Brown Girl Brownstones

This sample essay on Brown Girl Brownstones provides important aspects of the issue and arguments for and against as well as the needed facts. Read on this essay’s introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

They all have to adapt to the society they lived in as well as being criticized by gender, as a foreigner and most importantly by their skin color. Throughout the novel, Salina seeks to define her own identity and values. Not only does she and her family face these horrifying issues, they also have to learn to survive in a large, hostile world.

Furthermore, Salina learns the meaning of being black, particularly a Caribbean black after immigrating to white America. Racial conflict is an Important theme to this novel; I have learned in sociology class about stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination among people.

Stereotype Is a GUID Image of the members of a particular group In which It may be true or untrue. This can be referred to Salina as her Image Is a Barbarian black American and she was discriminated by the people in her neighborhood.

“Discrimination Is a behavior that treats people unfairly on the basis of their group membership and prejudice is an attitude that prejudges a person on the basis of a real or imagined characteristic of a group to which that person belongs” (Cornball IPPP). All these words play a reflection upon the other because they are all similar.

Brown Girl Brownstone

Salina and her family were prejudiced and discriminated by other particular groups cause they were considered different due to their depth and color.

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From this, it is obvious that color plays an important role in the story. This allows the Boyce family to not only fight against racism, but also to immigrate to America. There, Salina struggles to find her Identity and resolve the conflicts while maintaining the customs and rituals of her parents’ native land, Barbados. In reference to this, Paula Marshall contrasts Barbarian culture with American culture and how Immigrating to America would affect them.

Saline’s parents, Sills and Detection both want different things while moving to America. Sills has come to America in search of the American dream and that is to own property Just like the people in America. She is determined to make her dream come true by saving up money to buy house as the Americans would refer to it as. Working as a cleaning lady for the wealthy white people is a big step for Sills. She plans by working for the rich and later adapting to their lifestyles and living a better life.

While Sills has her dream, Detection also has his. He has his heart set on returning back to Barbados, where he originally came from. When they have acquired enough money, he plans on moving out of American land and back to this native and. Salina Is stuck In the middle of both her parents’ declensions as to whether stay In America or go back to Barbados. Her parents both have different mindsets; her mother wants Log goals In Tie, winners near Tanner simply does not want to pursue these dreams, but to live the life where he once lived.

This is not helping Salina in trying to search for her identity as a woman and a as a daughter of Barbarian immigrant. I want to particular elaborate on Digestion’s struggles because they play a significant role among the lives of his family. Racial discrimination makes Detection feel downgraded and less of a person, Hereford in order to fight over these feelings of fear, he feels the need to prove his worth to his family and himself. One important factor was when he tries to prove this through appearance.

Paula Marshall describes Digestion’s way of dressing as a valuable part of his life. Towards the beginning of the novel, the author illustrates that, “His hands, very thin but strong and very dark, caressed a new silk undershirt which he had Just taken from its wrapping. Detection loved the feel of silk next to his skin, and he smiled now as he slipped on the new shirt and the silk passed in a cool areas over his face and neck” (Marshall, pop). Not only does this passage signifies his appearance as an important part of him, it also elaborates on how his skin color defines who he is.

In reference to the silk undershirt, he was willing to buy an expensive piece of item because wearing it made him feel powerful and valuable as a person. Detection wishes to save in order to return to Barbados, but first he needs a Job. By dressing well and proper, he wants to appear like a successful person and gets respect in return. If he appears to be poor, people would not take him seriously and Hereford, treat him and his family as middle class citizens. However, even though Detection has valued himself and his identity as a Barbarian, others has not yet accepted his kind.

Throughout the novel, he was seen as an automatic rejection when it comes to well paying Jobs. According to his skin color, Detection had to constantly deal with racial discrimination and rejection, “He was always putting himself up in the face of the big white people in town asking for some big Job and they would chuck him out fast enough. He was always dressing up like white people” (Marshall, pop). He dresses eke a white person, hoping to be respected like a white person. Detection wishes his family to not be classified as a social stratification, another term I have learned in class.

It is “the process whereby the members of a society are sorted into different statuses” (Cornball, pop). Whereas America is a country made equal upon all, he wishes to be treated as equally as the whites, regardless of their skin color. These factors have definitely helped Salina understand more about her own racial identity. She has learned from her father to not be ashamed of your own race, but to accept it and cherish it. Though, being in a world with much less knowledge and inabilities, Detection still strives for excellence. However, it seems unsuccessful, the moral of this is that he tried his best.

While Detection has his theories of overcoming racial discrimination, Sills has her theories as well. Sills is determined to say in America because she feels that Barbados is not her way of living. She claims that there is nothing in Barbados for her or her family. She thinks the island represents poverty and cruelty. Instead, she is obsessed with owning a brownstone, in what they would refer to as house in America. Unlike her husband, Sills does not care much about her appearance or to even spend sun money on luxurious tangs. Nee Delves Tanat IT they own a property in America, everyone would look at their family differently because perhaps, they might be wealthy if a minority has the ability to do so. Sill’s plan of achieving this goal has gotten so far, that she goes to forge Digestion’s signature on legal documents. That way, she would be able to get the money for the property she has been longing for. Nevertheless, as much as it hurts to not return to his native land, Barbados, he upends all of the money on the brownstone in order to make his family happy.

Towards the end of the novel, it ends with a tragedy as Sill’s greed turned their family into a disaster. Only thinking about the property she owns, she turned her husband into an illegal alien, leaving nothing left for the family. As Salina grows up, she learns the tragic endings of her family and also copes with this feeling of misery. Not only do they live in a society that is unstable, everything seems to be lost. Everything that Detection taught to respect their identity and accept their culture, Sills was too blind to see the outcome of her selfishness.

This is definitely a novel worth reading; it details the experience of the early Barbarian immigrants in Brooklyn and their adjustments to a new environment. Paula Marshal’s Brown Girl, Brownstones focuses on the Boyce family, which includes Sills, the ambitious mother, Detection, the devoted father, and the two daughters, Nina and Salina. As seen throughout the novel, Sills and her husband, Detection have different goals and worth ethics, in addition to dreams and desires. Their separate dreams and desires conflict and Salina struggles to find her place in he new society.

She is trying to understand her racial identity, as well as the values and norms from the people she is closest with. Furthermore, Salina learns the meaning of being black, particularly a Caribbean black after immigrating to white America, a place where she has to struggle to adapt to their ways of living. Though, this did not turn out to be expected, Salina learns the differences of life taught by both her parents. Bibliography 1. Paula Marshall. Brown Girl, Brownstones. New York: The Feminist Press, 1981. 2. Cornball, William. Sociology: The Central Questions. Second Edition. Headwords, Thomson Learning, 2002.