Jack Character Analysis in Brown Girl Dreaming

Jack is Jacqueline’s father, after whom Jacqueline is named. Jack, who is from Ohio, dislikes the South because of the segregation and racism he experiences there. Mama and her children live with Jack in Ohio until Mama and Jack separate for good after a series of nasty fights. After that, Jacqueline does not see her father or hear from his side of the family.

Jack Quotes in Brown Girl Dreaming

The Brown Girl Dreaming quotes below are all either spoken by Jack or refer to Jack. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

My birth certificate says: Female Negro
Mother: Mary Anne Irby, 22, Negro
Father: Jack Austin Woodson, 25, Negro

Related Characters: Jacqueline (speaker), Mama / Mary Ann, Jack

Page Number and Citation: 3

Explanation and Analysis:

Woodson describes her birth certificate in the second poem of the memoir, “second daughter’s second day on earth.” This quote is significant because it purports to be a transcription of how the birth certificate itself reads. Shockingly to modern readers, Jacqueline’s race and the race of her parents are written on the birth certificate, using the out-of-date term “negro.”The presence of Jacqueline’s race on a legal, medical document suggests that her race is an objective medical fact, rather than a societally imposed one. The certificate’s racial category shows both how Jacqueline is racialized from the very moment of her birth, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo min

My time of birth wasn’t listed
on the certificate, then got lost again
amid other people’s bad memory.

Related Characters: Jacqueline (speaker), Jack, Grandma Grace, Mama / Mary Ann

Page Number and Citation: 18

Explanation and Analysis:

In the poem that this quote comes from, “other people’s memory,” Jacqueline listens to various members of her family describe the day of her birth. Each of them (her mother, father, and grandmother) describe the event differently, and through the lens of their own experience— Mama talks about being mad that Jack was not there, Jack insists he was present, etc. Jacqueline’s birth takes place in the context of other people’s already complicated lives. This frustrates Jacqueline, because it prevents her from knowing some objective facts about her existence, such as her birth time. The discrepancy also initiates the reader Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Opt

You can keep your South…
The way they treated us down there,
I got your mama out as quick as I could…
Told her there’s never gonna be a Woodson
that sits in the back of a bus.

Related Characters: Jack (speaker), Mama / Mary Ann

Page Number and Citation: 29

Explanation and Analysis:

In this quote from “journey,” Jack discusses his aversion to the South, which he sees as a place that he “saved” Mama from. Jack’s hatred for the South conflicts with Mama’s love for it—she considers it to be home. Jack’s reason for hating the South, as he suggests here, is that he feels it more racist than the North. Jack sees the South, where Jim Crow Laws (laws that legalize racial segregation) are still in place, as a terrible, oppressive place to live as a black person. Jack does not want his children to be subjected to the overt, traumatic Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas.

And all the worlds you are—
Ohio and Greenville
Woodson and Irby
Gunnar’s child and Jack’s daughter
Jehovah’s Witness and nonbeliever
listener and writer
Jackie and Jacqueline
gather into one world
called You
where You decide
what each world
and each story
and each ending
will finally be.

Related Characters: Jacqueline (speaker), Gunnar, Jack

Page Number and Citation: 319-320

Explanation and Analysis:

In the final stanzas of the final poem of the memoir, “each world,” Jacqueline shows the reader her personal and writerly growth. Jacqueline, for whom so many aspects of her identity were in conflict throughout her childhood, seems to be at peace with the complexity of her life. Jacqueline indicates this by listing the various contradictions that comprise her identity (north and south, Jehovah’s Witness and nonbeliever, etc.) and saying that they all gather “into one world called You.” This suggests that she has become able to hold these different identities together at once without feel disturbed by the dissonance. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia e

Jack Character Timeline in Brown Girl Dreaming

The timeline below shows where the character Jack appears in Brown Girl Dreaming. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

a girl named jack. Jacqueline relates how her father wanted to name her “Jack,” his own name, rather than Jacqueline. Jacqueline’s mother (Mama) and her aunt, however, said it... (full context)

Racism, Activism, and the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements Theme Icon

the woodsons of ohio. Jacqueline discusses the history of her family on Jack’s side, who believe they are the descendants of the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally... (full context)

the ghosts of nelsonville house. In this poem, Jacqueline describes the ancestral home of Jack’s family, a big, white house in Nelsonville, where her father grew up. She describes the... (full context)

football dreams. Jacqueline discusses Jack’s youth playing football and his football scholarship to Ohio State. She describes how easy it... (full context)

...Mama remembers her birth in the afternoon and her father trying to arrive on time. Jack remembers her birth at night. Jacqueline feels that her birth has been lost in “other... (full context)

...winterly migration to her home in South Carolina to visit her family. During this time, Jack usually stays in Ohio, but Jacqueline and her siblings go with their mother. She thinks... (full context)

journey. Meanwhile, Jack has no interest in the South, which he sees as a place rife with racist... (full context)

night bus. Jack arrives in South Carolina to beg Mama’s forgiveness for the fight that made Mama take... (full context)

...the trip back to Ohio. They pack food and clothes, Mama puts on lipstick, and Jack shaves. Then the family says goodbye to Georgiana and Gunnar. They board the night bus... (full context)

...picture. She imagines what Mama looked like leaving him: proud and with her children, while Jack (whose skin reminds her of the “red dirt of the south”) waves goodbye. (full context)

...due to his allergies in the warmer climate and his homesickness. This reminds Jacqueline of Jack saying, “you can keep your south.” Since moving to South Carolina, Hope has become withdrawn,... (full context)

...autumn chill, before acknowledging that it has been many years since she saw her father Jack. Hope tells her she is lucky she doesn’t remember how their parents used to fight.... (full context)

...fatherless, the boy tells her his father died. Jacqueline admits that sometimes she lies about Jack and says he is dead. When Odella hears these tall tales, she shakes her head,... (full context)

...children have fallen out of touch with their family in Ohio, and their memories of Jack have faded. Through a friend, Mama learns that the children’s paternal grandfather, Grandfather Hope, has... (full context)

...likes playground games, and so she is called a “tomboy.” Her walk reminds Mama of Jack. (full context)

Jack Character Analysis

Jack Quotes in Brown Girl Dreaming

Part 1 Quotes

Part 5 Quotes

Jack Character Timeline in Brown Girl Dreaming