Paper 2: “Brownies” "Brownies," by ZZ Packer, is a story about a Brownie troop of African American fourth-grade girls from Atlanta, Georgia, who go to Camp Crescendo. At the camp, they encounter a troop of white girls, Troop 909, and believe that one of the white girls used a racially offensive comment when she spoke of them. The African American girls decide they need to get revenge on Troop 909 and resolve to beat them up in a bathroom. Before they started beating Troop 909, the African American girls realized that Troop 909 is a troop with mentally challenged, and handicapped girls. Later, the African American girls discovered that Troop 909 was falsely accused of making the racially offensive comment. The climax of the story is when Arnette, …show more content…
The narrator of the story is Laurel, also known as "Snot." The first person point of view is important to the story because it shows the African American kids side of racial discrimination and prejudice. Laurel, the narrator of the story, is the protagonist in “Brownies.” Laurel is a dynamic character in the story, because she came to an epiphany about prejudice and racism and reaches a level of maturity in which she understands what is right and wrong. The antagonist in “Brownies” is Arnette, the leader of the African American troop. Arnette is considered a static character because she fails to accept different races. It says in the story “when you live in the south suburbs of Atlanta, it is easy to forget about whites”(Packer 186). Arnette fails to accept different races because she is not use to interacting with people of other races. The conflict in "Brownies" is when an African American troop member claims she heard one of the white girls make a racially offensive comment. The conflict leads to the climax of the story which is that the African American troop wants to get revenge on Troop 909. "We can't let them get away with calling us niggers. I say we teach them a lesson"(Packer 187). The external conflict is between the African American troop and Troop 909, the all white
In ZZ Packer’s short story titled “Brownies,” Laurel, also known as Snot, tells the story about her African-American Brownie troop attempting to fight a Caucasian Brownie troop, Troop 909. Arnetta, a fellow Brownie in Snot’s troop, overhears one of the girls from Troop 909 call another member a racial slur and plans to get revenge on all the girls. Snot, being a shy person, keeps quiet through the entire process of her troop planning their attack on Troop 909. Snot is a flat character; moreover, her characterization supports the theme of ignorance prevailing due to silence.
The first main character in the novel is Aunt Hager, an older Christian Baptist woman who was once a slave. She is the grandmother and advocate of one boy named, Sandy and mother of three girls named: Tempy, Annjee, and Harriet. Aunt Hager, even though she was once a slave, throughout the book she shows sympathetic tendencies toward white people. On many different occasions she defends how white people treat African Americans, explaining that they just don't understand or comprehend their horrendous treatment toward people of color. Although she defends white people, she has no problem in forming prejudice against her son-in-law Jimboy. Jimboy is married to Annjee, Annjee is also Sandy's mother. Aunt Hager's disposition towards Jimboy at times is intolerable to her daughter Annjee. Annjee loves Jimboy and they have been married eight years. Over the eight years, Aunt Hager has formed strong opinions of Jim...
There is something about seeing or hearing about an upset child that seems to move people. In his famous poem, “Incident,” Countee Cullen tells of an experience he had as a boy that upset him. While Cullen was visiting Baltimore, another boy called him a nigger, an experience that would completely change the next several months of Cullen’s life. It was such a significant event that 20 years later (Peters) it still bothered Cullen enough that he wrote a poem about it. This story has a way of tugging at readers’ heartstrings and is not an easily forgettable poem. Cullen’s “Incident” connects with readers because of its focus on how one word completely changed a child’s experience in a new city.
The first time Scout was exposed to the racism of Maycomb was when one evening Atticus crept out of the house. This was unusual because Atticus never went out late at night. Scout and Jem, curious about why Atticus had left incognito, followed him discretely to see what he would do. What they actually saw him doing was a bewilderment, they saw him reclining in front of Tom Robinsons cell, guarding Tom from an oncoming lynch mob. When the mob arrived at the jail, Scout portrayed a large amount of danger on herself when she put herself in the middle of the argument. Atticus stated later “a mob’s always made of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man.” After Scout intercepted the argument, she pointed out Mr.Cunningham and started delineated his son and fellow classmate; Walter. Mr.Cunningham’s eyes were now blinded by the sentimentality that Scout purp...
