Who has Power? Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming

Jacqueline's father seems to have much of the power in the text at the beginning, but it is later found out that he is often overridden by Jackie's mother. They begin to fight about Jackie's name at the beginning, with her father wanting her name to be Jack and her mother refusing to have a girl with a boy's name.

     "Name a girl Jack and people will look at her twice, my father said.
     For no good reason but to ask if her parents were crazy, my mother said."

 Jackie's father seems to want to control Jackie since the day she was born, but still seems to have her best interests at heart, wanting her to grow up successful by being strong and powerful and not wanting her to be beaten down by what other people believe she should be. Jackie's mother, on the other hand, believes that you can be successful by not standing out, by fitting in perfectly. This is the difference between them, and what I believe ended their marriage. Jackie's mother eventually comes to a "compromise" and names her Jacqueline. However, I feel that Jackie's mother is bringing the "compromise" over to her side, and maybe winning the argument a little bit more. This makes her have more power.

Jacqueline, Odella, and Hope's grandmother and grandfather are the ones that raised them. While Jackie's mother was around, she took care of them, but the grandparents are the ones who really instilled values, religions, and impressions in their grandchildren. Since the children left their father in Ohio when they went to the South, they even call their grandfather, "Daddy".

     "Y'all are Gunnar's children. Just keep remembering that."
     
     "Times are changing. And people are itching to go where they want."

Jackie's grandfather taught her to love and respect, and taught her that she was loved and respected. Jackie's grandmother taught her about religion, race, belief, and independence. Jackie's grandmother became a stand-in mother for the three children, and seized her opportunity. She taught them to be a Jehovah's witness, and to hold onto religion harder than anything else. Although she teaches them to follow the rules strictly, it made it all the more thrilling for Jackie to waver, defy, or break a rule. Without the strict living that her grandmother held her to, Jacqueline might never have learned to be free. Jacqueline's grandmother had a kind of leadership and even superiority that made her powerful, and her grandfather had the kind of influence that gave him power, and was more a role model than a leader.

In the last third of the book, Jacqueline's family becomes freer or maybe Jacqueline is just finding her way. In Brooklyn, Jackie stayed. In Brooklyn, she found what she wanted to be, a writer. In the South, she realized what her family and friends meant to her. In Brooklyn, she found out what she meant to her family and friends.

     "I guess I believe in right now. And the resurrection. And Brooklyn. And the four of you."

    I find it interesting that however much she missed the South, however much she still called Ohio home, Brooklyn is where she found herself. Brooklyn is where she found her own power. Brooklyn is where she stayed, and where she is to this day.