mickey! ... In Sendak’s children’s book, the boy, Mickey is covered in a layer of brown dough and when he dives into the big jar of white milk, the dough washes away and he uses the milk to help the cooks bake their cake. ... Only by this time in the poem the layers wash away and the only color she is concerned with is the pink.
Approximate Word count = 2441
Approximate Pages = 9.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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