In “The Bear” by William Faulkner, there are several different personalities and attitudes that come into play at various times in the story. The story is told from the perspective of Isaac McCaslin, the boy of the story and one of the main characters as well, and many critics feel that this was “probably a projection of Faulkner’s own youthful self”(Monarch Notes 5). Isaac was of the aristocratic class of people who were a part of the South, and who also played a significant part of the stories that Faulkner wrote. Another class of people that were a consistent part of Faulkner’s short stories were the poor-whites such as the Snopes family in “Barn Burning.” Abner Snopes is a man who seems to blame everyone but himself for his problems. Being a Civil War veteren from the Confederate point of view, he was bitter about the War and the way that the Southerners were treated, though it appears that he brought his particular condition upon himself. During the War, the only loyalty was to himself and he remained that way Another class of people that are a significant part of Faulkner short stories are the non-whites which include the Negro, the Indian, and any mixture of the different races found in the South. Abner Snopes gave no regard or respect to the “nigger”(155), who was the de Spain servant and door man, when the Snopeses came to announce their arrival for the sharecropper job, but muttered “get out of my way, nigger.” Sam Waters gained more kindness and respect than that, though he was still a mixed blood in a wealthy, white world. He was
One of the lighter-skinned African-Americans in Lorain, Geraldine despises everyone who is darker than her and tries to distance herself and her family from what she considers to be their “lifestyle” as much as possible. For instance, she refuses to allow her son Junior to associate with any darker-skinned children: “His mother did not like him to play with niggers. She had explained to him the difference between colored people and niggers. They were easily identifiable. Colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud” (Morrison 87). In addition, she does not tolerate any visible signs of “blackness” in her son: she cuts his hair close to his scalp to keep his coarse curls from growing and applies lotion to his face to prevent his skin from becoming ashen. As well as being lighter in color, her family is more well-off than Pecola’s family and the rest of the darker-skinned black people in the town. In Geraldine’s opinion, her neatly decorated house, well-groomed son, perfectly straight hair, mellow mannerisms, and restrained emotions bring her as close to the “lifestyle” of white people as possible. Therefore, it is not a surprise that her reaction to finding Pecola in her house one day is viciously unfriendly; with her unkempt hair, torn dress, and muddy shoes, Pecola represents everything that Geraldine loathes about her darker-skinned
Scout, through her innocent narration, establishes the South to be a harbor of injustice and severe inequality. Her matter-of-fact account of her neighborhood and the living conditions of the African Americans allowed for open interpretation by the reader of the disparity between the races. She cites the church’s run down condition and “crumbling tombstones” that marked the cemetery along with her baffled reaction when
In the short story “Brownies,” author ZZ Packer uses the narrator, Laurel, to explore the tensions that exist between belonging to a community and maintaining individuality. While away at camp with her brownie troop, she finds herself torn between achieving group inclusion and sustaining her own individualism. Although the events of the short story occur at Camp Crescendo, Packer is able to expand (and parallel) this struggle for identity beyond the camp’s walls and into the racially segregated society that both the girls and their families come from. Packer is exploring how an individual’s inherent need for group inclusion consequently fuels segregation and prejudice against those outside the group across various social and societal stratums.
In Alice Walker’s “The Flowers,” Walker exposes the racial subjugation faced by African- Americans at her time (1970’s). Racism is a detailed word rooted in ignorance and a lack of understanding. It is a word made up of reality that cannot be denied. As children, one does not see white, black, Asian, Hispanic, etc. They are innocent and search skin deep. However, for centuries racism has tainted the human race. To demonstrate, Walker instills this innocent persona of how we should see the main character Myop when she includes, “She was ten, and nothing existed for her but her song, the stick clutched in her dark brown hand…tat-de-ta-ta-ta.” (Second paragraph/ Alice Walker). The author includes a healthy mix of direct and indirect characterization to help the readers paint a picture of his young and innocent girl.
Scout’s neighbor, Miss Maudie, proves herself on multiple occasions to be a very kind and nondiscriminatory person. Scout admires her because she sees her as a lively and active woman, just like Scout, while the other women she knows only seem interested in tea parties and gossip. The two also share a love for the outdoors: Miss Maudie “hated her house” and thought “time spent indoors was time wasted” (Lee 68). While arguing with Aunt Alexandra over Atticus and the trial, Miss Maudie shows that she is against racism by drawing attention to the gross inequality between Whites and Blacks in Maycomb: “‘We trust [Atticus] to do right. It’s that simple.’ ‘Who?’ [...] ‘The handful of people in this town who say that fair play is not marked White Only’ (Lee 391).
Scout does not understand the racial injustices that occur daily and why the African-American community should be forced to suffer in the misery of prejudice. Without thinking, she prances into the scene and warmly
To begin with, I could empathize with the discrimination that the black must have experienced by reading this book. Crooks miserably tells Lennie that because he is black, nobody in the workplace wants to play and talk with him. From this part, I could feel the loneliness and the discrimination Crooks faced. Also, when Curley’s wife threatened him by calling him
The book, brown girl dreaming is a amzingly written book. This book is based on the theme being confident in yourself. This theme is shown in the book when a woman of color describes how discrimination didn’t let her dought herself. This oustanding story takes place in Columbus, Ohio were the lead character Jaquline Woodson is born. The author gives a perspective of a girl facing pain and disrespect at a young age and how she learns to be strong and courages from her family and friends. I thuroughly enjoyed this heart warming novel that will open readers eyes to the harships of life for each and every human being.
Aibileen is an African-American maid working for a white woman named Elizabeth Leefolt. Skeeter is a young white woman, fresh out of university and wishing to become a “serious writer”. Skeeter asks Aibileen for help with a cleaning column for the Jackson Journal newspaper in Mississippi as a distraction for asking Aibileen for help with writing a book that shows the blacks perspective of working for white families. During the writing of The Help, Skeeter delves deeper into becoming a civil rights activist which brings her and Aibileen closer as friends, also opening them both up to a whole new world of perspective. Although, living in Mississippi during the 1960’s, they forget about the heavy racism of their town and focus on each other. Skeeter and Aibileen can happily joke and feel comfortable enough around each other to snort while laughing. Katherine Stockett and Tate Taylor show us the importance of the ability to not judge a book by its cover or a person by their skin colour. Skeeters’ and Aibileen's’ friendship is loving, caring, trusting, and understanding – all very important traits of an interracial friendship of that era and area. However, I do believe that these are all qualities of any relationship in any era or area. Their friendship also
In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor, the main character Cassie Logan, a young African-American girl, grows up experiencing racism in the American South. Even though she was only nine, she fought for equality and justice for herself and her family. For example, when she noticed a racial slur in her younger brother’s textbook, she stood up for him against the teacher. She understood that people judged her based on her race, yet she was able to stand up and fight for what