Brownies Short Story

Scout does not feel exactly comfortable being around a group of women and she realizes it with this quote, “ Rather nervous, I took a seat beside Miss Maudie and wondered why ladies put on their hats to go across the street. Ladies in bunches always filled me with vague apprehension and a firm desire to be elsewhere” (307). In that same scene, she succumbs to the pressures of the other women when asked what she wants to do when she grows up, saying “Nome, just a lady” (308). Scout starts to realize that it is inevitable that she deals with the world of ladies. “There is no doubt about it, I must soon enter this world, where on its surface fragrant ladies rocked slowly, fanned gently, and drank cool water. But I was more at home in my father’s world”

The historical context of the story is based on the setting of the 1960s. The story accounts the events of a group of African American girl scouts from Atlanta, who went on a camping trip. During their trip, the all black girl scouts encounter all-white girl scouts, Troop 909, whom they have an altercation

To begin, one character that breaks stereotypes is Scout. A major stereotype that she faces is gender roles. Throughout the novel, she is told by family and neighbors alike to act and dress like a girl. “I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that

Laurel and her troops’ continued racial exclusion and perceived marginalization is another major driving force behind the group’s solidarity. Unlike most of the other girls, Laurel does not seem to have an inherent or genuine prejudice toward white people. Her limited exposure and lack of integration with this group

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

Scout tries to resist her community’s attempts to shape her into a ‘proper’ young lady in several different ways.

From this, one can see that Scout is still in a juvenile state of mind. Furthermore, one can see how the beliefs of the townspeople have been transferred to Scout, who had taken them as they are considered the social norm. She unknowingly accepts their racism when she thinks of Dolphus Raymond as a “sinful man” because he associates himself with black people and “…had mixed children and didn’t care who knowed it.” (201) She does not understand why he freely displays his transgression to the town when it is acknowledged as a wrong thing to do in Maycomb. However, Scout slowly starts to develop her own sense of right and wrong and create her own judgments of others. Boo was once the monster of her childhood, but after witnessing his cordial and courageous actions, she realizes that “he hadn’t done any of those things…he was real nice.” (281) In the end, Scout matures and sheds her childhood nickname to become the young lady called “Jean Louise” by family and friends. (211, 224, 229) This change in Scout is a result of her loss of innocence and is a focal point in the novel to give a thought-provoking perspective on the events of the book.

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

Perhaps, this is why the author sets the background of the story by placing the black troops in the same camp with the intellectually impaired campers, who in fact are considered as righteous. The story “Brownies” projects two class difference; the rich and the conceded and the poor and unfortunate. Here the author uses her main character, Laurel to project the poor and unfortunate by means to form hatred and covetousness. Hatred gives Laurel inside looks and a lack of connection she feels toward the white race they are alienated from each other’s world. “When you lived in the south suburbs of Atlanta, it was easy to forget about whites.” (Packer, 4) Laurel holds the jealousy against the white girls as she sees the white as reach and conceded.

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 story takes place at Camp Crescendo, a summer camp near the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. Our narrator, Laurel, who is in the Brownie troop tells readers about how the word “Caucasian” excites the girls in her troop, to them “Caucasian” was a comical word that can fit any situation. Laurel and the Brownie troop attend Woodrow Wilson Elementary. Laurel gives readers a clue that the South suburbs of Atlanta are predominantly African American when she says, “Even the only white kid in our school, Dennis, got in on the Caucasian act” (Packer).

Imagine you’re a little black girl, living in one of the most segregated cities in the South. A city where you not only had to obey your parents’ rules, but the rules of revengeful white men, who would do everything in their willpower to make sure you would die, if you didn’t. What little girl do you know, would like to be exposed to this type of unnecessary chaos? Little girls are supposed to be having fun, playing with baby dolls, and learning their ABC’s, not worrying about whether or not they would become the next victim of rape or be lynched by the Ku Klux Klan.

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