Woodson and Creating Time with Memories

 Victoria Sabatino 

Brown Girl Dreaming Reflection 


I want to discuss the relationship between the passage of time in Brown Girl Dreaming and Woodson’s Daddy’s health. Throughout the book, from when we first meet Daddy, he is described by Woodson as tall and very handsome (page 51) and a boss at the printing press in their town (pg 53). However, one of the last times we hear from Daddy, he is on his deathbed and unfortunately passes away due to his smoking habit. 

There is no linear idea of time that Woodson sets up in the book. Stories are not announced to be chronological, so you need to look for details that time has, in fact, passed. One way I believe Woodson does this is through Daddy’s declining health. Since we are first introduced to him as a healthy man, we assume he will be with her for years and years. But even in Woodson’s younger years, she remembers lying sleepless hearing her grandfather cough at night. It made her nervous and scared for the next day. It went from this to him having some physical changes and coughing during the day. Again she recounts being nervous and scared, but less scared than at night. Maybe because she could help him during the day, or see that he is still capable of a lot. However, I think Woodson prepares herself for the worst when Daddy stops working and her grandmother has to take on a full-time job. Woodson looked up to Daddy and recounts him as a hard worker, so to see him not work is emotional. 

Finally, when the family moves up to New York and then really only sees Daddy in the summer, the readers can feel the passage of time. Daddy had stopped gardening and never got up from his chair. This was the most emotional part for me, as Daddy was passionate about his gardening and loved it. But as Daddy gets older and sicker, Woodson is growing into her own person and understands what her life is becoming. I think it's a great parallel and adds so much concrete time to a book that does not previously have it.


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