Page 1
Kellie Higgins
Professor Dr. Murdock
English 112
September 5, 2014
John Edgar Wideman: Our Time
What can I say about my boy Robby, he use to be such a great kid until Garth
passed. I knew that wasn’t easy for him and he has really been struggling to get back on
his feet. He got in some trouble a few years back, which landed him in prison. I
sometimes stop and wonder where I even went wrong with him.
As a kid he always had his brother and sisters to look up too. We have him just as
much attention as we did the others, if not more, growing up. A part of me was always
nervous to move back to Homewood wondering how he would turn out there. He was
always curious about there when he was little, but I always told him to never turn the
corner. I thought he knew better, I mean his brothers and sisters did.
My dear boy John comes and sees me as much as he can, but with the new baby
it’s hard. He visits Robby some too just to talk. Recently he asked me about Garth and
how he passed away. I told him it was the white peoples fault. Some whites were nicer
then others like my daddy John French’s best friend was white. They use to play cards on
the weekend together, but daddy still wasn’t aloud to go into the white mans restaurant.
He use to sit behind there and wait for his friend to bring him out some food.
I remember daddy scared a man so badly he ran them out of town. My daddy
didn’t mess around with him or me. I never understood why I was called the church girl
when I was younger. I knew why I got called the French girl though, that’s because of my
daddy. I remember a day when I was playing outside and my knee got brushed with a
bullet from a man who fell asleep holding him shot gun because he was drunk. As soon
as he heard he had shot the French girl he ran all the way to Ohio. People had to go and
tell him to come back and that my daddy wasn’t mad.
When I told John that story he was very surprised. Surprised about how the white
people just let Garth die on the street because they didn’t want to take care of him. When
they finally cared it was too late and Garth was too far gone. Having heard that story John
told me he was going to go visit Robby. Before I knew it John was there, what felt like,
everyday. He told me he wanted to get Robby’s story. He wanted to get closer with him
brother and to find out how they ever got so far away.
I was very proud of my son John for caring so much. I wish I could have raised
Robby that way. I did a letter from Robby saying that he was sorry for all that he did to
me and the white man he shot and killed. I’m glad John visits him as much as he can.
Robby really needed someone to be there for him and someone to talk to. John found out
a lot about how Robby use to steal from me and how he was the one who stole our TV.
Deep down inside, as much as I didn’t want to believe it, I always had a feeling it was
him. I started noticing some money missing from my wallet before he got busted. I just
hope talking to his brother changed the was he sees things now.
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.