Theme

When you analyze the short story, it is a good idea to focus on a theme so you keep a common thread throughout your essay. In the following section, you can read about the main theme in this short story. We have chosen important points in the story that are meant to give you inspiration for your own analysis of “Jesse”.

Racial segregation

The topic of race and segregation is central to this short story. Early on we are told that black and white people interact in a certain way:

 “We can’t have Jesse in our house because he’s a nigger.” (l. 30)

Most of the story is told from the point of view of a young girl, and the theme of racial segregation becomes evident when she interacts with Jesse and starts to make her own impression and judgement of him:

“I have never touched a black man before Jesse, and it surprises me the first time he picks me up, that his hands feel just like Daddy’s, warm and callused.” (ll. 70-71)

Because of her young age and innocent way of looking at the world, she seem to have a more open mind towards the apparent consensus about bl...