In “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones, a child experiences her first day of school. From the very beginning, it is obvious how in-tune to the world this five-year-old is. The story starts off with simple details: how the girl’s scalp still tingles, how she’s wearing her favorite shoes, how she knows she whined enough to be allowed to bring to school the first day her school supplies. As the morning goes on, she seems to understand things a little deeper, like how the school her mother wants her to attend is right across the street from the place where her mother feels closest to God. She notices how a woman she has never seen before treats her like she has known her forever, and she continues to observe as she watches her mother realize she has lost the battle of having her child attend the school she wants her to attend.
As we move to the school that that the girl is supposed to attend, she watches as her mother admits something she was obviously not comfortable mentioning in front of her child, noticing how other people react to the news of her mother not being able to read or write, which is followed by how her mother doesn’t seem to want to participate in a personal gesture that they created between them. Up until her mother is completely out of sight, the young girl notices and realizes things adults don’t expect her to realize, and she continues to think about the encounters of the morning long after her mother is gone.