Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson

Woodson's "Show Way" is a story about the road to freedom told through the eyes of eight little girls, eight generations embedded in history for "sewing" their way out of struggle and oppression- beginning with the bondage of slavery to fighting discrimination and segregation and coming full circle to remembering the struggle and labors of their ancestors.

Each young girl is taught the talent of sewing, thus a piece of cloth, some thread and a needle are all the aids that each girl needs in order to fulfill her role in the fight for freedom. This fact is shown in each illustration, as each page shows pieces of cloth- either as a torn piece of muslin or the pattern work of triangles and rectangles used to create the stars and moons of the quilt; the roadway marking freedom.

The emphasis on passing down the tradition of quilt-making was striking to me. It was not only a familial heirloom, but a people’s heirloom- as if every slave or oppressed person were members of an extended family.
I noticed that the pages which used triangle scraps of cloth as part of the illustration represented the event or picture drawn next to it- at least in the tones of color used. For example, when joyous events such as marriages and births are depicted, the colors of the scraps are light and joyful- hues of light green and pink cover the page. However, when serious ideas are depicted, such as the drawing of slaves escaping in the dead of night, the scraps are darkly colored, blue and black.

The Number 7
The repetition of the number seven as the age that each girl is taught the talent to sew her own “Show Way” quilt is important to the story. It is an age when a child understands and is able to handle the responsibilities of the adult world- such as doing chores, cleaning up one’s room, etc. For some people, their earliest memories of their childhood come from that time. Seven also represents the number of days in a week and the number of continents. I do believe Woodson deliberately used the number seven, whether to infuse a story-telling quality of repetition or either as a significant number in the creation of the roadway to freedom.


Illustrations
One illustration which struck me was that of the United States and of the Confederate States. Each state is represented by a separate patch of cloth, the union colored blue, the confederates a shade of dull grey. What’s striking is the separation between the two sides, a continuous tear around the shapes of the states leaving a stark, red background where the shadows of a man with a rifle chasing down a slave trying to escape, with the help of a couple of dogs. The illustration depicts the terms of the split between the states in a simple, explanatory way while still pointing out the intricacies and complexities of the issues being fought over during the American Civil War in the red-colored space.

Another illustration that I thought especially significant was that of the narrator (whom I believe to be Woodson herself) sitting at her desk staring up into space, surrounded by a patchwork star pattern of her own words, her biography, her autobiography, her own patchwork quilt and road of freedom- her “Show Way.” I think its unique that she continues to remember the hard work her ancestors went through by representing it through her words and stories. Although she is not literally sewing, the author does indeed use her talent to put together the stories of her great grandmothers and leave a legacy for future generations to learn from.