Throughout the novel The Starside of Birdhill, Naomi Jackson portrayed how older siblings are typically stereotyped to be the constant support for their younger siblings. They are expected to stay strong, being forced to grow up too soon as people around them consequently forget that they are children in need of emotional and mental support. Being a 10-year-old child it is acceptable for Phaedra to seek comfort within her older sibling, Dionne, who is put into an authority figure too early in her life. As she took care of Phaedra her whole life, giving her the support she needed, hence being forced to put her sister’s feelings and mental state in perspective.
Being the older sibling in the family with a mother who has a mental disorder in a cold city of New York is not a child’s play. Dionne is forced into the position of an authority figure in her family way too early in her young life. With her mother being
…show more content…
The girls are sent to their grandmother, Hyacinth, during the summer of 1989; being the city girl Dionne was, she found it aggravating ending up in a hole like Barbados. As Dionne may appear cold at times, the sisters still seek comfort within each other. Even though, Dionne may have complained “at first about sleeping alone in the back room that was once her mother’s bedroom. No matter how many times Phaedra wet the bed or thrashed during her nightmares, Dionne took comfort in having her sister’s body beside hers in the room they shared in Brooklyn” (Jackson 17). Regardless of how intimate the situation of wetting the bed is, Dionne still wants to comfort her little sister and be there with her. During one of their late adventures, the night was bright because of the moon yet still chilling to the core, Phaedra “wanted