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Jose Francisco

Professor Elizabeth Blankenship

English 2090

21 March 2019

The Multigenerational Separation

“Only those who can read, write, and love can move back or forward through time,”

he marks it true(Laymon). Through the process of slavery, African- Americans were

deprived of literacy and discouraged from loving one another. More often than not,

African-American are asked to let go of the past and look forward to a brighter future

but how one reconciles with centuries of forced labor, family separation, and

dehumanization followed by decades of systemic discrimination, as LaVander

Peeler stated: “African Americans are generally a lot more ignorant than white

Americans…” However, Kiese does not play victim but emphasizes the necessity to

reconnect the African-American past, present and the future through education,

cultural enlightenment and love for one another.

The 2013 City has an excellent appreciation for language, which allows him to

convey his experiences through writing and reading. “One way to curb the back

beating I was going to get was to write down my version of what happened,” said

City. Through writing one can communicate, understand, adapt, agree or disagree

with what has happened in the past.

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Distinct from the City in 2013, 1985 City is in love with Shalaya Crump which is

his first motivation to change the future. But changing the future involves ultimately

changing the past which in turn changes the present as the questionnaire question

nine puts: the past, present and the future lives within you (Laymon 21).

The core sense of past, present, and future is without doubt within a family. City’s

grandfathers and grandmother represents the past generation, and his mother and

Uncle Relle represent the present generation and City himself represents the future

generation. Shalaya’s concern with the future and Evan’s fixation in the past are the

primary drive to travel to 1964 which makes City question what if the past is changed

so much that does not allow them to be born. This question poses the challenge of

what in the past is usable or in other words what part of the past is worthy of change.

It appears that both City are fixed in the present and aware that the future

generation’s success relies on them. City is aware of the consequences of not having

either one or both parents when he mentions “I never knew my father, but Mama

tried her hardest to be there for me. When we lived in Jackson, being there for me

meant leaving me to stay with my grandmother when she couldn’t handle being just

a mother. I didn’t hate on Mama or feel bad for myself because at least I had a Mama

who cared, unlike Shalaya Crump, who never knew either of her parents” (Laymon

287). The absence of parents creates a sense of insecurities, emptiness, and sadness.

The 2013 City also displays the same reason when he shows sympathy for his
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grandmother by saying he did not know that his grandmother was someone’s sad

child (Laymon 307).

Perhaps, one’s story is incomplete if he or she cannot understand the past of his or

her progenitors. Understanding the past of those who came before is precisely what

Shalaya and Evan are trying to find out: understand the past and possibly change it

to their advantage, but City is reasonably skeptical.

However, later he admits that this gap between generations can be squeezed through

writing. After realizing that he would no longer see Baize, he says “I was going to

have to do it all with a book without an author called Long Division, Baize’s

computer, a fat- head cat, and a hole in the ground” (Leymon 303). He admits that it

would be difficult for her to show up, but there is a way she can continue living for

generations: through literacy, she will live.

If it was not through literacy how else would we know about the great thinkers that

humanity has ever produced? Even though, they are dead physically they continue

living through the works they left behind. I believe that is what African American

should do to close the separation of generations that exists.

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Works Cited

Laymon, Kiese. Long Division. Pgw, 2013.