Let’s start with the plot of this story, which is pretty straightforward: an uneducated
mother takes her daughter to the first day of kindergarten; they are refused
admission to one school and have to go to another, where a kindly person assists
the mother in filling out the necessary forms; the mother leaves the child at school,
telling her to pay close attention to the teacher. That’s pretty much it. Yet within that
plot, we can see quite a few events that seem to have deeper significance and could
point toward possible themes. For instance, why would a mother who cannot read
do her utmost, overcoming obstacle after obstacle, to get her child into school? This
seems a bit paradoxical, more than a little heartwarming, and definitely important. Is
the author’s message that perhaps the people who truly understand the importance
of an education are the ones who haven’t had the benefit of one?
Who are the characters in this story? The main characters are the mother and the
daughter. The other characters are all female, mostly teachers. Where are the men in
this story? That is definitely a question worth exploring, but let’s stick to the mother
and the daughter for now. How does the daughter change or develop because of the
action of the plot? Think about the title: “The First Day.” We can ask: the first day of
what? Literally, it’s the first day of school, but it is also the first day that the narrator is
leaving her family and entering society as a whole. It’s the first day that her education
and her fate are being transferred from her mother to the female teachers, who are
minor but important characters in this story. These observations suggest a number
of themes, especially the importance of community in raising a child.
The story’s setting is a poor neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and we’re given
details about the school the mother wants her daughter to attend — the school that
is directly across from her church. Why is the proximity of the church important to
the setting? How does it reveal a theme? The narrator tells us that the church is very
important to her mother — it is her “rock” — so it’s clear that the mother wants the
daughter to go to the nearby school because it is familiar, safe, protected, and in a
community she trusts. This aspect of the setting reinforces the theme we uncovered
when looking at character: community is important in raising a child. But it also goes
further, speaking to the mother’s anxiety about letting her daughter go.
Point of view can often be a difficult platform for interpretation, but in this
story, it is especially interesting. The narrator is the daughter, recalling the incident
from the vantage point of adulthood. But the narrator is more specific about her
point of view. She says that these events occurred “long before [she] learned to be
ashamed of [her] mother” (para. 1). The word “learned” seems significant, given
the context of this story about education. We think of education as being “book
learning,” but it’s clear that some part of the narrator’s education has involved “learning”
to be ashamed of her mother. Yet as she’s telling this story, she does not seem
ashamed; she seems proud of her mother’s heroic journey, proud that her mother
overcame so many obstacles in order to make sure her daughter had a bright future.
So one theme might involve the changing perspectives we have regarding our parents:
When we are young, we think they are strong and infallible, but we grow to see
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their flaws as we become part of the world rather than just part of a family; it takes
time to come back around to respect and appreciate all the things our parents have
done on our behalf.
Not every story operates through symbols, and although this short piece may not
have many, the narrator’s shoes could certainly be symbolic. She says, “My shoes are my
greatest joy, black patent-leather miracles, and when one is nicked at the toe later that
morning in class, my heart will break” (para. 1). Perhaps the fate of these shoes mirrors
her relationship with her mother. Before going out into the world, she is proud of her
mother, yet in the process of going to school, meeting other people, and learning new
things, just like the shiny shoes, her mother’s image gets nicked. Perhaps that change is
what really breaks her heart. So, one theme might be that on the first day of school, we
are letting go of our parents just as much as they are letting go of us.
As you can see, as you consider themes, you often move beyond the text to draw
conclusions about the real world, what we called “extension” in Chapter 1. “The
First Day,” for example, suggests something about the role of education in our lives
that goes beyond this particular five-year-old’s first day in kindergarten. Isn’t this
story really about the role education can play in parent-child relationships, when
the child’s education outpaces that of the parent? Maybe Jones is asking us to think
about what happened later, as the narrator aged, was successful at school, went on to
college. Her mother may be one hundred percent supportive of her daughter’s education.
Yet, those very opportunities can divide and separate the two, as the daughter’s
experiences diverge from those of her mother. The narrator is looking back with
obvious love and appreciation for her mother, yet Jones does not give us the story
of what took place between “the first day” and the point from which the narrator
remembers it.