1. How does the protagonist's family history effect her identity? How does that shared past inform the familial relationships in the text? Why do you think the author decided to include so much background information on Jacqueline's family? In addition, how does the historical context overall inform the story?
2. How is economic class represented in the novel? What sort of jobs do characters have, and what is the significance of those jobs to the character who has it and to Jacqueline? 3. How is discrimination discussed in the novel? How does each character respond to different types of discrimination? Why do you feel they respond the way they do? What does this say about facing and overcoming racism? 4. How is gender discussed in the novel? In what ways do the characters define and/or follow gender roles? 5. What is the significance of writing for Jacqueline? Why does she begin to write? How do the other characters respond to her writing, and why do they response the way they do? What purpose does writing serve, both in the novel and for the characters?
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I believe in God and evolution. I believe in the Bible and the Qur’an. I believe in Christmas and he New World. I believe that there is good in each of us no matter who we are or what we believe in. I believe in the words of my grandfather. I believe in the city and the South the past and the present. I believe in Black people and White people coming together. I believe in nonviolence and “Power to the People.” Ibelieve in my little brother’s pale skin and my own dark brown. I believe in my sister’s brilliance and the too-easy books I love to read. I believe in my mother on a bus and Black people refusing to ride. I believe in good friends and good food. I believe in johnny pumps and jump ropes, Malcolm and Martin, Buckeyes and Birmingham, Writing and listening, bad words and good words – I believe in Brooklyn! I believe in one day and someday and this perfect moment called Now. Reader Response: This poem encapsulates the message of this text. It combines all of the thoughts, beliefs, relationships, and experiences that the protagonist built her identity upon. At the core, this text is about creating your identity in spite of the discrimination you may face or the struggles you experience. In this poem in particular, Brown Girl Dreaming shows that human beings are never just one thing, we are complex and multifaceted, and we alone have the power to create our identity.hmm Because we have a right, my grandfather tells us - we are sitting at his feet and the story tonight is why people are marching all over the South - to walk and sit and dream wherever we want. First they brought us here. Then we worked for free. Then it was 1863, and we were supposed to be free but we weren't. And that's why people are so mad. And it's true, we can't turn on the radio without hearing about the marching. We can't go to downtown Greenville without seeing the teenagers walking into the stores, sitting where brown people still aren't allowed to sit and getting carried out, their bodies limp, their faces calm. This is the way brown people have to fight, my grandfather says. You can't just put your fist up. You have to insist on something gently. Walk toward a thing slowly But be ready to die, my grandfather says, for what is right. Be ready to die, my grandfather says, for everything you believe in. And none of us can imagine death but we try to imagine it anyway. Even my mother joins the fight. When she thinks our grandmother isn't watching she sneaks out to meet the cousins downtown, but just as she's stepping through the door, her good dress and gloves on, my grandmother says, Now don't go getting arrested. And Mama sounds like a little girl when she says, I won't. More than a hundred years, my grandfather says, and we're still fighting for the free life we're supposed to be living. So there's a war going on in South Carolina and even as we play and plant and preach and sleep, we are part of it. Because you're colored, my grandfather says, And just as good and bright and beautiful and free as anybody. And nobody colored in the South is stopping, my grandfather says, until everybody knows what's true. Jacqueline Woodson In the poem “South Carolina at War,” Jacqueline Woodson expresses the realities of racism that existed during the time that she grew up. Woodson knows firsthand how racism affected her family and anyone else that was African American living in South Carolina. Woodson quotes her grandfather’s opinions in this poem to show how her family feels about the ongoing struggle against racism. I think that the narrator of this poem makes the audience aware of the prejudice and bias that existed. After reading this poem we can see how minorities were influenced by racial injustices. The narrative concludes by showing how the African American people will not give up in their struggle for social justice. It is inspiring to read that the narrator believes in the fact that African Americans deserve to be treated with equality and fairness. I think that it is significant how this poem provokes all minorities to persevere and to fight for equality. - Alina Amelina Now the evenings are quiet with my mother gone
