Bud, Not Buddy tells the narrative of a young Black child on the lookout for his father, whom he has never met. Bud flees from a harsh existence in Flint to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in search of his father, using clues from the few belongings he carries that belonged to his mother. Bud first appears in the 1930s as a ten-year-old living at a facility for orphaned children in Flint, Michigan. Bud was sent to the Home when he was six years old, after discovering his mother dead on the floor of her bedroom. After four years or so since Bud Caldwell’s mother died, and the ten-year-old is leaving his third foster home in pursuit of a better life. He’s tired of being an orphan: unloved, rejected, and alone. He discovers how difficult life is in Michigan in 1936, during the Great Depression, on his own. Along the way, he meets many nice individuals who assist him in completing his most incredible quest: to discover the man he believes to be his father. He’s looking for a man whose photo was on some old jazz concert fliers his mother had lying around the home, so he doesn’t have much to go on. However on his quest, he discovers what it really is like being a POC during this time.
Bud, despite his age, has a good understanding of race and how it functions in society, as seen by his question to Deza Malone, a young girl that Bud meets in Hooverville about why some white people in Hooverville were “off alone.” Deza responds that it’s because they claim that they “ain’t in need of a handout” because they’re white. In other words, they’re safe due to the color of their skin while Bud and Deza can’t. Throughout Bud’s quest to find his father, he must be extra careful especially because Bud would often travel through the night. He however did have to face these encounters while on this trip. And I’ma tell you, “I’ve seen some things out of place before, and a young brown-skinned boy walking along the road just outside of Owosso, Michigan, at two thirty in the morning is definitely not where he ought to be.” (10.18) This is an example of how late/early Bud goes on these adventures but this is a reoccurring theme throughout the novel. “The policeman looked at me and said, “Oh. Your grandson, huh? You two look just alike.” (12.46) The other person this policeman is comparing Bud is a character named Lefty who isn’t Bud’s grandfather or even related for that matter.
