Silla would belittle and criticize Deighton instead of consoling with him.

At one point she says to him,

You aint no real-real Bajan man, (p.173). Therein lays the cultural clash. She sees Deighton as
lazy and a dreamer, but not a hard worker and a pragmatist like a typical Bajan This is an intense
moment as the severity of this comment would greatly offend anyone in the Bajan community. The
second instance of her rebellion against her husband was his own deportation and consequent
demise. While thought to be in the best interests of her family, Silla begins to lose them instead. She
is a loose parcel, and she struggles to stay together afterwards. Hitler is repeated by Selina over
and over at her fathers leave. Silla is in a very small way her own Hitler, not someone of mass
genocide and utter madness, but someone who strongly drives culture into the minds of her
followers, and loses loved ones because of it. Silla is stuck in a tough situation however; she is torn
between the allegiance of her husband and the respect of the community and security of her family.
In my opinion however, Silla loses her own sense of identity through her adherence to the Bajan
communitys unspoken will, and loses her husband and in a way, even her daughter for a time.
Brown Girl, Brownstones resists the idea that ethnicity is destiny and embraces individualism as an
important value. However, Selina still feels that responsibility towards her ethnic group or ethnic
duties and that ethnicity is inescapable after all. It harshly criticizes and yet celebrates the Bajan
community, and becomes a signature American novel through its migratory nature and the struggle
for identity that a young girl comes to find. Although this is a Bajan culture, it resembles Hispanic
culture in many ways through the character and came close to home with me as my own father was
once deported. It is an outstanding novel and scintillatingly new cultural experience for me.

The Boyce family is originally from Barbados, headed by Selina's stern and unforgiving mother, Silla,
while her frivolous father, Deighton, chases tail and dreams of making it big. Selina also has an older
sister, Ina.



The story opens with the family leasing a brownstone that once contained a white family. Through the
images of the furniture and Selina's imagination we quickly realize that Selina idealizes the family that
lived in her house before her, this is perhaps a reflection of her desire to belong, rather than her
feelings of disconnection to the country she's living in.



Also at the start of the novel, Silla is working as a housekeeper for a wealthy Jewish family. The theme
of interracial relationships is major in the novel, as some Caribbean immigrants believe that they are
oppressed by their race, while Silla holds the view that any group of people in power will do everything
they can to stay in power, and that the way to attain power is through diligence and hard
work. Sillascraps, schemes and saves until she can own property of her own in New York, as she sees
land ownership as the only way to get ahead.



In that sense, Silla seems to embody the American dream. She's calculating, ambitious, independent,
strong and determined to provide a better future for her daughters. Her greatest dream for Selina is
that she become a doctor, this sentiment of success through education and hard work is echoed in the
predominant culture of the US as well as in other books dealing with Caribbean immigrants,
likeDanticat's "Breath, Eyes, Memory." Interestingly, Danticat writes a great forward for "Brown Girl,
Brownstones."



Silla's strong presence scares Ina into a state of perpetualwithdrawal. As the book progresses, Ina's
character seems to shrink into the background. Because of her serious and stern nature, Selina looks to
her father for love. Deighton loves his daughter perhaps because she does not question him, at least
not at first. He wants to be a big man above all else, and routinely studies
variouscorrespondence courses in hopes of landing a job that pays big money. He seems oddly inclined
to perpetuate his own injuries, though, as he repeatedly sets him self up to be the victim of racism.
For example, Deighton spends months studying accounting, and is warned by his wife, his friends and
neighbors that the big accounting firms downtown (which are run by racist, narrow-minded white
people) won't hire him because he's not white. When he goes down to apply for work and is rudely
turned away, he immediately recalls looking for work back in Barbados as a store clerk, where the
snobby white people working in the store turned him away rudely.



Deighton's plans are all essentially get-rich-quick schemes, and he is more interested in dreaming about
their outcomes than actually working towards making his dreams come true. This infuriates practical,
single-minded Silla, who has to do nothing but work to make up for the fact that her husband is little
more than a good time boy. The incident with the trumpet details precisely how uselessDeighton is as
a provider; Selina though does not see this until way later.



There are a large number of minor characters in the novel which would make anyone attempting to
adapt it into a screenplay absolutely nuts. What I mean by that is that most of them are non-essential
to the plot but take up enough time and space to make you really question their importance or lack of
importance to the overall storyline.



