The book Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson is a memoir about a girl named Jackie growing up, and her experiences as a child. Jackie was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1963 and lived there for a while when she was younger. Her parents were often in disagreements about things such as what they would name her, and even their opinions on the south. Jackie’s father hated it so much that only the kids and their mom would go to South Carolina for the winter because her mom had grown up there and loved it, which caused a strange relationship between Jackie’s mom and her grandmother on Dad’s side. Her parents fought so frequently that they eventually got a divorce, and the wife and kids were kicked out and had to move to South Carolina. Although Jackie may not have been able to remember all that happened when she was younger and lived in Ohio, it affected her because it is what caused her to end up living in South Carolina.…show more content… Jackie’s experiences in South Carolina with her family and her race/civil rights affected her character and identity. When Jackie lived with her grandparents, she had a close relationship with them, and they would often give a few words of advice, “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.” (72) This shows that she stuck by what her family told her and believed in civil
