A person comes to conclusions about situations based on their point of view. If an individual is in downtown Los Angeles, he/she will mention how chaotic and populated it is, but if that person is on top of the Mount Hollywood, he/she will be overlooking a gorgeous view of the city and will describe Los Angeles positively. The point of view a person has goes hand in hand with how he/she will understand an issue. In ZZ Packer’s “Brownies” the narrator is in a position that gives her a unique insight of the camping trip she and her brownie troop take. The reader is able to see the narrator’s honesty because of the personality traits she displays throughout the story. The events that occur on the trip make the narrator come to a realization that …show more content…
For instance, Arnetta, who the girls follow and give their attention to, gets away with saying and doing things because she listened “to Mrs.Margolin’s religious talk and [gave] her what she wanted to hear” when she asked questions (178). Mrs.Margolin was their troop leader who saw her position “as an evangelical post” (178). Arnetta had once gotten away with killing “the troop goldfish by feeding it” a french fry and claiming to Mrs.Margolin it had snatched the fry out of her fingers (178). She had also started the “Caucasian” joke, a month before camp, which was used when someone did anything wrong. For example, jumping off the swing midair and landing on knees instead of feet was followed by a “solemn horror Caucasian” (179). The background on the joke is useful for reader to understand why the girls bursted out laughing after Arnetta had called troop 909 “Caucasian chihuahuas” (178). The narrator showing who Arnetta is with memories instead of naming her traits gives the reader first hand evidence to know her. Moreover, Daphne’s character is also discovered through flashback. She had “written a poem once” and received a prize that she took wearing a “new dress” rather than her usual wear of “faded jumpers [or] dresses” (180). This poem left the narrator puzzled because she did not understand it, so she tired befriending her but realized that “two quiet people are better off quiet alone” (180). Here, the explanation of Daphne gives the reader an understanding of her but also the narrator. The mentioning of Laurel being a quiet person and eager to understand a poem presents the point of view she has which is clearly different than the girls in her troop. The outlook the narrator has on the world is unique but it also is during the course of the
2 Questions of “Brownies” 1. In the short story, “Brownies,” I would describe the narrator, whose name is Laurel, as a shy and timid girl, questioning the way people act. Most of the girls in her group do not take a liking to her, for she says, “[They] already decided their course of action, me being the only impediment” (Packer 847). Moreover, the narrator is very smart because she is skeptical, for she is the only one who questions the girls if they, in fact, heard troop 909 call one of the girls a nigger.
Being that the troop was from an all black neighborhood and attend a segregated school, the only thing they know about Caucasians are the things they saw on the television about them and what they parents said about them. In the beginning of the story, Arnette stated that the girls in troop 090 smelled like wet Chihuahuas to members of her girl scout. Arnette never smelled a Chihuahua before nor have she ever seen one. What Arnette said to describe what the troop smell like was a stereotype use to describe what Caucasian smell like. Since she is not around much Caucasian she is saying then based on what others told her.
In this short story the Brownie troops at the summer camp appear either all black or all white, no mixed troop is present. This displays the constant segregation occurring and the influence it has on young children who are vulnerable to a racially segregated environment causing them to portray themselves a certain way. The black girls have little knowledge of people different than them, “When you lived in the south suburbs of Atlanta, it was easy to forget about whites. Whites were like those baby pigeons: real and existing, but rarely seen or thought about” (pg. 5), because of these girls have little contact with one another and the black girls are extremely conscious of the differences they posses. The feeling of differences comes from the world around them, what they hear and see affect their opinions tremendously.
