Red at the Bone by Darcy Duhra

RED

AT THE BONE

15+

A novel by Jacqueline Woodson by Darcy Duhra

When I was researching a book to include in this term’s edition of Scribble, I knew it had to be something special, something that touched on topics that might resonate with others, but also explored injustice from another perspective. The book drew me in because it’s a coming-of-age novel. When reading the book, I experienced a certain immediacy in the writing. It led me to research the Tulsa massacre in 1921 and look at 9/11 through a different lens.

From a single moment in time, where the story begins, Jaqueline Woodson offers glimpses at the lives of Melody, her mother (Iris), her father, her grandparents, and even her ancestors - dating back to the Tulsa massacre of 1921, when an entire Black community was wiped from the face of the earth. When I was reading the interviews about Red at the Bone, what was evident in Jaqueline Woodson’s

words was that she wasn’t only trying to bring light to the injustice that happened, but she also talks about how the Tulsa massacre is not taught in American schools. Accordingly, the violence becomes a powerful origin the Tulsa massacre is not taught in American schools. Accordingly, the violence becomes a powerful origin story for Iris’s family, and especially for her mother Sabe, who insists on repeating the story to her daughter and story for Iris’s family, and especially for her mother Sabe, who insists on repeating the story to her daughter and granddaughter as a way of teaching them to protect what’s theirs. granddaughter as a way of teaching them to protect what’s theirs.

The novel opens in 2001, as 16-year-old Melody descends the stairs in a debutante’s traditional white dress. An orchestra is playing the Prince song she’s insisted on, against her mother’s wishes, while white passers-by stop and gawk through the windows. Her coming-of-age party is a declaration of family pride, class status, and an effort to repair a broken link with the past: Melody’s mother skipped her own ceremony after becoming pregnant at 15. The novel explores this rift and its consequences over time, shifting between the perspectives of different family members. This rift offers an insight into how other family members’ actions have an impact on an individual and their life in the future; their mistakes become everyone’s mistakes, and all must suffer the consequences. I believe that what Jaqueline Woodson wants to explore is how, in the face of adversity (not only race and class), the family is strong, and powerful as they offer to help raise Melody after her mother goes to study at college somewhere far from Brooklyn.

The deep emotional connection that is established between each family member regarding Melody is evident; they see her as a symbol of hope, opportunity, and rebirth after the events of the past that nearly tore the family apart completely. Melody was a product of teen pregnancy - it is this that the family found hard to except, yet as Melody grew up, it wasn’t her the family resented, but her mother, who didn’t seem to care what happened to her after she left for college. The grandparents, for example, touch on the deep-rooted injustice in Tulsa 1921, each of them stating how in face of hatred and horror they ‘still rise’, quoting Maya Angelou in her poem ‘still I rise’.

The other major historical event that shapes the novel is 9/11, an occurrence that has also been vulnerable to distortion and mythmaking. It’s important for Woodson that the memory of the attacks includes the victims, who were not white-collar workers or emergency responders but ‘the janitors, the secretaries, the people working in the kitchens’ who often came from communities of colour, and whose losses tend to be overlooked. What I also think Woodson is trying to explore is black wealth vs black income, and how America has again and again annihilated black wealth. And so, when someone is able to hold on to their wealth, what does that look like?

What strikes me about this novel is the location, Brooklyn. Although it is not necessarily explored in the story it is evident how Jaqueline intertwines emotion and location. Brooklyn’s density and variety are what make it easy to bring characters - like Iris (Melody’s mother) and Aubrey (Melody’s father) - together across a class divide and to investigate what unites and separates them. “I think the thing that’s so interesting about Brooklyn is that you can walk 10 blocks and be in a very different neighbourhood ethnically, in terms of economic class, even in terms of architecture,” Woodson says. “I feel like I could write about Brooklyn for the next 50 years, and I’ll write a different story every time.”

