ABSTRACT
As readers read stories, they position themselves in relation to being similar or dissimilar to the characters in a text to express and define who they are. This case study examined how four adolescents – an African American male, a Latinx male, a Euro-American female, and a Latinx female – positioned the characters and themselves as they responded to an excerpt from the book, Black Boy by Richard Wright, indicating constructions and negotiations of gender as they read. The two males in the study tended to position themselves and the character according to a story line related to how a male youth, who is coming-of-age, should stand up to bullies. In contrast, the two females focused on the mother’s story line and her decision making. Although the teaching of multicultural literature is valuable in terms of helping youth see themselves in the texts, it is important that these texts be interrogated through a critical literacy lens that also takes into account gender, as well as race and class. Findings from the study point to the need for teachers to provide safe spaces for deconstructing and reflecting on one’s own multifaceted intersectional experiences as part of the process of reading multicultural literature.
