The First Day

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SAMPLE Critical Essay TOPIC: Discuss the idea(s) developed about independence. “In every phenomenon the beginning remains always the most notable moment” (Thomas Carlyle). One such beginning occurs on the first day of school when parents and children have to accept the fact that they will have to detach. At each stage of independence, too, comes the realization that parents are perhaps not what one thought. In the short story “The First Day”, Edward P. Jones uses symbolism, plot development, and characterization to support the theme that parents and children often face unexpected turning points brought on by growing independence. Jones has a rather unique way of using symbolism to demonstrate how separation creates turning points. On her first day of school, “my mother has uncharacteristically spent nearly an hour on my hair that morning, plaiting and replaiting” (Jones p.62). The mother’s meticulous care symbolizes the significance of this “first day” as do the “yellow socks trimmed with thin lines of black and white around the tops” and her “greatest joy – black patent leather miracles” (Jones p. 60). When they arrive at the school, Seaton Elementary, the mother “vigorously” insists to a teacher that her daughter must attend here because it is “across from [her] church, Mt. Carmel Baptist (Jones p. 61). However, the designated school is Walker-Jones. The daughter knows that “the higher up in respectability a person is…the less she is liable to let them push her around (p. 61). But, the mother finally does give in, knowing that otherwise, her daughter cannot start school. Letting go of her control is difficult, but recognizable gesture to the daughter when she notes, “But finally, I see in her eyes the closing gate” (Jones p. 61). At the end of the story, however, “[my mother] puts] hand down at my side, which is not part of the game”
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