What argument is Woodson making about what it means to be home

The main conflict of Brown Girl Dreaming is Jacqueline's internal conflict over where to call home. Six of the poems in the memoir have "home" in the title, and the word is certainly one of the most used in the book simply because Jacqueline spends so much time feeling torn between homes, especially South Carolina and New York City.

Through Jacqueline's pursuit of a stable home, the author leads the reader on an exploration of what makes a home. Jacqueline feels comfortable in South Carolina as a young child because of her connection to family there, but also does not feel entirely accepted because she is African American in a racist society. When she moves to New York City, she promises that she will never call this new place home, but as she spends more time there, she starts to become more comfortable with the Northern way of life. Her accent changes, making her feel out of place in South Carolina when she returns for the summer, and she realizes that she can feel at home in New York City when she is around family, other people from the South, and even new friends who make her feel accepted. By the time Jacqueline is in late elementary school, she has little connection to the South and a very strong connection to New York, especially Brooklyn.

At the climax of the memoir, Jacqueline comes to accept that she can have many facets of her identity, including many homes. In "what i believe" she writes, "I believe in the city and the South...Buckeyes and Birmingham...I believe in Brooklyn!" (317-8) and in the next poem, "each world," she similarly states, "Ohio and Greenville...gather into one world/ called You" (320). Through Jacqueline's journey, the reader comes to understand that home is wherever one can find family, friends, or a community that accepts them, which means one will hopefully have many homes throughout their life.