The Outside World (post #1)

When I was a young child my grandmother would spend countless hours telling stories to my sister and me about the "olden days". Though our young minds were not experienced or developed enough to completely comprehend the significance or relevance of her stories, we would sit there, quietly, as she reminisced through her own childhood memories.

My grandmother was born in 1940, just shortly after the peak of the Great Depression. She would tell us stories mostly about her mother, and very few of her nine siblings. At a young age she was forced to drop out of school and help take care of her siblings, being the eldest, while her mother and father searched for work. At the time, some of the stories seemed a bit exaggerated and even insuperable. Every time we would complain about not wanting to finish our food, the clothes that my mother had chosen for us, or even about having too much homework after school, my grandmother would scold us for being ungrateful for the material things and opportunities that she and her siblings had not had the same privileges of.

Of all the many things my sister and I complained about, being bored was the one thing my grandmother would never tolerate. She would tell us how children in her days had to work or help out around the house and could only wish for days off or time to spare for the extra-curricular activities that we would so often took for granted. She often reminded us how privileged we were to be sheltered from the misfortune and adversity that existed in the "outside world".

Sometime around 7th or 8th grade my teacher had assigned Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Thomas, as a class reading assignment. Although I have not read the book since, I can remember being amazed at how parts of the story validated those of my grandmother. There's an 8 or 10 year-old boy forced by circumstances to take on, what were then to me, "adult responsibilities". Poverty stricken, this young boy has courageously ran away from foster care in search of economic stability and his alleged father where he must fend for himself to survive.

This book changed my life, my way of thinking, and ultimately sparked my keen interest in African American non-fiction. This novel exposes children not only to historical backgrounds and events, but also brings forth important concepts and realities like poverty, racism, independence, misfortune, abandonment, deceit, socioeconomic structure, and most importantly perseverance, all through a child's perspective. These are just few concepts I can remember, although I am sure that this list is not complete. (Please be mindful that I have not read the book in years!)

As I grow older, it becomes easier for me to understand the relevance of that novel as well as my grandmother's stories. What I think I couldn't see when I was younger is that these issues are realistic. This piece of literature is crucial to African American children especially, but by no means limited too, in the essence that it addresses real life circumstances.  It also provide that sense "light at the end of the tunnel" for troubled children and a humbling experience for others. The little boy experiences the loss of his mother, rejection from his father, orphanage, loneliness, support and inspiration from complete strangers, and triumph all in one lifetime.

There are so many crucial themes in this story that contribute to the development of children. What makes this novel most important for me is that it explores all of these themes from the voice of a child enhancing the child's relation to the text.