Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

Seventeen-year-old Raven is the Black protagonist of the story “Half a Moon.” Because her father left when she was seven and because she enjoyed attending as a kid, Raven works as a camp counselor at the Brown Girls Hike summit for extra money. She insists that she remembers her father—despite her mother’s protests—as she has memories of camping and fishing with him. She holds anger toward Brooke, her dad’s daughter from another woman, who was born 10 years ago as their parents broke up. She comments on how Brooke “is not [her] family. She is the girl who broke [her] family” (4).

Raven is a dynamic character who makes a change in how she views Brooke throughout the course of the text. She starts out by holding bitterness toward Brooke, actively avoiding her and ignoring the situation as other campers bully her. When Brooke ends up missing, however, her feelings toward Brooke change. She realizes that she “is seventeen and [she] should have taken responsibility for watching her, should have stood up for her, made her feel like she belonged so she wouldn’t think she had to prove anything by taking a silly dare” (15). Through her conversation with the “monster”—really the woman who owns the land—she bonds with Brooke, realizing how young she is and the guidance that she needs.