This is one of my favourite aspects of this novel, I must say I have never read a book quite like it, the writing is very intuitive and free, (just like how I imagine Brooklyn to be).

The novel opens in 2001, as 16-year-old Melody descends the stairs in a debutante’s traditional white dress. An orchestra is playing the Prince song she’s insisted on, against her mother’s wishes, while white passers-by stop and gawk through the windows. Her coming-of-age party is a declaration of family pride, class status, and an effort to repair a broken link with the past: Melody’s mother skipped her own ceremony after becoming pregnant at 15. The novel explores this rift and its consequences over time, shifting between the perspectives of different family members. This rift offers an insight into how other family members’ actions have an impact on an individual and their life in the future; their mistakes become everyone’s mistakes, and all must suffer the consequences. I believe that what Jaqueline Woodson wants to explore is how, in the face of adversity (not only race and class), the family is strong, and powerful as they offer to help raise Melody after her mother goes to study at college somewhere far from Brooklyn.

The deep emotional connection that is established between each family member regarding Melody is evident; they see her as a symbol of hope, opportunity, and rebirth after the events of the past that nearly tore the family apart completely. Melody was a product of teen pregnancy - it is this that the family found hard to except, yet as Melody grew up, it wasn’t her the family resented, but her mother, who didn’t seem to care what happened to her after she left for college. The grandparents, for example, touch on the deep-rooted injustice in Tulsa 1921, each of them stating how in face of hatred and horror they ‘still rise’, quoting Maya Angelou in her poem ‘still I rise’.

The other major historical event that shapes the novel is 9/11, an occurrence that has also been vulnerable to distortion and mythmaking. It’s important for Woodson that the memory of the attacks includes the victims, who were not white-collar workers or emergency responders but ‘the janitors, the secretaries, the people working in the kitchens’ who often came from communities of colour, and whose losses tend to be overlooked. What I also think Woodson is trying to explore is black wealth vs black income, and how America has again and again annihilated black wealth. And so, when someone is able to hold on to their wealth, what does that look like?

What strikes me about this novel is the location, Brooklyn. Although it is not necessarily explored in the story it is evident how Jaqueline intertwines emotion and location. Brooklyn’s density and variety are what make it easy to bring characters - like Iris (Melody’s mother) and Aubrey (Melody’s father) - together across a class divide and to investigate what unites and separates them. “I think the thing that’s so interesting about Brooklyn is that you can walk 10 blocks and be in a very different neighbourhood ethnically, in terms of economic class, even in terms of architecture,” Woodson says. “I feel like I could write about Brooklyn for the next 50 years, and I’ll write a different story every time.”

This is one of my favourite aspects of this novel, I must say I have never read a book quite like it, the writing is very intuitive and free, (just like how I imagine Brooklyn to be).

The sense of belonging and the truth of how those who leave us don’t completely leave us, is applied in a The sense of belonging and the truth of how those who leave us don’t completely leave us, is applied in a bigger context. As each chapter is written from another family member’s or ancestor’s point of view, the sense’s bigger context. As each chapter is written from another family member’s or ancestor’s point of view, the sense’s of belonging in a community throughout time is explored to the degree whereby (in Jaqueline Woodson own of belonging in a community throughout time is explored to the degree whereby (in Jaqueline Woodson own words) “they are still in the air, moving around us, whether it’s through genetic memory, or DNA, or the stories that get told words) “they are still in the air, moving around us, whether it’s through genetic memory, or DNA, or the stories that get told over and over again.” over and over again.”

What I have taken from this book is empathy. I think it represents all of us. There’s this way in which we’re What I have taken from this book is empathy. I think it represents all of us. There’s this way in which we’re all still cooking in a sense, still trying to figure out who we are, still really raw at the core and fragile. I could all still cooking in a sense, still trying to figure out who we are, still really raw at the core and fragile. I could point to each one of those characters and show you where they’re red at the bone. point to each one of those characters and show you where they’re red at the bone.