Introduction

In this exhibit, my objective is to analyze how an individual identifies oneself through language. I will specifically be examining how characters in two novels written by Jacqueline Woodson use African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in their dialogue. 

Out of the thirty and more books Jacqueline Woodson has written, I have chosen After Tupac & D Foster (2008) and Miracle's Boys (2000) because the main characters are of similar race, ethnicity, and age. 

In Tupac and D Foster, the author focuses on three pre-teen girls as they try to understand life around them. Two of the characters are of full African American descent and the other character is 50 percent African American and 50 percent Caucasion. However, the reader and the other two characters are unaware of the character's mixed identity until the end of the novel. 

In Miracle's Boys, Woodson writes a novel of only male characters which is a first for her in her writing career. All three of the main characters are not only male but are all brothers that are 12, 15, and 22 years old. They are 50% African American and 50% Puerto Rican. 

For both novels, I will look at the morphosyntactic and discourse features of AAVE. Then, I will evaluate how the characters' AAVE use points to their identity. In addition, I will be looking at the social variables that affect the frequency of AAVE features being spoken. For After Tupac and D Foster, I will be focusing on how their speech indexes how they are African American females. For Miracle's Boys, I will center on how certain social variables affect how often the characters speak AAVE.