Marshall Brown Girl Reconc Ethn Indiv Essay Example

forms of nationalism, including black nationalism, Pan-Africans, and Negritude, all of which begin with the assumption that all individuals of the same race are united. While Graver's work explicitly makes race its own program, Du Bois' view in The Souls of Black Folk also highlights the contributions that different races can offer humanity. Despite these ideas, Brown Girl, Brownstones challenges the notion that ethnicity determines one's fate and instead celebrates individualism as a crucial value.Despite feeling that responsibility towards her ethnic group or heritage is a duty she cannot escape, the protagonist of Marshal's novel attempts to construct herself as both an autonomous individual and a fated group member in the complicated American landscape of regional, religious, and ethnic affiliation. According to Werner Colors, constructing this identity can be difficult. Initial readings of the novel focused on the duality of oppositions and emphasized individualism, except for a 1959 review which recognized the conflict between Digestion's longing for Barbados and Sill's desire to invest in their home. This review also highlighted ancillary characters and the community while dismissing the power of chapters featuring the protagonist. A 1975 article by Marcia Seizes further emphasized the novel's individualism by seeing Salina's rejection of the Association of Barbarian Homeowners as symbolic of her rejection of the Barbarian community and interpreting tension between Salina's parents as representative of Salina's inner struggle.Kimberly W. Benson discusses the clash of values in Brown Girl, Brownstones, including material versus spiritual, pragmatism versus dreaming, old versus young, and white versus Black. However, Benson ultimately concludes that Salina's expression of self is what she values most, similar to the theme of self-realization in Bloodcurdling. In a

review by Adam David Miller in The Black Scholar in 1972, he highlights the strong interconnection between the main characters and their relationships with each other. Miller also comments on Salina's personal reaction to a racist incident, but approves of the novel's depiction of the Barbarians opening themselves up to intercourse with U.S. Blacks as a step towards enlightenment and group solutions.The review criticizes Salina's individuality, while the novel aims to show how she learns to cope with the oppressive demands of the community. The review demonstrates the rationale behind Marshall's decision to write the book. Brown Girl, Brownstones recounts Salina's coming-of-age story, exploring her relationship with the people around her, particularly her mother Sills. Despite dominating the household and exerting control over economic matters and her children's lives, Sills is portrayed as ruthless and cruel. Salina's resistance to her mother's influence and fear of becoming like her lead to her growth as a character. Through these struggles, Salina establishes her individuality and connection to her ethnicity. The novel also establishes Salina as somewhat separate from her family, successfully reconciling individualism and communality.Salina fully immerses herself in family and community as a child, but she also seems wise beyond her years. This approach assumes that ethnicity can be constructive, allowing individuals to deviate from group norms without challenging their ethnic identity. Salina's second-generation status is evident in her lack of experience with Barbados, yet both her family and community expect her to remain loyal to their customs. At the same time, she is drawn to the idea of progress embodied by American capitalism. Balancing these competing influences, Salina must demonstrate the strength to harmonize the

past with the present and create a new and revolutionary presence in the United States. Despite her young age, Salina is already strong-willed and mature, but she also desires an escape from her surroundings. When she first appears in the novel as a ten-year-old girl, her appearance suggests that she is older than her years – with a determined expression and eyes that betray a deeper understanding of the world than one would expect from a child.In their centers lay something ancient, as Saline knew the world beyond the dark hall and desired to depart from the safety of the sunlit upper house. Her slimness hinted at her ascetic character and her disdain for material possessions that emerges later in the novel. The toughness reflected in her scraped legs and strong nose, as well as her curious nature, indicated her contrasted traits derived from her mother's rigidness and father's sensuality. The conflict between these opposing traits creates a dynamic character, ultimately forming Salina-the-grogl Oman. Her self-sufficiency stems from her values linked to her ethnicity, especially through Sills. As an independent and strong-willed character, it is consistent for Salina to reject what is considered as the cultural norm, viewed as materialism, and the obsession with buying a house, prevalent in the Barbarian community of New York.As a child, Salina witnesses her mother's friend, Iris, criticize her mother for not buying a house due to her father, Digestion's failure to do so. Iris lists out an endless list of women who have achieved this goal. The community values buying a house to be respectable, as seen in a communal wedding scene where Digestion is rejected for not

