Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming is a memoir written in verse in contrast with most memoirs written in prose. The author touches upon multiple themes, including racism, the Civil Rights movement, family, segregation, and childhood. The main character is Jacquelin, a young girl who gets to experience the South and the North from the perspective of an African American girl during the 60s.
The most significant theme is racism and an adult’s overview on discrimination versus the one of a child. When Jacquelin goes to South Carolina as a baby, the emotions are described as “me, the new baby, set deep inside this love” (Woodson 44). On the other hand, the father says, “keep your South,” due to an understanding of the severity of the situation (Woodson 41).
However, while Jaqueline grows up to admire such people as Angela Wilson (Woodson 317), the memoir describes the aftertaste that a racial system can leave in terms of people’s view of themselves, others, and the world in general. One example is the grandma who would not sit in the front of the bus even when allowed (Woodson 252). By highlighting this aspect of discrimination, the author emphasizes the deeply-rotted problems of segregation and how it affected people on psychological, physical, and social levels.
Woodson’s literary work is a recollection of emotions, generational differences, and social changes through the prism of a child. The author managed to illustrate the complexity of the political processes in a simple way as a young kid would view them. Sometimes emotional, sometimes ambiguous, Woodson’s approach allows the reader to look at past events whose echo still remains present in many people.
Works Cited
Woodson, Jacqueline. Brown Girl Dreaming, 2014. Penguin Group.