'The First Day' by Edward P. Jones: An Analysis

From the first-time read through, the poem gives a basic understanding of the narrative: a daughter telling the audience about her mother’s struggles

To most girls, the most important opinion of them comes from their own mothers. The text talks about how much a mother’s opinion can really impact their daughter. The smallest comments from a mother means so much to their daughter. The text also mentions how just a gaze from a mother says it all, and can lead to an upset and hurt daughter (Tannen, 1978). Personally, I always want my mom to be happy with my choices. Whenever there is a special occasion and I want a new dress for it, I always want my mom to come shopping with me, not just because she may offer to pay for it, but I want her to see my options. Even when my mom isn’t able to go shopping with me, I still want to get her thoughts

The character was illiterate and thus excluded her from others. In the beginning of the story, the shame from the daughter and others was made prevalent as the author wrote “I learned to be ashamed of my mother” (58). The shame and prejudice began to grow when the mother goes to the school to register her daughter. The mother needed and asked for help when she was filling out the forms that were required for her daughter to go to school. The author wrote “The women asks my mother what she means . . . The women still seem not to understand. ‘I can’t read it. I don’t know how to read or write,” (60) showing that the women the mother was asking for help, did not understand her question, because her ignorance of other people. Her poor understanding of the question clearly made the mother feel even more ashamed of herself. The author goes on to write “My mother looks at me, then looks away. I know almost all of her looks, but this one is brand new to me.”(61) exhibiting how the mother never felt so ashamed and embarrassed in front of her daughter. Once the woman realizes that she was on a higher “level” than the mother, she agreed to help, the author wrote “and suddenly appears happier, so much more satisfied with everything”(61). The mother was being ridiculed and humiliated by the second, as the other

In his story, “The First Day,” published in the 1990’s, Edward P. Jones discusses the story about a young girl’s first day of school. This story is about a mom who is taking her child to her first day of school, but they run into problems because the first school didn’t accept her. When they go to another school, the mother is illiterate and needs help filling out the paperwork for the new school. Although a parent may not have an education of their own, Edward P. Jones argues that a parent will do anything to make sure their child gets an education.

Her Mother seemed to be more put together than her father at times, even getting a job at one point helping the family out. Though her mother was a hedonist and did not contain the motherly love and sacrifice for her kids, this job helped Jeanette’s future. She helped grade papers which increased her knowledge of the outside world and “...the world was making a little more sense” as she read the papers and projects of her mother’s students (Walls 205). Her parents had such an opposition to the outside world that she hadn’t gotten every aspect of

Adeline comes home from her first week of kindergarten, all smiles because she had been chosen to lead the class and has received a medal and a certificate for her achievement. Her aunt Baba is full of pride and files the certificate and medal in her safe deposit box. She described the certificate as “some precious jewel impossible to replace” (page 2). Adelines academic achievements are how she eventually gains acceptance within an uncaring family. She had a lot of pride over the metal it shows the sadness she is facing everyday, with her siblings hating her achievements and her dad only caring when she receives them. “I was winning the medal every week and wearing it constantly. I knew this displeased my siblings, especially Big Sister and Second Brother, but it was the only way to make Father take notice and be proud of me” (page 15). Adeline starts to mature when she starts to realize that her achievements should only matter if it makes her happy, not just her father. Adeline's parents threaten to move her to a far away school. Adeline is elected class president. Everyone is excited, her classmates and more importantly her. Her classmates decide to celebrate at her house and this is when her parents lash out and get

Before interment, the girl was a curious, active character but throughout the story, and her prolonged isolation, her self-identity and personality undergo many changes. For example, in the beginning when her mother reminds her they have to leave their home, taking only what they can carry in their arms, the girl declares, “ ‘I already know that’... She wore a white cotton frock with tiny blue anchors and her hair was pulled back in two tight braids. She tossed her books on the sofa and told the woman [her mother] that her teacher, Mr. Rutherford, had talked for an entire hour about prime numbers and coniferous trees” (12). This quote demonstrates how

The article, the book, and I, talk about how daughters feel their mothers don’t know them and that they don’t know their mothers. They talk about how a daughter listens to her mother, but there is a certain point in a young woman 's mind where they decide they want to see and explore new ideas. In conclusion, they all talk about the point in a daughter 's life where she and her mother don’t get along very well and the daughter tries to take charge of her life.

Kincaid doesn’t bother with throwing everything into quotations and the entirety of the story is essentially one sentence joined by semicolons. This style gives the work an overall matter of fact tone. The nagging voice is immediately evident in “Wash the clothes on Monday and put them on a stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on a clothesline to dry…” (Fader/Rabinowitz pg. 66). The reader can also get a sense of the cultural expectations of the main character through the domestic imagery throughout the text. The girl is expected to uphold certain roles within her home and is instructed as to how to behave and not draw attention to herself. Her mother assumed that her daughter’s behavior was inappropriate and any protest she offered to defend herself was shot down. Kincaid drives her point home effectively when in the very last line: “...you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?” (Fader/Rabinowitz pg. 67). The reader can see the mother’s surprise towards her daughter’s innocent question. The girl was unable to learn how to be adult and conduct herself properly, even after all of her mother’s speeches and

In the story “The First Day” a little girl is experiencing her first day of school. It starts off with her telling us what she is wearing, and every little detail about it. The mother puts a lot of time and effort in order to

Estrella did not have the greatest days at school as she was informed of things that were hidden from her at home. For example, the text states “asked how come her mama never gave her a bath.” Mrs. Horn asked Estrella if she has ever had a bath because from what she could observe Estrella was pretty dirty. However, Estrella was not necessarily dirty according to many people like her mother. According to the text “the wet towel wiped on her resistant face each morning, the vigorous brushing and tight braids her mother neatly weaved were not enough for Mrs. Horn.” Estrella’s mother actually did care about her daughter's appearance and cleanliness, it was just not enough for Mrs. Horn. Mrs. Horn just wanted her to look perfect, which children usually do not. Through words that were said to Estrella, she learned how much words can hurt a person’s

"You think because I am her mother I have a key, or that in some way you could use me as a key? She has lived for nineteen years. Over and over, we are told of the limitations on choice--"it was the only way"; "They persuaded me" and verbs of necessity recur for descriptions of both the mother's and Emily's behavior. " In such statements as "my wisdom ! came too late," the story verges on becoming an analysis of parental guilt. With the narrator, we construct an image of the mother's own development: her difficulties as a young mother alone with her daughter and barely surviving during the early years of the depression; her painful months of enforced separation from her daughter; her gradual and partial relaxation in response to a new husband and a new family as more children follow; her increasingly complex anxieties about her first child; and finally her sense of family balance which surrounds but does not quite include the early memories of herself and Emily in the grips of survival needs. In doing so she has neither trivialized nor romanticized the experience of motherhood; she has indicated the wealth of experience yet to be explored in the story’s possibilities of experiences, like motherhood, which have rarely been granted serious literary consideration. Rather she is searching for

From the start the girlchild was given gifts that stained in her mind as what she was suppose to become in life. With the little dolls, GE stoves and irons, and lipstick her parents put this ideal image of the perfect woman in her head. With these types of presents the girlchild is already learning her role in society.

The mother begins to rebel against tradition by taking an active role in educating and freeing herself. Through her radio, telephone and trips out with her sons she develops her own opinions about the world, the war, and the domination and seclusion of woman. She loses her innocence as a result to her new knowledge and experience.

The tone of this story is one of fear, regret, and guilt. The story first leaves the reader with impression that it may be a recount of the life of a daughter who was lost due to neglect. Soon it is evident