Main Street, a short story analysis by Emma Liu

  Protection or Perception

By: Emma Liu

Jacqueline Woodson’s short story, “Main Street” starts in autumn, and is told from the internal thoughts of Treetop, a young girl who lost her mother to cancer. While watching tourists purchase cliche notecards and admiring the changing leaves, she remembers Celeste, someone also gone, and the feelings of hurt and sadness she felt with both her mother and friend. With the use of flashbacks, repetition, and descriptive word choice, Woodson demonstrates that adults may be dismissive of the experiences of loss and pain felt by children.

When Woodson first introduces Treetop, she incorporates flashbacks to allude to Treetop’s loss.  Woodson states, “I had a mother once, I [Treetop] said into the pane. She used to say things. Don’t say that, my father said. You still do. Don’t ever say that. But he is wrong. I don’t have a mother anymore. It’s just my father now” (Woodson 124-125). By using the flashback to give a brief view of the past, Woodson skillfully suggests that Treetop’s mother is no longer with her, and she is in pain over the loss. The reader can also infer that Treetop is trying to cope with reality whereas her father is trying to establish a happy and child-friendly alternative. He believes that Treetop is far too young to comprehend pain and loss, which causes him to make an effort to instill in Treetop that she still has her mother. Continuously, the author also includes another memory to further describe Treetop’s emotions. The text states, “When I [Treetop] was very young, it was the curses I’d hear my mother use… I stood in front of the mirror saying those words over and over. What are you saying? My father said when heard me. Those words should only be said by people in pain” (Woodson 125).  Through a comparison of Treetop to her mother’s painful curses, Treetop’s hurt can be better understood. Woodson also implies that Treetop’s father does not recognize his daughter’s struggles with loss and hurt, as he seemingly denies and turns a blind eye on Treetop with his response, “Those words should only be said by people in pain,” signifying that he doesn’t think of Treetop as someone in pain. 

Later in the story, Woodson uses repetition to emphasize Treetop’s emotions from her father’s ignorance and lack of empathy. The author writes, “I [Treetop] wanted to tell him I was in pain. I wanted to show him where it hurt. Point to my head, my heart, my belly. Say, Here, Daddy. And here. And here. But I didn’t. I was eight years old. He would say I was too young to know real pain. After all, he’d say, you’ve never even had a skinned knee” (Woodson 126). The use of repetition in the words my and here draws attention to Treetop’s hurt. The repeated phrase, I wanted, also portrays Treetop’s anger and willingness to be heard by her father. Through this excerpt, it is shown that her father doesn’t only dismiss his daughter’s feelings but also seems to have a shallow idea of pain himself. While Treetop’s description of her pain is deep with the relation of her heart and mind, her father’s concept of pain remains on the surface, connecting a skinned knee to the heart-wrenching hurt of loss. Furthermore, Woodson states, “I wanted to tell my father this - that once I had lived inside my mother, a part of her. I wanted to say, How could I NOT know her pain?” (Woodson 126). Once again, the recurrent phrase, I wanted, shows Treetop’s inability to express the way she truly feels. The repetition of the word I also strengthens Treetop’s mature presence and importance within the quote, revealing both the impact and significance of her cooped-up emotions. In addition, the word not is all capitalized in the sentence, “How could I NOT know her pain,” which contributes to the overall emphasis of Treetop’s anger towards her father and his unawareness.

Towards the end, the author uses descriptive word choice to illustrate Treetop’s pain resulting from her powerlessness against not just her father, but society as a whole. The text states, “After all eleven years is a long time to be together, don’t you think? I [Treetop] shrugged. When my mother died, she and my father had been together for twenty years… I didn’t tell Celeste this. I didn’t say, The people who don’t want breaks sometimes get them. But maybe she saw something in the way I stared at the ground,” (Woodson 127-128). Celeste, someone close to Treetop, carelessly shrugs off her own parents and their eleven-year marriage. Though Woodson uses descriptive details to make it evident that Treetop has a different perspective on the essence of time and love, she chooses not to say in an act of helplessness and vulnerability. Treetop feels hesitant against changing Celeste’s thoughts and vulnerable towards sharing her own since her father is a significant figure in her life that has disregarded her feelings and displayed immaturity with loss. She consequently connects this stereotype with others in society and decides not to share her thoughts. However, the pain from hiding everything inside is apparent in Treetop’s soul and shows from the outside with the way she “stared at the ground.” Moreover, Woodson states, “My father and me at the graveside… Lisabeth, and Casey behind me, standing between their own parents, safe from cancer and dead parents, and holes opened in the ground,” (Woodson 130). Lisabeth and Casey, two of Treetop’s friends, are unable to understand loss and pain in the way that Treetop does, as they have never experienced it themselves. The author describes them as “standing behind Treetop and between their own parents,” almost as if they are within the safety of their own families and unwilling to face another’s death and loss. Their parents also stand on either side of them, which adults often do to provide comfort and shelter to children. Similar to Treetop’s father at the beginning, the parents of Lisabeth and Casey likely also believe that their daughters are too young to take in pain and loss, and try to shield them from it by standing there. This is further made clear to Treetop when she mentions that they are noticeably “safe from cancer and dead parents, and holes opened in the ground,” for which Treetop expresses her criticism for the perceptions of society.

To conclude, Woodson’s use of flashbacks, repetition, and descriptive language help show that adults often reject the loss and pain felt by children. Many adults wrongly identify young children as being unable to comprehend loss. Ironically, those same people are the ones who struggle most with the notion of losing a loved one. As society continues to bound children within a frame of fragile innocence, they forcibly stereotype them with weakness and immaturity towards deep issues such as loss.