Usually when I read, it is an author that looks like me, talks like me and frequently thinks like me. I have been challenged to read, grow and learn from authors and people that challenge what I have grown up and live with. I don't want to live in an echo chamber, and I know I live in a world that is privileged for me. So, I will broaden my reading library and learn from other stories and lives.
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines was recommended off a reading list for high school students. I wanted to preview this book before possibly having a class read it. To be honest, I hadn't heard of this novel or the author. Ernest J. Gaines was born in 1933 in Louisiana. This particular story is historical fiction taking place in Louisiana, following slavery to freedom rights movement, particularly focusing on the life of Jane starting as she was a slave on a plantation to when she is 109. Throughout reading this story, I was challenged to understand context and language but more so challenged to understand history. History that I have not really been exposed to or understand a different point of view and what really happened. Through this book I have a better picture or really a glimpse of how people different than myself have been and continue to be treated. What am I going to do with this information I learned? My goal is to remember that people experience the world different than I do, and do what I can to change that in my classroom.
This book was borrowed from my local library, it did take over a month to be able to borrow it after I put it on hold. Gaines has a collection of published books in African American literature.
Gaines, E.J. (1971). The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. New York: Dial Press.
