49 pages • 1-hour read
Brown Girl Dreaming
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Themes
Symbols & Motifs
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Symbols & Motifs
Rivers
The poem “rivers” in the first section of this memoir refers to the Hocking River, a tributary of the Ohio River. In a more metaphorical way, it also refers to the journeys of Woodson’s family. The poem is in the section of the memoir where Woodson and her family have returned to Ohio from South Carolina, just as the Hocking “circles back, joins up with / the Ohio again” (38). Woodson’s return to Ohio is only temporary, however; her parents will soon separate, and her mother will take Woodson and her older siblings to live in South Carolina.
The image of the Hocking River suggests an ongoing cycle of departure and arrival. It continually splits off from the Ohio River and then returns to it, “as if to say / I’m sorry / […] I’m home again” (38-39). In a similar way, the Woodson family departs from and returns to their home turf, first Ohio and then South Carolina. Once they have moved once more to New York City, South Carolina becomes their old home. The Woodson children continue to spend summers there with their grandparents, however, even while they feel increasingly estranged from the place.
Woodson describes the Ohio River in the poem as “run[ning] north from Virginia until / it’s safely away / from the South” (38). This suggests a larger narrative of Black Americans “chasing freedom” behind the Woodson family’s own journeys (38). The Woodson family is chasing freedom and opportunity as well, while also yearning for roots and home. It is an ambivalent trajectory, symbolized by the trajectory of the Hocking River.
Gunnar’s Garden
The poem “the garden” in the second section of this memoir refers to the garden that Gunnar, Woodson’s grandfather, tends. Gunnar is proud of his garden and all of the fruits and vegetables that he can produce: “Sweet peas and collards / green peppers and cukes / lettuce and melon” (49). He has ambitions to one day grow a pecan tree, although his wife—Woodson’s grandmother—chides him for asking too much of the land: “God gives you what you need, my grandmother says / Best not to ask for more than that” (49).
This exchange reveals a difference in Woodson’s grandparents’ outlooks and personalities. Her grandparents have “missed slavery / by one generation”: Gunnar’s grandfather was a slave, and his father was a sharecropper (48). Gunnar’s gardening is therefore a connection to his past, and at the same time a way of establishing his independence and ability to provide for himself. Yet unlike Woodson’s grandmother, he strives for more than simply providing; the pecan tree perhaps symbolizes his hope for a better station in life, if not for himself then for his children and grandchildren. Woodson’s grandmother is more cautious, telling her husband that they are lucky enough to be where they are.
Names
Names are important in the Woodson family. Sometimes, as with Woodson’s older brother Hope—named after his paternal grandmother—names symbolize a connection to the past. At other times, as with Woodson’s older sister Odella—and also with Woodson herself—names symbolize a hope for a better future. Odella is named after her uncle Odell, who died in a car accident just before she was born. Woodson’s own first name, Jacqueline, is the result of a compromise between her father and her mother; her father had initially wanted to name his second daughter Jack, after himself, reasoning that with such a name, “she can’t help but / grow up strong” (6).
The poem “family names” evokes the names of the Woodsons’s ancestors on their maternal side, names that the Woodson children find comically old-fashioned: “There’s Levonia, Montague, Iellus, Hallique / Valie Mae, Virdie and Elora on my daddy’s side” (86). However, as their grandfather tells them, the antiquated oddity of these names served a purpose; they were “names / that no master could ever take away” (86). They were intended, like the Woodson children’s own names, to give their bearers a sense of dignity and pride.
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