Identity In Brown Girl Dreaming By Jaqueline Woodson

Identity is one person's beliefs and morals formed by their personality, community, and associates. In the memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jaqueline Woodson is about a young girl who was born in Ohio during the 1960’s. While she was a baby, her mother left her father which made them move down south to live with her grandparents. In the south during this time, colored people are treated poorly. Jaqueline grows up with a different lifestyle since being in the south which is heavily segregated rather than the North. Jaqueline is extremely close with her grandparents, primarily her grandfather who grows to be a father figure to her. While she lives with her grandparents, her mother goes to live in New york. Her experiences with family are what shape her identity.
Jaqueline had an incredibly strong bond with her grandfather. After Jackie’s father was out of the picture, she looked up to her grandfather as her father figure, and explained, “We call him daddy. This is what our mother calls him…Y’all are Gunnars children” (Woodson 51). Now that Jacqueline and her family have moved to Greenville, South Carolina, they call their grandfather “daddy.” Since Jacqueline’s mother calls him daddy, her children think they should too. They did not know any better and

Since Jackie and her grandfather have such a strong bond, his becoming ill is dreadful to her. Jaqueline and her family flee to her grandfather and after spending a few hours with him, he starts to drift asleep. Later her grandmother goes to check on him and comes back to tell Jackie, “He needs his rest now. That evening he died''(Woodson 277). Jacqueline came back to Greenville just to see her grandfather die. She called him daddy and he was a father figure to her. It is like her dad died and it broke her heart. Jaqueline was not ready to say goodbye to her daddy and his dying was a big