Analysis Of The Book ' Brownies ' By Zz Packer

In the story, Scout if affected by racism and prejudice at her school, and around town. At school, she is picked on by a town boy called Cecil Jacobs for her father doing his job in

Scouting are expected to be a school like environment for young girls where some might excel faster at doing certain things than other and those who perform well might help those who are yet to catch on. They are all expected to be like peers. But in Brownies, parker illustrates a situational irony because what the reader might anticipate about girls scout turns out to be different from what happened at camp crescendo. There is a strong hostility and animosity among the black brownies and instead of the caring/sister like environment expected, the girls are very mean/hostile towards each other. The black brownies group use racial prejudice such as “wet Chihuahuas” and “Caucasian Chihuahuas” (504) to describe the white girls in Brownies troop 909 but when Arnetta accused troop 909 of using a racial slur towards Daphne, they feel obligated as a group to beat up every member of brownies troop 909. Parker illustrate the notion that those who have been victimized by racism turn to often act like the abusers and it is very ironic how the racist perceive their victims and vice versa. In this case, it’s ironic that the black brownies expect troop 909 to treat them with respect even though they do not respect troop 909 and are also victimized by each other. Racism is a two way street and to avoid it you must do unto all men as you would wish them to do to/for

In the short story Brownies, written by ZZ Packer, the story takes place in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia and within this suburbs, lies a group of Girl Scouts who are in camp. This camp is called Camp Crescendo. This camping site houses two camp groups: the Brownies which are African American and Troop 909 girls who are Caucasian. The story is narrated by a young girl named Laurel, who’s also known as Snot among the Brownies. The story begins by Snot giving a brief overview of the other six girls and the camp. During this time, racial tensions were in abundance throughout the United States. As the story progresses, Arnetta over hears a young girl from the Troop 909 calls Daphne a brownie girl a “nigger” and the dynamic of the story changes

The short story, “Brownies” is written by author, ZZ Packer. It surrounds a group of African American Brownie girls in the fourth grade who journey to a campsite situated near the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, called Camp Crescendo. On the trip, they encounter another brownie group comprised of white girls, all of who are mentally handicapped. “Brownies” is told from a first person involved point of view, through a Brownie member from the African American troop, named Laurel. Because the story takes place in the 1960’s, ZZ Packer explores issues that are prevalent in that time period, such as racial segregation and prejudice.

Brownies by ZZ Packer is a short story that takes place at a summer camp called Camp Crescendo in Atlanta, Georgia. The story follows two racially segregated troops of Brownie Girl Scouts, one troop consisting of all black girls and the other all white girls. Conflicts arise when the troop of white girls were accused of calling a black brownie a racial slur. The black troop confronted the white troop, Troop 909, with the accusation that one girl in Troop 909 called a girl in the black troop a racial slur in the camp bathroom. During this confrontation, their first face-to-face confrontation with the white girls, the black troop made the revelation that Troop 909 had special needs. A Troop Leader then shared that some of the girls in Troop

In the early twentieth century, Fania, Bessie, and Masha, the older children of the Smolinski family are unable to find work to support their hungry, weak family.The youngest daughter in the Smolinski family is named Sara and will go outside and make some money by selling herring when Mrs. Molinski loses hope for the family 's financial situation:"I was about ten years old then. But from always it was heavy on my heart the worries for the house as if I was mother. I knew that the landlord came that morning hollering for the rent," (P.1). Reb Smolinsky is the girls’ father. Reb is also out of work and as a poor Jewish man, spends his days reading holy books and living off of what little money his own children make. Eventually the older daughters will find work. Mrs. Smolinski is then able to rent a second room. The family is very excited when Bessie announces that she and a man named Berel Berenstein had fallen in love. Bessie invites him to dinner at her home. Reb finds out about his daughter’s relationship with Berel and even that Berel was willing to marry her. Despite the joy and enthusiasm expressed by the rest of the family, doesn’t decide to congratulate her, but rather that because of the family’s financial situation, Berel must also pay the full cost of the wedding. Reb also demands that Berel set him up a business. After that, Berel becomes infuriated and leaves. After reading this I couldn’t help but wonder, one

The writer ZZ Packer’s short story, “Brownies,” is about a troop of African-American Girl Scouts from south Atlanta that takes a camping trip; unfortunately, almost instantly, imaginary tensions build up between them and Troop 909, a group of white girls; struggle that later in this story develops as the main external conflict. Arnetta and Octavia, appear as the leaders of the group, and insist that the 909 girls called one of their group a derogatory word which is the starting point of the conflict. Consequently, a confrontation rapidly takes place between the teams, but this quarrel turns awry when the African-American girls realize the white members of Troop 909 are developmentally disabled and it becomes clear to the reader that

In the short story “Brownies” by ZZ Packer there are a few different settings throughout the story. The use of multiple settings serve as a purpose to establish the mood of the story, and give the reader better insight to the characters and the theme of “Brownies,” racism. The conflict of Arnetta claiming that one of the girls from Troop 909 called Daphne the n word is tied in with the theme of story, and the setting of where Laurel, the narrator lives, the type of school her and the rest of her troops go to, the time period they live, and the bathroom at the camp all work as a part of the story in order to help give the audience a deeper understanding of the conflict and theme of “Brownies.”

