My first impression after reading “The First Day,” by Edward P Jones is how similar we are to one another. Most of us can relate to how the mother is treating her daughter in this story. She’s being kind and soft with her daughter and also went out of her way to try and get the best for her daughter. This is especially relatable when we’re younger. After noticing the relationship between the daughter and the mother, I was surprised when the narrator wrote, “long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother.” At the beginning of the text, because of how caring her mother is. Another quote from the writing that stuck out to me is, “..the last present my father gave her before he disappeared into memory.” This made a strong impression on me because I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to her father. Did he pass? Are the parents separated? Even though these questions made me want to keep reading, I quickly realized the father is pretty irrelevant in this story.