The short story named Jesse is written by Joy Boothe and was published in 2012. The story is about the main characters, who could be the author, upbringing in Alabama, USA. The story starts in 1957 and takes places over the course of 22 years and jumps several years from memory to memory. It focuses on the segregation that was a normal part of society in that era. The short story is written and told in first person narrator.
Our protagonist goes through somewhat of a development throughout the story. Of course besides growing up from a five-year-old child to a mature woman. She also changes her view on colored people and the prejudices her grandmother has pushed on her. At the same time she also goes from hating the name Jesse that is the title of the short story to choosing to call her child the same name. This does not just happen to spite her grandmother and to rebel against the prejudices her grandmother and society holds against black people. There is a deeper reason to why she named her son Jesse.
In the start of the story she hates the name Jesse due to a memory about her great uncle Jesse Long who is portrayed as an alcoholic that committed suicide without any regard for the people close to him. The aunt of our protagonist tells stories about how he would call for her attention for her to witness his suicide. The loath she holds against the name is somewhat replaced when she meets a colored person that works for her father that is also named Jesse. Even though society and her Grandmothers contempt have influenced our protagonist when she is young, she still develops some kind of a relationship with Jesse and develops her own view on segregation.
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