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Oprah Winfrey is a talk show host and philanthropist. She was the host of the Oprah Winfrey Show, a daytime talk show in which she covered popular culture, world events, and self-help. The Girl Who Smiled Beads opens with Clemantine and Claire appearing on the second episode of a two-segment Oprah special. In the first episode, Oprah had toured Auschwitz with the writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. She then hosted an essay contest for essays written about Elie Wiesel’s book Night and greets the winners in the second episode. Clemantine Wamariya wins this essay contest and appears on the Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago with Claire. Oprah questions Clemantine and Claire about their experience as refugees and genocide survivors and then surprises them with the news that she’s brought their parents from Rwanda to be on the show. In this way, Oprah orchestrates Claire and Clemantine’s first reunion with their estranged family.
Oprah Winfrey Quotes in The Girl Who Smiled Beads
The The Girl Who Smiled Beads quotes below are all either spoken by Oprah Winfrey or refer to Oprah Winfrey . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Prologue Quotes
Often, still, my own life story feels fragmented, like beads unstrung. Each time I scoop up my memories, the assortment is slightly different. I worry, at times, that I’ll always be lost inside. I worry that I’ll be forever confused.
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Oprah Winfrey Character Timeline in The Girl Who Smiled Beads
The timeline below shows where the character Oprah Winfrey appears in The Girl Who Smiled Beads. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
...her sister Claire at her apartment in 2006 the night before they appear on the Oprah show. Claire lives outside of Chicago with her kids, Mariette, Freddy, and Michele. Clemantine is...
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...takes Claire and Clemantine to a fancy hotel in downtown Chicago. Clemantine is excited. The Oprah show tomorrow night is the follow-up to an episode in which Oprah and Elie Wiesel...
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...wake at four a.m. to get dressed. The next day, they sit in front of Oprah and Elie Wiesel. They watch a video of Oprah and Elie walking through Auschwitz, then...
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Oprah asks Clemantine if she found her parents before leaving Africa. Clemantine explains that she hasn’t...
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Chapter 8
By the time Clemantine writes her essay for Oprah’s contest, she knows her parents are alive. One day, at World Relief (the organization that...
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Chapter 10
Three months after the Oprah show, Claire flies back to Rwanda. She finds her parents living in a shack outside...
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Chapter 11
...and Clemantine and Mariette often go with her. They clean the living room and watch Oprah. Clemantine is fascinated by Oprah. Claire likes Oprah but doesn’t idolize her. Claire’s confidence comes...
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Chapter 14
...single dorm room on the third floor. Clemantine has brought pictures of her family with Oprah and Elie Wiesel. She has moved countless times, but this is her first time living...
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Chapter 16
Years after the Oprah show, which taped when Clemantine was 23, Oprah invites her and Claire to South Africa...
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