When I first read about Deighton in Brown Girl, Brownstones, I though he was a cool guy. He had a dream and loved his family (somewhat). And I respect him for it. Though, he did lack motivation and wasn’t being realistic, he didn’t seem like a problem until book 3 and 4. I understand his reason for not wanting to sell the piece of land in Barbados. It was true that it was his land and he had a right to it. The only thing that I would condemn him for is that he wasn’t being practical with the land. He could at least rent it until he had enough money to pursue his dream. When Silla went ahead and sold her land with forgery and all, I was sympathetic to Deighton, who lost a dream and his hope. Though I also saw this as a wakeup call for Deighton to get on his feet and earn his dream. However, I no longer feel that way. After he claimed the 900 dollars, he went on a shopping spree and wasted all the money on useless things. It seemed like it was considered a lot of money back then, so I did some research to see what the value of one dollar in 1940 would equal to now. According to DollarTimes.com, $900 has a value of $15,095 today. That’s a lot of money. In just one day, Deighton wasted all 15 thousand dollars, which is something I can’t imagine. As I was reading, I felt the rage Silla had felt.
Transnationalism is a theme in Brown Girl, Brownstones and it is examined further in the JSTOR article. I couldn’t help but think how the Chinese immigrants also had a trans-nationalistic history. My grandfather was one of many Chinese that went to the South America to earn money and send home, similar to United States immigrants sending money home. He was always between the two countries. Today, we still have this transnationalism with some Chinese immigrants. Many of my neighbors are new immigrants and frequently contact relatives who are still living in China. A few times a year, the family would visit their relatives. This reflects the transnationalism that the article describes. My neighbors are able to have frequent contact only because of the improvement of technology. Skype, long distance telephone calls, and planes all contribute to the strong ties connecting immigrants to their home countries.
