Hello! I am working on a discussion for Literature. I have to answer a question about "The First Day" By ______ ______. Idk if anyone's read it, so here's a quick summary: The story begins with a girl and her mother walking to school. When they get there, the people at the school won't let her join. So then they go to a different school and the girl is accepted. Then the mother leaves.
The question is "Why does the narrator say that the story takes place “long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother”?"
Do any of you know why the narrator (The girl) would say that? I am completely confused because it never mentioned why she would've been ashamed. I also think I only read an excerpt? I don't know. Can someone help?
8 answers
Reminds me when I was a chlld, black kids were not allowed to go to "white" schools"
Omg I just realized I forgot to fill in the lines I made for the author's name! It's Edward P. Jones. I forgot the name, and forgot to look it up and fill them in before I posted it! 😥😁
Ohhhhhh That makes more sense! One of my thoughts was that it might be that, but didn't want to just assume the character's race, as it did not specify! Thank you!
read the piece: it could be religion, culture, or something else.
I just finished rereading before I asked the question. It didn't specify. Like I said, it might be an excerpt?
I suspect there are hints in clothes, or something related.
I know this is like a year later but this is for anyone who saw this and is also confused. In the story, her mother says that she's illiterate/can't read or write. That is a big factor when answering this because her mom is ashamed of it and people treated her different depending on who they are. Also, if you read this from the book the roundtable there is a picture that's black and white and it shows the little girl and her mom are POC. (people of color) But the reason she was not accepted to the first school was because she did not live in a area close enough to the school so they did not accept her. I do not think that this story takes place when there was a bigger divide in races to where you had to be a certain color to be able to do something or go somewhere.
Also, I read this story in the book "Roundtable" for lesson 1 unit 3 of the GT Literature Study.