Brown Girl Dreaming: Reflection

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Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson is a moving story about the narrative of a brown girl growing up during the time of desegregation. She faces many trials growing up and seeing how her parents would face injustice based on their skin color. In the poem, "at the end of the day" Woodson describes the work her father does at the printing press where all the workers get their fingers blackened and it's hard to tell "who is white and who is not" (p.53). She goes on to say that although her father is higher in rank than the other workers he still gets looked down on because of the color of his skin, but at the end of the day the machines are shut down and the newspaper is printed. I thought that was a beautiful poem because she put in such a good way the understanding that prejudice does not stop the world, and it is how others respond to it that defines their character.

This is one of my favorite books that we have read because of the writing. It was some of the most vivid and insightful writing I have read in a long time. Woodson's pain is real when she talks about the hard times she has witnessed and gone through in her childhood. One of my favorite poem in the book is "uncle odell." Woodson sets up the setting as just any other day. She reflects on how the day would have been if they had never gotten the phone call that changed her mom's life. Her powerful writing pulled me into the scene as she says, "and then there was only a roaring in the air around her" (p.22). It was so vivid that it gave me chills. There were many powerful themes in the book such as race, religion, family, coming of age, and death/ grieving. This would be a great book to introduce to middle schoolers especially because of the honest and simple writing that can also be very relatable and inspiring. 

Comments

  1. Anna GilfillanOctober 6, 2019 at 2:04 PM

    I agree this book is one of the best that we have read so far. I thought Woodson did an amazing job with giving vivid details in each of her poems. She made this book flow so well with each poem. She never missed a beat. I think this book would be a good one for middle school students to read. Do you think that this book would be a good one to use for the poetry unit in English?

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  2. Taylor ScottOctober 7, 2019 at 7:46 AM

    I totally agree with using this book with middle schoolers, because the poems are simple, yet deep enough to drive further thought and creativity. Middle schoolers are at a point where they are starting to learn what it means to analyze literature, and this is a great start for them, in my opinion.

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  3. Carter McGillOctober 7, 2019 at 9:38 AM

    I would have to agree that Woodson's words are extremely vivid, and insightful at the same time. It seemed like every poem had so much detail and made me feel like I was actually there. Because of her strong detail this keeps the reader wanting to read more and looking deeper into what the poems actually mean. This would be great for middle school students because not only would it keep them interested but they would be able to analyze the poems with ease.

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