Betsey Brown

After finishing Betsey Brown, I was a little upset that it had ended. Of the books that we have read for class so far, with exception of my individual presentation book, it was the easiest to relate to. I find that to truly be involved in a piece of literature one must be able to relate it to their own lives. In Betsey Brown, the reader is exposed to a normal girl with normal problems. Though today we don’t face the same magnitude of segregation and racism, we all have our own problems that seem that big. We all feel that sometimes we carry the weight of the world and in Betsey’s case, the weight of the world was literally her race. I felt for Betsey when she ran away. If someone were to tell me that there was never a time that they felt left out or worthless, I wouldn’t believe them. The other books that we have read still had the same concepts and portrayals of adolescence, but it’s refreshing to read a book that you can stop from time to time and realize, “Wow, I’ve felt that way before”. Nobody wants to go through life alone and sometimes, we feel like we have to in a sense because we think that nobody understands how we feel, or knows what something we’re going through is like. Seeing Betsey going through the same things as other adolescences gives people a sense of realization and in a sense brings them back to reality. Also, this is the first book that we have read that takes a look at a functional but dysfunctional family. I understand that there is a such thing as a broken family, or no family for that matter, but in all honesty, when every book you pick up is filled with tragedy and parents who are unbelievingly dreadful, it’s hard to take it seriously. Yes, not every family is perfect, and not every family gets along all the time, but Betsey Brown had a happy medium. It showed a typical, honest perspective of an American family, which is also refreshing.