Our Time by john wideman Essay Example
Briana Brantley
September 29, 2013
English 1101
Prof. Brown
MWF 10:00
Assignment #2 of “Our Time”
“Our Time is an essay in which John Edgar Wideman tries to make the reader realize that things aren’t always what people think they are. One may think they’re in a worst situation and look at someone else’s situation and realize that someone has it way worse than they do. Wideman wrote this essay in many different perspectives trying to make the reader see the all of the different emotions within this essay towards certain situations. Growing up being the youngest child in the family was already tough but when Robby moved to Homewood after Garth died, everything just went downhill from there.
Homewood was a neighborhood where John and Robby’s mother originally grew up. At that time, Homewood was one big family. Wideman stated that “Her relations with people in that close-knit, homogenous community were based on trust, mutual respect, common spiritual and material concerns” simply meaning everyone respected each other, everyone looked out for each other, and everyone cared about each other (668). John and Robby’s grandfather, John French played a huge role in the old Homewood. John French was someone not to be played with. For example, John French “once ran a man out of town, ran him away without ever laying a hand on him or making a bad-mouthed threat, just cut his eyes a certain way when he said the man’s name and the word went out and the man who had cheated a drunk John French with loaded dice was gone. Just like that” (669). John French didn’t play about his daughters either. Once a man named Elias Brown was cleaning his shotgun and it went off and grazed one of John French’s daughters, and the man automatically skipped town before John French could even get to him. John French was very fair about the situation and didn’t really sweat it too much.
Soon, Homewood began to go down. There was “racial discrimination, economic exploitation, white hate and
September 29, 2013
English 1101
Prof. Brown
MWF 10:00
Assignment #2 of “Our Time”
“Our Time is an essay in which John Edgar Wideman tries to make the reader realize that things aren’t always what people think they are. One may think they’re in a worst situation and look at someone else’s situation and realize that someone has it way worse than they do. Wideman wrote this essay in many different perspectives trying to make the reader see the all of the different emotions within this essay towards certain situations. Growing up being the youngest child in the family was already tough but when Robby moved to Homewood after Garth died, everything just went downhill from there.
Homewood was a neighborhood where John and Robby’s mother originally grew up. At that time, Homewood was one big family. Wideman stated that “Her relations with people in that close-knit, homogenous community were based on trust, mutual respect, common spiritual and material concerns” simply meaning everyone respected each other, everyone looked out for each other, and everyone cared about each other (668). John and Robby’s grandfather, John French played a huge role in the old Homewood. John French was someone not to be played with. For example, John French “once ran a man out of town, ran him away without ever laying a hand on him or making a bad-mouthed threat, just cut his eyes a certain way when he said the man’s name and the word went out and the man who had cheated a drunk John French with loaded dice was gone. Just like that” (669). John French didn’t play about his daughters either. Once a man named Elias Brown was cleaning his shotgun and it went off and grazed one of John French’s daughters, and the man automatically skipped town before John French could even get to him. John French was very fair about the situation and didn’t really sweat it too much.
Soon, Homewood began to go down. There was “racial discrimination, economic exploitation, white hate and