ipl-logo

Brown Girl Dreaming By Catherine Woodson Research Paper

467 Words2 Pages

Colin Ritter Mrs. Gosser Literacy 3 31 January 2023 Identity Something that really affects the identity of a person is where a person lives. In the memoir Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson she explains what it was like as a kid in the 1960s during racially discriminating times. Jacqueline is a little girl that grew up in the 1960s, who really struggled to find out who she was/wanted to be. She has moved several times from Ohio to South Carolina and then to New York. She likes to write, imagine and make up all sorts of crazy stories about her life. She is very close with her family such as her mom and her grandfather, but the greatest influence over Jacqueline’s life and identity is when she has been moving from state to state. One way Jackie’s identity was shaped is when she moved to her grandma and grandfather’s house in South Carolina. Jackie and her siblings arrive at their grandfather's house not realizing this will be their home for a while and they are greeted with a “Welcome home, my grandparents say. Their warm brown arms around us. A white handkerchief, embroidered with blue to wipe away my mother’s tears” (Woodson 32). Jacqueline's mother left her father because she did not like living in Ohio. She brought them to her parent’s house in Greenville, South Carolina …show more content…

Jackie’s mother has already been in New York for some time and Jackie and her siblings finally saw what New York was like and she explains, “Here there is only gray rock, cold and treeless as a bad dream. Who could love this place-where no pine trees grow, no porch swing moves with the weight of your grandmother” (Woodson 143). Jacqueline was moving to New York City because she was going to go live with her mother. She realized that it was very bland and nothing like South Carolina. She liked South Carolina; it was her home but it was taken from her when she was moved to New

Show More
Related
924 Words | 4 Pages

Mamie lived with her grandma in South Carolina as a young girl because her mom worked long hours in Washington D.C. At

Read More
527 Words | 3 Pages

He watched his older brothers excel in sports. He was the youngest of his five siblings. One day Jackie’s father left and never came back. His mother Millie raised him and his siblings by

Read More
308 Words | 2 Pages

In the memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, a theme is dreams are achievable= despite obstacles. In the book, Jackie speaks about growing up with a dream to become a writer, but she has dyslexia and her family and friends try to gently steer her away from her dream because they don't want her to be heartbroken if she ever fails because of her condition. In Woodsons poem, “when I tell my family”, her mother states, “It’s a good hobby, we see how quiet it keeps you. They say,/But maybe you should be a teacher,/a lawyer,/do hair . . .” (Woodson 229)

Read More
837 Words | 4 Pages

Human tendency to categorize others extends to simple instinct. From the moment a baby is born, the first question already categorizes the baby: boy or girl. In Richard Rodriguez’s Brown: The Last Discovery of America, he addresses these ideals of categorizations, untangling arduous inner conflicts in the process. Due to his diversity, Rodriguez feels unwanted and omitted in his day-to-day life. Feeling uncategorized, Rodriguez journeys to discover new parts of himself and embrace them, as well as question societal norms.

Read More
1477 Words | 6 Pages

He was the youngest out of all five of the kids. His father never played a role in his life. Jackie’s family grew up relatively in poverty. They were the only black family in their entire neighborhood. This is where he first experienced just how white Americans felt towards those of black decent.

Read More
679 Words | 3 Pages

A year after his birth, Jackie’s father, Jerry, abandoned the family. Now raised by a single mother, Jackie was the youngest of five children. Shortly after the abandonment of Jackie’s father, Jackie moved to Pasadena, California with his mother,

Read More
1610 Words | 7 Pages

His mom, Mallie Robinson, courageously raised Jackie and her four other youngsters. They were the main dark family on their square, and the partiality they experienced just reinforced their bond. From this

Read More
1050 Words | 5 Pages

Finding your purpose in life can be the hardest thing to do for many people. Especially when your entire family is finding the meaning of their own life and creating the world they want for themselves. In the novel, Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson tells the story of her life as a young black girl growing up with two problems she’s facing. She is living during a time of segregation against black people, and she doesn’t know what her identity is. She finds throughout the story that she has a love for words and writing.

Read More
2869 Words | 12 Pages

Kingston also deals with a sense of belonging within her own family as her mother appears to not value her highly when in comparison to a slave girl. As Kingston states, “I watch them with envy. My mother’s enthusiasm for me is duller than for the slave girl; nor did I replace the older brother or sister who died while they were still cuddly” (Kingston 97). Kingston does not seem to maintain a high level of self-worth within her own family. Finally, Kingston, when talking with her mother, realizes that existence belongs wherever one moves.

Read More
992 Words | 4 Pages

First, when Jackie was young his family had to move to find work. “After his father deserted the family when Jackie was

Read More
476 Words | 2 Pages

While living in Miami he visited two times New York and realized how much it had changed and evolved from what he knew from his time there. The community seemed odd to hime, there were different people, restaurants and markets. The place started going through a gentrification process with whom he could no longer connect to.

Read More
921 Words | 4 Pages

The quintessential image of the American dream is that of a house with a white picket fence and Mama thinks the house she buys in Clybourne Park will allow the Younger family fulfill that dream. It’s a symbol for belonging in America; it can also represent an acceptance of American cultural values, such as capitalism. In addition, it’s an emphasis on the Youngers’ value on family and the home because the Youngers rely on each other during hard times, and they are not afraid of what may happen in the new neighborhood they know they are not welcomed in because they know they have each other. Moreover, Lindner and the other residents of Clybourne Park who offer to buy the house the Youngers bought represent the discrimination against African Americans at this time, and possibly a reason black Americans, like the Younger family, need to fight for a sense of belonging. “And we have decided to move into our house because my father- my father- earned it for us brick by brick” (Hansberry 148).

Read More
418 Words | 2 Pages

As a child, she recognized that her imitation of ‘White” afforded opportunities of mobility, education, acceptance and privilege. Her mother’s appearance as “Black” afforded opportunities of poverty, inferiority, and inequality. So, she fails to mention her mother’s identity and occupation to classroom peers and teacher. Sarah Jane wants cultural assimilation and white privilege.

Read More
1134 Words | 5 Pages

Discovering one's identity is a universal conquest, one that some never complete. While much of a person’s identity is usually shaped during their childhood by the influences of their family and environment, some struggle to define themselves stuck in the shadow of their parents. In The Color of Water, an autobiography by James McBride, he writes about his experiences and challenges growing up in the 1960s and 70s in a multi-racial family with a white, Jewish mother. The memoir tells the story of the complicated childhood of both James and his mother Ruth, and how Ruth’s actions and methods of raising her children affected James as he grew up. McBride shows how James explores aspects of his identity while starting out as a naive, impulsive

Read More
1936 Words | 8 Pages

Everyone defines and identifies themselves in different ways. Whether it’s by our names, our religion, or our sexuality, we all have something different that make us unique and that we identify ourselves as. In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use,” an African American woman tells the story of her daughter Dee’s long awaited visit. Upon her arrival the mother and her other daughter, Maggie, discover some drastic changes in Dee: she has changed her name to Wangero, she has also arrived with a mysterious man who calls himself Asalamalakim, and has adopted an African style of dress; all of this in an effort to depict what she sees as her heritage. During the course of her visit, Dee tries to take several items important to her family’s heritage.

Read More

More about Brown Girl Dreaming By Catherine Woodson Research Paper

Related Topics

Open Document