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Olivia Williams
Dr. Murdock
Intermediate English
April 20, 2015
Geraldine French
John Wideman’s story Our Time is a story based on letters he wrote to his brother Robby.
During his story Wideman describes his brother Robby’s life in Robby’s words and Wideman
recalls some of the stories from his own perspective. When the story starts Robby and Wideman
could not be more different, however, as the story continues Wideman starts to see their
similarities. “When Robby talked, the similarity of his Homewood and mine was a trap. I could
believe I knew exactly what he was describing. I could relax into his story”. (Bartholomae, 437)
One of the similarities Robby and Wideman share is their mother Geraldine French. There are
many ways to connect Robby, Wideman, and Geraldine but I believe the most influential are the
towns they lived in, Homewood and Shadyside Pennsylvania.
Wideman describes his mother as having a fair complexion, good brown “French” hair
like her father, and thick legs when she was younger. From the description of Geraldine in
Wideman’s story I get the feeling that she was considered a very attractive women; that all of the
boys in town wanted to date her but they would never dare approach her because of her crazy
father John French. Wideman tells a story about Geraldine’s father that depicts him as a man that
could run a man out of town without even laying a finger on him. He also talks about his mother
being a good Catholic girl. These two stories would lead the reader to believe Geraldine has lead
a safe, timid life despite having a crazy father and growing up in the ghetto. She grew up in
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Homewood. It was a poor, African American town in Pennsylvania. There was a lot of drug
abuse in Homewood so there is no wonder why Geraldine’s family moved.
Geraldine’s family moved to a town called Shadyside. Shadyside is a working class
suburb that is predominantly Caucasian. Their family was the only African American family in
town. Geraldine lived in Shadyside when she gave birth to her two children, Robby and John.
John and Geraldine could plainly see they were the only African American family in town but it
didn’t seem to bother them like it did Robby. Robby longed to be around people “like him, black
people”. He described standing at the town line where Homewood and Shadyside met and
staring into Homewood to see “real black people”. Eventually Robby would get his wish and
they would move back to Homewood.
Moving back to ghetto of Homewood worried Geraldine because of Robby. She knew he
was a wild child and was searching for trouble. Robby found what he was looking for on
Garfield Street “Garfield was black, and I finally found what I’d been looking for. That place
they’d been trying to hide from me. It was heaven.” (Barthalomae, 443). Garfield Street is where
Robby began hanging out with the wrong crowd and where he would eventually become a drug
user. Geraldine’s worst nightmare had come true.
As Robby and John grew older John went to college and moved away but Robby stayed
at home with Geraldine. She would find syringes in Robby’s room and money missing from her
purse. Robby even stole the television she bought for John and his wife for Christmas so he
could buy drugs. She tried to talk with Robby about his substance abuse but she had no effect on
him. “I don’t know. I just don’t know how to reach him. He won’t listen. He’s doing wrong and
he knows it but nothing I say makes any difference. He’s not like the rest of youall. You’d
misbehave but I could talk to you or smack you if I had to and you’d straighten up. With Robby
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it’s like talking to a wall.” (Bartholomae, 428) Robby also stole from other people. He was
involved in a robbery where someone was killed. Robby was sent to prison for this. Robby going
to prison made Geraldine bitter but she still loved her son none the less. “She could love her son,
accept his guilt, accept the necessity of punishment, suffer with him, grow with him past the
stage of blaming everyone but himself for his troubles, grieve with him when true penitence
began to exact its toll. Though she might wish penance and absolution could be achieved in
private, without the intervention of a prison sentence, she understood dues must be paid.”
(Bartholomae, 433)
Geraldine’s childhood in Our Time was not bad even though she lived in Homewood.
Her father was very protective over her. Geraldine tried to keep her children safe from harm in
the ghetto of Homewood. She succeeded with John. He went to college and got married but she
was no match for Garfield Street and Robby. If Geraldine would not have moved back to
Homewood from Shadyside Robby would not have went to prison and her family would still be
together.
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Works Cited
Barthalomae, David, Anthony Petrosky, and Stacy Walte. Ways of Reading An Anthology For Writers.
Boston, New York: Bedford/Martin's , 2014. Print.