Point of View

Jacqueline Woodson tells her memoir “Brown Girl Dreaming” from the first-person, limited-omniscient, present-tense point of view of herself as a child. She does this for several reasons. First and foremost, the memoir being told is Jacqueline’s, and there is no better person to tell her childhood story than herself. Second, this allows Jacqueline to communicate intimate thoughts, ideas, and feelings with the reader directly, allowing them to see and feel things as she did. It also allows readers a sort of intimacy as if the story was being told by one friend to another. The limited-omniscient aspect lends itself to Jacqueline telling the story as her child-self in present-tense, and not knowing everything going on in the world around her, but having vague ideas or inclinations about events and circumstances beyond her control.

Language and Meaning

Jacqueline Woodson tells her memoir “Brown Girl Dreaming...