The reader is forced to see past the comfortable and courageous past they have been told and into the future that will force history to come
The reader begins to get anxious and feels for the stranded one. A long cold 45 minutes goes by when he surprisingly finds the bail and realizes from the amount of time it took and the heat he lost while searching that he’s not fit to keep going. Cold, confused, and on the brink of freezing to death he decides to start back to his
Three white men who wanted to rape Cheryl mistakenly thought April was her younger sister one afternoon. Instead, the men grabbed April and smacked her around violently, treating her like a "helpless animal" (127) before shoving her into their vehicle. The men verbally and physically harassed April while driving, calling her things like "squaw/bitch/cunt/savage/whore" (128-130). The men keep bringing up April's Métis heritage throughout this scene as if that somehow made her deserving of their treatment. By rationalizing their racial and sexual abuse in this manner, April's hatred for her culture grew.
This fictional short story had a powerful meaning because it focused on how racial stereotyping can cause a lot of problems even among young girls who were attending a Girl Scouts camp. “Brownies” also showed how stereotyping can actually be harmful and can sometimes lead to hurtful consequences for the person who is the victim of it and for the person is guilty of stereotyping someone. I decided to do my analysis of this short story using the historical context element because of the long history of problems between the Black and White races in this country according to our history books, including one terrible incident that just happened one week ago when nine innocent Black people were murdered in a church in Charleston South Carolina by a 21 year old White racist who was guilty of stereotyping and hating Black people. The killer accused Black men of raping White women and that Black people were taking over the whole country. These were stereotypes that he first thought about in his head that then led to his terrible actions.
The plot of the short story, “Brownies”, by ZZ Packer, is of a troop of young girl scouts who are of African American descent. The story depicts them attempting to brawl with another group due to the “brownie” troop assuming another called them a particular insult. Whether the other troop, Troop 909, in called the others a racial slur is left to ambiguity, although it is strongly suggested that they did not in fact refer to them in an invective manner. When the other troop is confronted about it, it is discovered that Troop 909 simply consisted of mentally disabled girls all in one group. Due to this, it is only fitting that the theme of the story was to indicate individuals with disadvantages in life should rejoice and unify rather than combat
This is our first look at the seperation of races. At this elementary school, there is a large presence of black children. The students refer to Dennis, a particular young child, as “the only white kid in our school,” (Packer 4). When the group of white girls, also known as Brownie troop #909, arrive to the school, the black girls see them as being so different. They even compare
When Margery asks why she is unhappy, Sirith explains that she had a daughter who was married to a good husband, but rejected the advances of a clerk during the husband's absence, whereupon the clerk magically changed her daughter into a female dog, and here she is, still crying for not having granted the clerk his will. Margery sees the similarity to her own case, becomes frightened at the possible canine consequences, and asks Sirith to bring Wilekin to her. He arrives, and Margery agrees to be his lover. The main interest of this fabliau - and the way it differs most from the French fabliaux - is in its use of direct speech and the way in which that direct speech is used for purposes of characterization. Of the 450 lines in the poem 397 are direct speech, and the personalities and the attitudes of the three characters are gradually revealed through that direct speech, so that what were stock characters in the analogues - the amorous clerk, the young wife, and the old woman - become in this poem developed characters, people who have a three-dimensional quality to them.
However the narrator is not detached from the happenings. Instead he delves in the mind of the central character- Trysdale. This enables us to understand his inner turmoil caused due to the losing over of his beloved to another man. The omniscient narrative brings out detailed descriptions of the character’s actions and surroundings and affects the tone and style of writing. The sentences are short and crisp.
This is a key point in understanding the narrator’s character and the overall meaning of the
The journey Wright takes them on through his first person point of view steers them down the path of believing some things are worth not knowing, and feeling sympathy for him because of his
He must use his imagination rather than using his instincts to survive. As the man started on his journey he was warned by an old man to not travel alone on the Yukon. If the man would have listened to the old man in the beginning of the story he would have never had to endure any of these challenges. Because the man likes to think for himself, it costs him his life. London shows readers that the outcome of events can change drastically if actions are analyzed with instinctive insight.
The story is told in scout’s point of view and through her eyes we may fittingly understand the author’s message and how it is still relevant in