prioritizing a down-payment over luxury spending. Salina rejects this value system. Her physical growth is commented on by Sills' friend, who tells her to act like a woman and keep quiet. Sills announces her plan to sell land inherited by Digestion in Barbados for a down-payment, conflating her mother's materialism with her physical growth. Salina reacts by threatening Sills' friend with a broken glass.  In the novel, Salina experiences a frenzy of rejection and tries to rub off an indelible imprint. This rebellion against materialism reappears throughout the book, as seen in her belief that love and breath cannot be bought in stores and her disapproval of her friends' money-oriented career goals. Salina's desire for individuality is evident when she observes that her friend Beryl's face has lost its individual mold due to conformity. Salina does not want to fulfill the expectations set by her community and views ethnicity as a conformity to materialism. She denounces this materialistic mindset when visiting the Association of Barbarian Homeowners and Businessmen. As Heather Hathaway notes, the demand for Salina to conform to community mandates is asphyxiating. Despite not being certain of the values she wants to replace materialism with, she is positive that she does not want to conform to the mold cast by her community.The Association, named "the biggest thing since Marcus Graver" in the novel, represents Saline's battle against ethnic nationalism. It serves as a visible symbol of the small black community's political awakening and determination. Saline admires the communal strength of her ethnic group and envies their sense of purpose but rejects them as "Clannish, narrow-minded and selfish" as she perceives they have lost their

individuality. The novel critiques the association between anti-materialism and ethnicity which is integral to many forms of ethnic nationalism. This idea is similar to Du Bois's statement in The Souls of Black Folk that black men are the only oasis of faith in a world consumed by materialism.In Brown Girl, Brownstones, Salina challenges the typical immigrant novel's focus on building a community with straightforward cultural motives agreed upon by all. William Bellower identifies this consensus-building as the basic plot for most immigrant novels. However, Salina rejects this conformity and instead seeks freedom beyond its boundaries. Interestingly, her rejection of coercive ethnic solidarity aligns with the ideology of individualism found in mainstream nationalism. This exclusion from the ethnic community does not lead to assimilation, though. Instead, the novel establishes new ethnic boundaries that highlight Frederick Berth's thesis that ethnic identity relies on borders rather than cultural content. Werner Colors notes this in a discussion of Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee.Saline's position is influenced by her parents' immigrant background, their cultural experiences, and expectations upon arriving in the U.S., resulting in differing definitions of ethnicity from Saline's own. Despite this, she does not fully embrace individualism and instead attempts to establish independence by refusing to conform to the acquisitive aspect of her ethnic community. The novel depicts characters who exist between strong ethnic solidarity and individualism, and these characters are shown positively. Brown Girl, Brownstones emphasizes the importance of appreciating one's ethnic community as a part of personal identity, as it is necessary for black women to commit to selenologists.The character known as Digestion is caught in the middle of individualism and the desires of his ethnic community,

