Brothers and Keepers Literary Analysis

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Kris Dr. M ENGL400 April 10, 2013 Birth Order and the Establishment of Self: Sibling Discourse in Brothers and Keepers John Edgar Wideman exhibits guilt, grief and unresolved identity in his autobiography Brothers and Keepers. The author infers his abandonment of Homewood and his perceived role as “big brother” directly influences Robby’s destructive criminal behavior. Wideman states that his “willed alienation” is the root of his remorse; the book exists to reunite and reconcile the brothers after decades of miscommunicating (27). Brothers and Keepers is a vehicle for John Edgar Wideman’s reinvention of his own personal identity while simultaneously nursing a relationship he feels he intentionally sabotaged by leaving his younger brother behind. Birth order theories, such as Sulloway’s “Born to Rebel” hypothesis, affirm that the circumstances of Robby’s life were not a result of his brother John’s quest for social achievement and consequent abandonment but rather a result of his ordinal birth order and related social factors. Brothers and Keepers is an honest appraisal of the enormous gap that separates John from his little brother Robby. Wideman begins, and often revisits, a question he poses to himself in his attempt to rectify his brother’s situation: What fueled his desire to evade Homewood and its “blackness” (27)? For Wideman, being black represents being poor and uneducated. John Wideman’s success was once measured by his ability to escape his brother, the author admits a number of times that he has gained his sense of self in contrast to the person Robby has become. Following Robby’s incarceration, John’s escape from Homewood is now superseded by his undeniable quest to find peace with his youngest sibling, “I want your forgiveness” (98). The author continuously notes the disappointment and guilt he feels for failing in somehow deterring Robby from

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