as though the night is listening to the way we are counting the days. We know even the feel of our grandmothers brush being pulled gently through our hair will fast become a memory. Those Saturday evenings at her kitchen table, the smell of Dixie Peach hair grease, the sizzle of the straightening comb, the hiss of the iron against the damp, newly washed ribbons, all of this may happen again, but in another place. We sit on our grandparents' porch, shivering already against the coming winter, and talk softly about Greenville summer, how when we come back, we'll do all the stuff we always did, hear the same stories, laugh at the same jokes, catch fireflies in the same mason jars, promise each other future summers that are as good as the past. But we know we are lying coming home will be different now. This place called Greenville this neighborhood called Nicholtown will change some and so will each of us. Reader response: In this poem the author Jaqueline Woodson highlights the sights and smells she will miss the most about her home. Her mother's departure marks her own and signals new beginnings. She is aware that moments may be re-lived as they are in one place, but they will never be exactly as they were before. Time influences they way she and her siblings will view their future home with their mother and the home they've always known. The poem shows the fleeting moments we live in and how impossible it is to relive them exactly as they have happened before. It also shows how time brings opportunities as well as change. Making us aware of the importance of memories and the meaning they hold for people. "My mother arrives in the middle of the night,
and sleepily, we pile into her arms and hold tight. Her kiss on the top of my head reminds me of all that I love. Mostly her. It is late winter but my grandmother keeps the window in our room slightly open so that the cold fresh air can move over us as we sleep. Two thick quilts and the three of us side by side by side. This is all we know now-- Cold pine breezes, my grandmother’s quilts, the heat of the wood-burning stove, the sweet slow voices of the people around us, red dust wafting, then settling as though it’s said all that it needs to say. My mother tucks us back into our bed whispering, We have a home up North now. I am too sleepy to tell her that Greenville is home. That even in the wintertime, the crickets sing us to sleep. And tomorrow morning, you’ll get to meet your new baby brother. But I am already mostly asleep again, two arms wrapped tight around my mama’s hand." The imagery within this particular poem struck a certain chord within me. The dreamlike state that Jacqueline guides us through properly portrays how she experienced the moment of waking up in a groggy moment. She describes the cold breeze and the heat of the wood, the voices around them, the sounds of crickets in a moment of clarity in her awakening. They reflect as commonalities in such a moment, being woken up by the mother she does love and registering the familiar aspects of her home. Her mothers’ whispers in italics portray a smooth and soft tone, comforting and soothing Jacqueline back to sleep. The portrayal of every aspect in this poem reflects the sleepy tone of our narrator, providing the imagery of sound and familiarity with the layout of her home and her bed. You were born in the morning, Grandma Georgina said.
I remember the sound of the birds. Mean old blue jays squawking. They like to fight, you know Don't mess with the blue jays! I hear they can kill you a cat if they get mad enough. And then the phone was ringing. Through all that static squawking, I heard your mama telling me you'd come. Another girl, I stood there thinking, so close to the first one. Just like your mama and Caroline. Not even a year between them and so close, you could hardly tell where one ended and the other started. And that's how I know you came in the morning. That's I remember. You came in the late afternoon, my mother said. Two days after I turned twenty-two. Your father was at work. Took a rush hour bus trying to get to you. But by the time he arrived you were already ehre. He missed the moment, my mother said, but what else is new. You're the one that was born near night, my father says. When I saw you, I said, She's the unlucky one come out looking just like her daddy. He laughs. right off the bat, I told your mama, We're gonna call this one after me. My time of birth wasn't listed on the certificate, then got lost again amid other people's bad memory. What I enjoyed about this poem is the different perspectives given. You have the grandma, mom, and dad all telling her different times that she was born but there is no definite answer. You can also tell there is a sense of brokenness in the family because the mom says "what else is new" as in, the dad is barely there, probably not part of her life as much. But what I also enjoyed is "...coming out looking like her daddy." and "You're the one born near night." Probably indicating her skin which is cute because I know that is how I felt when I was born with my dad's skin tone. At the end, you would think you would know the time she is born, but at the end, not even she knows, but kind of makes it a nice memory knowing that there is humor in bad memory. The first time I write my full name Jacqueline Amanda Woodson without anybody's help one a clean white page in my composition notebook, I know if I wanted to I could write anything. Letters becoming words, words gathering meaning, becoming thoughts outside my head becoming sentences written by Jacqueline Amanda Woodson Until this point in the book, the narrator expresses her frustration with her inability to write due to her age. This poem is the first instance in which she feels a sense of pride and a sense of hope for her future in writing. She can finally write without the help of her sister (referred to in another poem), and she is now physically able to do what she loves. Writing, for the narrator, is power and freedom and creativity. She can secure all of the stories floating through her brain to a page.
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