Analyse af Edward P. Jones's 'The First Day'

Nervousness is a common thing. We have all tried to be anxious in different situations. Sometimes to a larger extent than others. For example starting in school. In this story by Edward P. Jones called The First Day, a five-year-old girl gets escorted to school by her mother and she realizes for the first time that there are things that her mother are not capable of. Fin indledning

In this short story, we are introduced to a little girl. She is the first person, unreliable narrator, in a flashback to her childhood. She is going to school for the first time, and she gets dresses up in all of these fancy clothes by her mother. A loving and caring mother. “My stomach is full of milk and oatmeal sweetened with brown sugar”, is just an example of how the mother tries to spoil her daughter. Nowadays you couldn´t imagine not sending your child to school. All over the world parents do all they can to send their children to school, almost no matter the circumstances. The story however, takes place around the late 60’ies in New Jersey, and back then, the possibilities were very different. I assume that it is around the 60’ies because of the Dixie Peach hair grease the mother uses for her daughters hair. The 5-year old girl tries something new for within her family. It seems that she is the first person in the family going to school, because of the mothers reading and writing difficulties. We get some hints throughout the story that the family is black. For instance, the mother is reading an Ebony magazine, which is an African American magazine in the United States. The fact that it is not mentioned in the text directly that they are black, makes it seem like being black is not a part of their identity at home. However, when we sense it in the situations outside their home, I understand it as if they care about how people think of them. Godt afsnit!