The word “memoir” comes from the French word “memoire” meaning memory. Memory is the way people recall things good, bad, or indifferently. Memory can also affect the way people look at things and the decisions they make. In the memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson draws close attention to the way in which memories impact her life and the lives of others in good and bad ways. Woodson brings to life a couple of bad memories that largely affected her life. In the beginning of the memoir, Woodson makes the reader feel as if memory is a negative thing. She portrays it as painful and confusing. Mama tells her children to “never ma’am... don’t ever ma’am anyone!”(p.69) because the word [is] too painful [of] a memory for [her]” (p.69).