Some of them, like Seifert Yearwood, Miss Thompson and Beryl's family, seem to exist to show the
reader what life is like for those who adhere to the standards of the hard-working, careful planning and
properly assimilating Bajan-American. Others, like Suggie, are obvious misfits who show the dissenting
side of all that; while the majority of the whites who exist seem to serve only to remind Selina that
she's not like them. Even her school friend, Rachel, fetishizesSelina's differences to an extent. All in
all, these characters feel superfluous to the plot, but they take up enough pages to easy coax an eight
page paper out of, if a student were so inclined.

As she grows older, Selina becomes more and more like Silla, she's as smart as her mother and as driven
to achieve her goals. In an act of developed rebellion, Selina at first refuses to join the Association that
her mother and so many of her friends have become a part of. When she does decide to join, it's purely
to win some prize money intended as a scholarship. Rather than attend school with the money, Selina
wants to run off with Clive; this act of defiance is intended as Selina's big F you to the community but
in the end she allows it to fall apart.
Though she doesn't end up taking the money, she does effectively destroy her relationship with her
mother by admitting she intended to do it.
Brown Glrl, Brownstones ls u comlng of uge story ubout Sellnu Boyce, duughter of two wurrlng Burbudlun
lmmlgrunts ln Brooklyn clrcu WW2. She ls bolsterous und llvely, wuntlng nothlng better thun to spend long
summer duys ln Prospect Purk runnlng, sklnnlng her knees und luughlng wlth her best frlend. But she ls not
ultogether curefree. When her futher leurns thut he hus lnherlted lund buck ln Burbudos, und her mother leurns
thut he would ruther suve up to bulld u house there on the lslund und move buck ruther thun puy off the
mortguge on the house ln Brooklyn so thut they cun be property owners llke thelr most prosperous nelghbors,
ull hell breuks looseund Sellnus loyulty to euch of them ls severely tested. She symputhlzes more wlth her
klnd but lrresponslble futher, yet she muy huve more ln common wlth her dlfflcult, volutlle mother thun she
cures to udmlt.
As Sellnu grows older und, she thlnks, more estrunged from her fumllylncludlng her slster who, ln her oplnlon
und unllke herself, ls the model of u good, proper Burbudlun glrl who wlll settle down eurly wlth un upwurdly
moblle mun to rulse u fumlly und perhups move one duy to Crown Helghtsshe struggles to flnd her nlche ln
her communlty und ln U.S. culture ut lurge. Her mothers muterlullstlc obsesslon wlth becomlng u property
owner dlsgusts her und her culturul usslmllutlon feels to Sellnu llke u betruyul of both her own ldentlty und of
her futher. There ls u conceptuul rlft here between house und home, und for Sellnu the two cun not ever be
reconclled by the purchuse of u Brooklyn brownstone. But when Sellnu flnully sets herself on u truth-seeklng
puth of her own deslgn, she flnds unexpected support. And when she does, she beglns to understund, lf not
ugree wlth, the lmport und uppeul of the vulues und usplrutlons thut her communlty shures.
There ure some reully lnterestlng scenes here of Sellnu slttlng ln on u meetlng of the Assoclutlon of Burbudlun
Homeowners, u group wlth whlch her mother ls very uctlve, und ulso u sermon by Futher Peuce ln Hurlem thut
she goes to wlth her futher. The contrust ls lllustrutlve of her emotlonully confllcted fumlly llfe; both
experlences ure dlsllluslonlng for her, und both ure settlngs I wusnt expectlng und found reully fusclnutlng ln
und of themselves.
There were u few moments towurd the end of the book where I wus bothered, though, by homophoblc |eerlng
und gender pollclng on the purt of both Sellnu und her lover, Cllve. Sellnu mukes fun of the fulry youth leuder
ut the Assoclutlon of Burbudlun Homeowners she uttended, und Cllve wurns her ubout fulllng ln wlth
Bohemlun clrcles ln whlch women uct llke men und such, us lf to suy: your crltlque of your mothers wuy of
llfe ls cool und ull, |ust dont, yu know, tuke your rudlcullsm thut fur. Llke those people do. Or somethlng. Im
not reully sure, but lt dldnt seem to udd unythlng to the nurrutlve und lt dldnt slt wlth me very well ln uny cuse.
I wus ulso bothered sometlmes by husty trunsltlons ln Murshulls wrltlng. Sometlmes thlngs |ust seemed to
huppen out of nowhere, und not ulwuys wlth reuson. It wus confuslng ut tlmes, und u blt dlsruptlve. It leud to
me feellng lost more thun u few tlmes.
Murshull deuls wlth u lot of lnterestlng themes ln thls book, und Im glud I reud lt for thut reuson. For other
reusons prevlously mentloned, though, lt wus mostly u so-so reud.