Betsey Brown | Themes
Identity and Self-Expression
The novel portrays Betsey’s growth and development as she strives to understand who she is. Betsey is thirteen years old—an age sometimes considered as marking a passage from childhood to adulthood, or at least a passage into the independence of the teenage years. During this period of transition, Betsey seeks to learn to express her identity in a mature way. The first scene finds Betsey practicing for an elocution contest at her school. She has chosen to recite a Paul Laurence Dunbar poem written in African-American dialect in the voice of a...
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