“The First Day” is a story written by Edward P. Jones about a woman narrating her own childhood memory of her mother taking her to the first day of kindergarten. It is evident that over time her perspective about this memory has changed, which has caused her to be ashamed of her own mother. She tells this story from her childlike mindset of the higher respect she once had for her mother.
… dabbed the stingiest bit of her gardenia perfume, the last present my father gave her before he disappeared into memory. Because I cannot smell it, I have only her word that the perfume is there.”
These lines tell the reader about the narrator’s view of her mother at such a young age, how naive she’d been for believing her mother’s word, which causes a change of perspective within their relationship. However, it is more relevant when the mother asks a woman to help her complete a form for the girl to attend kindergarten.
“I can’t read it. I don’t know how to read or write, and I’m askin you to help me.” My mother looks at me, then looks away. I know almost all of her looks, but this one is brand new to me.”
It is crystal clear that at this moment the girl couldn’t understand why her mother looked at her with such despair. The narrator, now realizing after this event that her mother seems to be of lesser value for not being able to read or write, how she once viewed her mother, someone she once thought so highly of, is lessened.