Have you ever felt safe somewhere, but realized your only protection was ignorance? In Jacqueline Woodson’s When a Southern Town Broke a Heart, she introduces the idea that as you grow and change, so does your meaning of home. Over the course of the story, Woodson matures and grows older, and her ideas about the town she grew up in become different. When she was a nine year old girl, Woodson and her sister returned to their hometown of Greenville, South Carolina by train. During the school year, they lived together in Downtown Brooklyn, and travelled to.
The main character is completely changed by the places he visits. His time in his small-town home shapes his adult life very obviously. The residents are stereotypical small-town inhabitants, out of place if the story was set in the city or suburbs. More importantly, however, is the time. The author acknowledges this several times throughout the novel, writing passages like "…but this was far less common in those days than it is now.
All of these people make up the hard working middle class, and nobody who had stayed in town is particularly rich. One could easily describe the town as being full of ‘simpletons’ and probably not be too far off with the majority of the population to some extent. The culture of Almost, Maine is the same as any American small town; it’s very true to the culture one would find in any small town, regardless of state. All of the characters have problems, jobs, and personalities you could find in any other small town-as well as in some larger towns and cities as well. Almost, Maine really is a realistic look into small town America; and provides some commentary on how outsiders from larger areas think of small towns.
A central theme in the story, “When a Southern Town Broke a Heart,” by Jacqueline Woodson is that when we get older, our idea of home changes. One way Woodson conveys the theme is when she turns nine, and her view of her home changes. “But the summer I was 9 years old, the town I had always loved morphed into a heartbreaking and complicated place.” What Woodson is essentially trying to convey in this passage is that your perception of something from your childhood can change in the blink of an eye.
When a Southern Town Broke a Heart In the short story When a Southern Town Broke a Heart by Jacqueline Woodson, the reader learns about Woodson’s memories of being a young black girl in the early 70’s who travels to the south every summer and she feels that even though she lives in Brooklyn, her real home is there in the southern town of Greenville, South Carolina where her grandmother lives. A central theme of the short story is that the innocence of youth protects us from reality. One way Woodson starts to convey the theme is when early in the story she brings up what “home” was to her when she was young. How Woodson thinks about what her home is to her changes when the reality that has been hidden from her while being a little kid is revealed at age 9.
Monologue of an Outsider (Running on stage) I’m finally home. (Taking off backpack) I don’t want to ever go back to school again. I wish I never moved to Canada.
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Growing up in the United States from a very young age made me stray away from my Indian heritage, so in 2008, my parents saw the need to send my siblings and me to India in order to replenish the Indian culture in us. Initially, I had no idea as to how long we were going to live in India for, but by the third year, all I wanted was to come back to New York. Everything in India was just so different, convoluted and fruitless; just because I was American, I was treated differently–both negatively and positively. Peo I didn’t like India because of how corrupt it was.
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Every year, my mother, my two sisters, and I visit New England for 2 hectic weeks with my mother's family, and the sad return to our home in Atlanta. No matter where I go a piece of my family from up north is cemented onto me like my favorite novel in my backpack: My
I never thought that living in a small town in Arkansas could have such a positive impact on my life. People tend to have this cliche mindset that living in vast big cities is the most ideal way of living opposed to living in small lesser known areas, but I want to make it known that this is fairly untrue. Even though both small towns and larger cities have their advantages and disadvantages, I strongly believe that in a small town, you have a higher chance of learning key life lessons. Although, there were many times in my life that I despised the thought of living in such a dull setting rather than living in a well-established suburb or even a vast, big city. It wasn’t until recently that I discovered that living in such a small town
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