What Is The Theme Of Racism In 'Brown Girl, Brownstones'

Brown Girl, Brownstones was the novel I chose to read for the class. During class when we had to choose a novel, this was the one that caught my eye automatically just by the title. This novel is by Paule Marshall and was the first novel she ever wrote that was published in 1959. This novel was a very good read in my opinion, the diction and story line was very “breathtaking”. There are many ups and downs throughout this entire novel that the Boyce family went through. Some many events happened in this novel it has more than one theme. The themes are loyalty, racism and immigration.
Loyalty is when you are giving or showing firm and constant support to a person or institution. In Brown Girl, Brownstones the loyalty within this family is very …show more content…
Multi-ethnic racism was the type portrayed in this novel. Multi-ethnic racism is when racism is applied to a certain ethnic group. The Boyce family would fall into this “stereotype or category” because they are from Barbados. Silla and Deighton were the two that went through racism the most. Silla works as a housekeeper, while she cleans throughout the day on all fours scrubbing floors and etc. she goes through aggressive racism. Silla goes through this everyday she worked as a housekeeper. Deighton on the other hand went through racism in a different way. Silla, is the so called money maker of the house, Deighton wanted to change that. Although both parents make money for the family, Deighton wanted to make bigger money. He started to study all different types of subjects such as accounting. Accounting was studied for many months by Deighton but he is warned by his wife, friends and neighbors. The warning was that he would not get hired because of what he was. He wanted a job at the accounting firm very badly but was turned down completely by the Caucasian workers. This was because he was not Caucasian but Bajan and he also did not fit in. After this part, he automatically remembered a time in Barbados when something similar happened to him once …show more content…
I would encourage a lot of people to read it themselves. The themes of loyalty, racism and immigration is a big part of it. Also the growth of the youngest daughter and main character Selina is shown. Loyalty should not be one sided with family. Racism is very hurtful to many people, it still goes on in some places now but it is not as big as it used to be back then. Immigration still is an issue now a days but it is getting fixed day by day. Sometimes is hard for people in life to get through the day without being criticized by the color of their skin, where they are from and to feel loved by the people surrounded by them such as family and