In the novel Brown Girl, Brownstones, written by Paule Marshall, Books 3 to 5 shows the many themes that interwove the community into one unit. At the onset of WWII, Selina starts to get her period. These are the first signs of Selina’s development of her physical maturity. She starts to feel grown up and that she could handle adult conversations. However, societal pressures influence Selina into believing that she needs curves on her body to seem like a mature female. Every morning for a month, Selina would feel her chest to see if her breasts were developing. In addition to this daily routine that she starts, she also feels immature compared to her best friend Beryl and her sister Ina. Beryl and Ina are portrayed as curvaceous girls with very feminine attributes. These scenes show the inner struggles that every girl faces as they develop at one part of their lives.
One of the most influential scenes in the literary piece is the Breakfast Scene that occurs just after the onset of World War II. Three working mothers, Silla, Florrie Trotman, and Iris Hurley, are sitting in Silla’s kitchen talking about politics, weddings, owning houses, and other gossip. This scene hints at many ongoing themes that continue to develop as the book goes on. Silla blames the politicians personally for starting the war and then sending their sons in the draft. She says this with the same passion as if her son were being sent to the draft even though her son is dead. This scene shows the first hints of Silla still mourning for the death of her son. As the scene goes on, Florrie and Iris talk about all the families in the Barbadian community of Brooklyn who are buying houses and stabilizing their future in the United States of America. Silla becomes enraged that Deighton does not want to sell his land for the money to pay as the down payment for the house. She becomes and obsessed and determined to do anything in her capability to sell his land.
Another very symbolic scene is the wedding of ‘Gatha’s daughter. In this scene, one thing to note is that the whole Barbadian community attends this wedding, showing how intricately the Barbadian society was interconnected. Everyone knew each other at the wedding and the wedding was very elaborate and ornate. The bride’s mother, “Gatha, was beautifully dressed and she made a great entry. However, from Selina’s description of the wedding, the wedding was placed in honor for the mother more so than for the bride and the groom. The bride had wanted to marry a Southern black guy. However, ‘Gatha forced her daughter to marry another Barbadian and she had three houses already. She was a very successful and honorable lady in the Barbadian community and this wedding was her chance to show off to the community at the bride’s expense.
Racism is a prevailing theme throughout the book. There are many instances that highlight the scenarios that Caribbean black immigrants faced in the society. The first instance was when Deighton was studying to get a job as an accountant. He was studying so that he could get a high wage job just like his white counterparts. Although many people warned him that he wouldn’t get the job because of his skin color, he continued to study. However, when he tried to apply for the job, he was denied the job because he was seen as a lower class man due to his skin color. This scene showed just how hard it was for colored immigrants to change and move up the social ladder in society. Another instance of racism in the book is the scene when Selina goes to her friend’s house. Selina just participated in a dance show where she was the solo dancer in a dance titled “From Birth to Death”. Her, Rachel, and Margaret all go to Margaret’s house to celebrate Selina’s successful dance. After Selina and the other girls have some drinks and start dancing in Margaret’s room, Margaret’s mother calls to see Selina. Margaret’s mother is a white woman who starts questioning Selina about her and her parents’ whereabouts. When she finds out that Selina is Barbadian, she goes on to torment Selina by saying racist things, such as that Barbadians serve as the best maids, are better than the Southern blacks, have amusing West Indian accents, and are helpless about their skin color. This intense scene goes on to scar Selina for the rest of her life. Selina explains later on in the book that from that day onwards, every time she looked into another white person’s eyes, she would be forced to remember the scene with Margaret’s mother.
Societal establishments are also a main prevalent theme throughout the book. The Barbadian Association and numerous churches make their influence on Selina’s family and the community. The Barbadian Association is this tight knit community of all the Barbadian immigrants who pool their resources to further their causes. This Association had plans of establishing their own bank system, providing scholarships to Barbadian students who are trying to become professionals, and by providing housing agreements in local areas. This Association was tightly interwoven and had a lot of influence; they had the ability to take away the houses that people owned if they went against the Association. Churches largely influence Deighton and Ina. Ina joins that St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church and spends a large part of her day doing church activities. Deighton, as an extreme case, becomes completely enamored by the Peace Movement Church and ends up losing his individual personality in the process. He decides on the urging of Father Peace to leave Selina and his family behind to live with the Father Peace in his restaurant, where he now works as a cashier. All these Associations and establishments showed just how strongly they kept the community tied to one another. The communities became immensely dependent on these establishments to further their personal causes in the world of politics and economics.
In the article “From Immigrant to Transmigrant: Theorizing Transnational Migration” were written by Nina Schiller, Linda Basch, and Cristina Blanc. The article had an interesting take on the term transmigration, explaining that many people view it in a negative connotation. To many native people, the term exemplifies the unnecessary effort that immigrants have to make to assimilate into a new society. However, the article argues this by saying that people should start using the term transmigrant. Many of these immigrants continue to keep their connections with their native countries. They keep in touch with their family members there and they receive support from their families. When times get hard in the foreign countries, this is the moment when ties across nations become their strongest. The immigrants keep their cultural identity with their native country so that they have a feeling of belongingness. With Capitalism, certain cities in the foreign countries start to weaken and disintegrate. This is when the immigrants use their family ties in the native countries to do them favors and gain support. The native countries also start to prosper and develop from these transmigrants. They immigrants would earn money and then invest them in family businesses. These immigrants should not be considered as uprooted and displaced because they continue to have their emotional and family connections to their native countries while they learn to understand the foreign country in which they live in, similar to the Greek Diaspora.