The early 1900s was a very challenging time for Negroes especially young women who developed issues in regards to their identities. Their concerns stemmed from their skin colors. Either they were fair skinned due mixed heritage or just dark skinned. Young African American women experienced issues with racial identity which caused them to be in a constant struggle that prohibits them from loving themselves and the skin they are in. The purpose of this paper is to examine those issues in the context of selected creative literature. I will be discussing the various aspects of them and to aid in my analysis, I will be utilizing the works of Nella Larsen from The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Jessie Bennett Redmond Fauset,

Arnetta seems like the leader of the pack; however, she is the weakest because she has to be mean and call troop 909 names just to make herself feel better. For example on (page 281 paragraph 4)they referred to the troop 909 girls “wet chihuahuas.” She does it to make herself seem cooler but really that makes her look bad. On (page 283 paragraph 2) she states,”she’d heard one of the girls from troop 909 call Daphne a n-i-g-g-e-r.” When Arnetta tries to point out witch girl called Daphne a “n-i-g-g-e-r” cited on page 297 paragraphs 2 and 3) she pointed to a girl who could talk but never did, then she changed it to someone else(cited in page 297 paragraph 4) the girl steps forward to show her uniform and says,”See, I’m a Brownie.” the narrator

I knew that Scout, in her nature, would still try to defend me even though I told her to try to fight with her mind and voice and not her body. She only wants people to be nice and fair. Sometime after Christmas, I took Jem, Scout, and my brother Jack out to my family’s house. My sister, Alexandra, lives there with her husband. They have a common view on things. Alexandra’s grandson was there to visit over the holidays. I got much flack from Alexandra for defending a Negro. Luckily, Scout was with Francis, Alexandra’s grandson. But, apparently Scout beat up Francis, which didn’t surprise me, but Jack jumped on her and spanked her. Later, he was almost as mad at Francis when he found out why she had hit him. He called me a

The poem “Incident,” by Countee Cullen, was written in the 1920s where racism towards African Americans was extremely prevalent. Jim Crow Laws were heavily enacted in the South, and the mandate of “separate but equal,” was spread across the U.S. This segregated schools, public places, and public transportation, where African American facilities were almost always inferior. Though northern America was thought to be much more progressive, there was still an incredible inequality between blacks and whites. Alvin Ailey said that “one of the worst things about racism is what it does to young people,” and this idea is depicted through the speakers’ childhood memory where he recounts being called “N****r” by another child. The poem presents the power that words have, and how divisive they can be. Through the imagery, diction, syntax, and tone in “Incident,” Cullen powerfully depicts racism and the lasting impact that words have. Furthermore, this poem presents how racism has no boundaries and affects everyone even an innocent child.

This story is about two woman, Twyla and Roberta, who first becomes friends in a shelter when they were young and share a problematic friendship from that point on. Throughout the story there are several moments of tension because of the black/white issue between the two girls.

“Francine Anderson grew up in a small town in Virginia in the 1950s. As a young black girl, she knew all too well about racism in the Jim Crow South- but it wasn’t until one night, driving back home from her grandmother’s house, that she truly understood danger she faced because the color of her skin.” Francine’s dad allowed his car to run out of gas, which had them stuck in an unfortunate predicament. The only place that was available to them for gas in their route was a “white only” truck stop which led her father to risk his life and his kids. “Had my dad been defiant, that’s a risk… you could be killed speaking up for yourself.” What else was he to do for him and his family? He had no choice to risk it; he went up to the door despite the signs and said “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to disturb you or your business. I just got my young kids in the car. Could I just buy a couple of gallons of gas?” After being vulnerable and saying this to the white man, the white man responded: “I don’t deal with your kind” then slammed the door. After that interaction, Anderson’s father came back to the car to later find another man coming to the passenger side window. The stranger acknowledged the behavior from the white man at the truck stop and then offered to not only get gas for the family but to pay for it as well. Once she seen how her dad became “smaller,” Anderson says she immediately felt a sense of her dad being small. After experiencing this, Anderson mentioned “It’s the first time that I realized that there was real danger there. I was 5 years old.”

Being young and impressionable, Laurel, the protagonist, is often deeply affected by the actions and opinions of others. She is quite introverted and withdrawn, preferring not to venture an opinion amongst the chatter of her troop. Laurel’s troop—girls from the south suburbs of Atlanta— consider white people to be “baby pigeons, real and existing, but rarely seen or thought about” (4). When they hear they’re staying