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Kellie Higgins
Professor Dr. Murdock
English 112
September 5, 2014
John Edgar Wideman: Our Time
The story of Our Time might come off quite confusing to some people. It starts
off explaining what it means to live in the ghetto. “In the real world, the world left for
me, it was unacceptable to be good, it was square to be smart in school, it was jive to
show respect to people outside the street world, it was cool to be cold to your woman and
the people that loved you” (Wideman 422). Wideman gives his own point of view on
how the so called “ghetto” runs. He then turns his attention to a guy names Garth.
He explains Garth as an awkward guy, but had a very good personality. Robby
then comes in being a friend of Garth’s who sat at his bedside until his last days. Robby
and friends spent their time drinking and partying after burying garth. Before switching
the story to Robby’s brother John’s point of view, Robby and some friends make one last
toast for Garth, “Let’s drink this last one for him and promise him we’ll do what he said
we could. We’ll be the best. We’ll make it to the top for him. We’ll do it for Garth”
(Wideman 428).
John is one of Robby’s older siblings who no longer lives where he does. He
starts off John stating, “My brother had said something about a guy named Garth during
one of my visits to the prison” (Wideman 428). He also talks a little about his mom and
how she has been heartbroken over Robby’s choices in life. She explains how she also
knew Garth as well as his mother. His mother always game people the benefit of the
doubt and tried to view things from both sides. She tried to do that for Robby saying,
“She extended the benefit of the doubt. Tried to situate herself somewhere in between,
acknowledging the evil of her son’s crime while simultaneously holding on to the fact
that he existed as a human being before, after, and during the crime he committed”
(Wideman 432).
Then comes in John French, John and Robby’s grandfather. He to was known as a
very understanding man just like their mother. “He treated everyone, high and low, the
same” (Wideman 433). He understood that the whites were in control and he accepted
that. Growing up as his daughter and being known as “the French girl” had its good
moments though. Nobody messed with John French so therefore no one messed with his
daughter. That is until the net was being places around Homewood.
John listens to his mother explain, “even though the strands of the net – racial
discrimination, economic exploitation, white hate and fear – had existed time out of
mind, what people didn’t notice or chose not to notice was that the net was being drawn
tighter, that ruthless people outside the community had the power to choke the life out of
Homewood, and as soon as it served their interest would do just that” (Wideman 435).
John never realized how bad Homewood got because he never actually listened. Well,
now he is ready to listen, listen to Robby and his story.
Visiting Robby in prison as much as he could to actually figure out what had went
wrong. Robby talks about all the hard times in prison and how badly they are treated and
even killed at points. Then Robby brings up Shadyside, which had only white people
around. Robby got curious about the black neighborhood around the corner and said,
“black was a mystery and in my mind I decided I’d find out what it was all about. Didn’t
care if it killed me, I was going to find out” (Wideman 443). His mom was thinking about
moving back to Homewood but she was worried about Robby and he said, “and she was
right. Me and trouble hooked up” (Wideman 443). Robby explains that he wanted to be
his own person and not follow in his sibling’s footsteps. Being the baby and getting
spoiled went to his head and he truly believe he was a “lady killer.” He explains so much
to John about steeling, the robbing, the killing, how he felt about the whites, how he
knew he hurt their mom and how sorry he was for everything.
I really do believe their neighborhood; Homewood does have a lot to do with how
they both grew up. John understood that when his mom said not to go around the corner
he didn’t. Robby on the other hand didn’t and I feel that was because he was the youngest
and he didn’t want to be like his siblings. He wanted to be his own person, which isn’t
bad unless you make the wrong choices and in Robby’s case he did. I think the purpose
of telling this story is that everyone has choices to make in life and how you make those
choices is how it will reflect the rest of your life.
I think this story had a lot of drama involved so my guess for the genre would be
that. I feel the audience is anyone who is interested. It could be people who grew up like
this and want to remember the old days, it could be the younger generation who never
experience this time and are curious about what the world use to be like or it could just be
someone who enjoys a well written book about racism. This book does a great job
explained what the world use to be like and I feel the writer succeeded his purpose for
writing the book.