"My birth certificate says: Female Negro Mother: Mary Anne Irby, 22, Negro Father: Jack Austin Woodson, 25, Negro In Birmingham, Alabama, Martin Luther King Jr. is planning a march on Washington, where John F. Kennedy is president. In Harlem, Malcolm X is standing on a soapbox talking about a revolution. Outside the window of University Hospital, snow is slowly falling. So much already covers this vast Ohio ground. In Montgomery, only seven years have passed since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus. I am born brown-skinned, black-haired and wide-eyed. I am born Negro here and Colored there and somewhere else, the Freedom Singers have linked arms, their protests rising into song: Deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall overcome someday. and somewhere else, James Baldwin is writing about injustice, each novel, each essay, changing the world. I do not yet know who I’ll be what I’ll say how I’ll say it . . . Not even three years have passed since a brown girl named Ruby Bridges walked into an all-white school. Armed guards surrounded her while hundreds of white people spat and called her names. She was six years old. I do not know if I’ll be strong like Ruby. I do not know what the world will look like when I am finally able to walk, speak, write . . . Another Buckeye! the nurse says to my mother. Already, I am being named for this place. Ohio. The Buckeye State. My fingers curl into fists, automatically This is the way, my mother said, of every baby’s hand. I do not know if these hands will become Malcolm’s—raised and fisted or Martin’s—open and asking or James’s—curled around a pen. I do not know if these hands will be Rosa’s or Ruby’s gently gloved and fiercely folded calmly in a lap, on a desk, around a book, ready to change the world..."
This passage from Brown Girl Dreaming starts the novel off strong with a in-depth look at the racial divide between the only two day old Jackie and the rest of the world around her. Jackie first compares her infant self to the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, James Baldwin, and Ruby Bridges. The author makes these pseudo comparisons by referring to the untapped potential within the young Jackie. Will she become an incredible orator like Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X? Will she pick up a pen and write like James Baldwin? Or could she possibly find some other route to take akin to Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges? This entire passage deals with the oppression that Jackie feels even a day into her life on this planet. The need to immediately assume the mantle of a hero that fights for her peoples rights details just how incredibly powerful the feelings of oppression were as they assaulted the author throughout the process of this novels creation. Having her main character identify with the heroes of her people so soon after her birth represents the need for more of these heroes and the need for some kind of drastic change, a feeling which pervades the remainder of the novel.
This passage also affirms the characters faith in her people. Jackie, even at the age of two days old, is already convinced that the people she listed off are doing the right thing. Now, obviously this is the voice of the author speaking creatively through the narrator looking back on her own life, but it really does drive the point home in an astounding way. She knows that the world must change, after existing in it for a measly 24 hours. She does not ever question what these people fight for, knowing inherently that it is the right thing to be fighting for. She needs no convincing of it, even at her incredibly young age. This passage links her to the fight that these heroes embody, and connect her with their struggle for the rest of her lifetime.
I loved this passage, and I'm so glad you chose it to write about. I really liked how you pinpointed how she viewed these figures, though sometimes polar in their actions (MLK vs. Malcolm X), they, like her, are fighting for the same cause.
ReplyDeleteHi Nick,
ReplyDeleteYou make an astute observation about how this poem sends the message that the Black community is awaiting more heroes at the time of Jackie's birth, that there is a need for the heroic work she plans to do, which is mainly affirming the value and beauty of Black lives through art and literature. It is also significant that she is a girl as the Civil Rights Movements were largely male dominated and leadership roles were not often granted to women. As part of the next generation, infant Jackie speaks to the possibility that she can be a hero being both brown and female. I would recommend pasting less of the original text into this post so you have the space to format it the same as the original poem with line breaks. It also helps even with this brief responses to micro-organize them with a thesis map in the introduction so that I can easily identify what your main takeaway is from this passage.