Analysis of the short story – Jesse

Indledning
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” This is a quote by Martin Luther King, who was a very visible spokesman and leader in the civil rights movement.

Racism and racial discrimination have for many years been a big problem and especially in the Sothern states of America. Racism is also one of the main themes in this short story. The new generation is changing and the main character changes her view and refuses to believe the prejudice the grandmother has tried to influence her with.

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Uddrag
The short story is told from the narrator’s point of view from age five to age twenty-seven and she is a first-person narrator, as the story is told by an "I" - “I am five years old and I hate the name”1. We can also see that the short story is written in the present tense.

The present tense brings the story to life and makes the story more exciting and interesting to read. We are brought into her life and we hear about how she thinks, feels and so forth - “I am five years old and I hate the name.”.

The setting of the short story takes place in 1957 - 1979, which is 22 years apart. It takes place in a tough spot and time for black people like Jesse, because of discrimination against people of color.

They live on a farm, on the countryside, in the Southern state Alabama and in the southern states there were a lot of racism compared to the northern states. In the southern states the weather is very hot and there is a lot of sun all day long - “Jesse and Daddy work in the hot sun all day long digging up the septic tank”3.

Other than that the setting is also in some way very dark and gloomy, because of the suicides, guns, racism etc. - “‘Nanny,’ he says, real polite, ‘would you come here, please?’ Well, just as I stepped out on the porch, he pulled the trigger. His jawbone flew at me and hung in the screen by my head.”

This situation gives the reader a very disturbing and extremely unpleasant feeling about the environment in this story.

The narrator goes through a lot of changes and she develops herself into a very strong and mature woman. She starts out having a very childish animosity towards the name Jesse due to the alcoholic uncle - Jesse Long, who commit suicide without any regard for the family or the people around him. Later on the narrator changes and develops into nearly an entirely new person.

She changes her view on colored people and she goes against the prejudices her Granny pushed on her. In addition to that, she also goes from hating the name Jesse to end up choosing to call her child the same name.