Summary

“Main Street” by Jacqueline Woodson begins in autumn in New Hampshire. The narrator admires the changing foliage and notes how tourists flock to see the trees and write cliche-filled postcards purchased at the pharmacy on Main Street. The narrator thinks back to someone named Celeste, who is “gone now” (124). She then thinks back to her mother, who died not too long ago, and the feelings of pain and loss she experienced but was unable to articulate.

The narrator, who is called Treetop, then returns to when she was nine years old and had just made a new best friend named Celeste. Celeste had moved from New York City after her parents got divorced. They bond over their mutual feelings of missing a parent. Treetop notes that Celeste is the only “brown” person in the entirety of the town. Because of this, Treetop’s...