as he does not adhere to the community's expectation of saving money for a house. Community leader Percy Challenge expresses the community's disapproval, stating that those from Bridgetown are ignorant in money and property management. Although Digestion embraces his Barbarian upbringing, he does not meet all the standards for full community membership.
Another character, Siege, who lives in Sill's house, also fully embraces Barbarian culture and has positive memories of the island. However, she is viewed as an outsider due to her promiscuity. Despite being one of Salina's closest friends, Siege is eventually evicted by Sills. Feeling marginalized but resisting community pressure, Siege tells Salina that she must pretend to conform to the community's expectations by working tirelessly, saving every penny, and refraining from love or frivolous spending. But she refuses to give up her right to make her own decisions about her life and money.Both Digestion and Siege serve as examples for Salina, showing her the importance of following one's chosen path in life. Despite their tragic endings - Digestion's suicide and Siege's uncertain future - they provide warmth, affection, and a sense of enjoyment that is absent in a community solely focused on work and acquisition. Salina realizes that being a Barbarian is not defined by an essentialist value. However, she discovers that she shares many traits with her mother, who embodies the Barbarian immunity. Initially, Salina rebels against her mother's heritage - strong will and inexhaustible energy - defining herself as "Digestion's Salina" in opposition to her mother and the Barbarian community. Perceiving the ethnic community as a monolithic block, she derives her identity from characters like her father and Siege, whom

that community condemns. Her choice of boyfriend, Clive, confirms this direction: he is a struggling artist who rejects the work ethic of the Barbarian community but is paralyzed by self-doubt and unable to create like Digestion.Salina is faced with the difficult realization that her oppositional behavior and pursuit of goals may be similar to her mother's. She realizes this when observing similarities between herself and her mother. Later, in an attempt to leave town with Clive, Salina wins a scholarship intended for schooling. She decides to deceive the scholarship providers into funding her trip instead, echoing her mother's determination to achieve goals at any cost. Despite this negative influence, Salina demonstrates maturity by recognizing multiple viewpoints and values without condemnation.In a paradoxical twist, Salina's individualism ultimately allows her to have a greater respect and tolerance for the values of her mother and ethnic group, despite their lack of allowance for individualism and emphasis on ethnic coherence. While she may declare to her mother, "I'm not interested in houses," she no longer scorns her or her values, recognizing that individuals have the right to want different things. As she asserts her emerging self-hood, she begins to understand that owning possessions is both an economic and personal declaration of one's humanity. Salina comes full circle when she realizes that her mother, once a symbol of ethnic conformity, was also driven by her own individualism when she left home at age eighteen. Thus, Salina sees that communal and individualistic values are not necessarily incompatible."Interestingly, in this passage, Salina employs a slight Barbarian English inflection ("was your own woman") that is uncharacteristic of her otherwise American English speech. this

phrasing signifies her embracing of ethnicity as she speaks about the possibility of co-existing individualism and ethnicity, using her mother as an example - a symbol of the Barbarian community for Salina. The reconciliation with her mother also represents the fusion of the polarized ways of being she previously envisioned: either resembling her father, who was starkly different from her mother or becoming like her mother. Her worldview has become more intricate. Two critical factors contributed to this shift: a more comprehensive experience of the world beyond her home and ethnic community and exposure to racism. Initially, when Salina enters college, she perceives the outside world as empty and superficial compared to the intense drama of the ethnic home life she knows, which she regards as more authentic and real: "The chill feel of utter desertion she had watching Siege leave persisted through her first year of college.

This was real while everything that happened at school had the unreality of a play viewed from a high balcony" (212).Salina reflects on her relationship with the Barbarian community only after experiencing cold, racist condescension from the mother of a fellow dancer at a postmeridian cast party. She realizes that the mother, along with Baja women, has lived each day facing the same struggles that she has come to understand. Salina wonders how the mother was able to contain her swift rage, considering her sudden outbursts that stunned everyone and split the serenity of the house. She also acknowledges unity in common oppression and concludes that she has no right to judge her mother or the community. Salina comes to

understand that the Barbarian community's acquisitiveness is a defense mechanism against racism, an attempt to fight back against exclusion. Barbara Christian talks about this defensiveness, stating that it compels and insists every part of the community to bend towards a common goal, which is owning a brownstone or possessing property as a bulwark against poverty, racism, and failure (Novelists 82).The desire to protect and shield the younger generation from an unfriendly white world can be interpreted as pressure to conform (9). When Sill learns of Saline's plan to leave home, she makes a protective gesture and warns her about the dangers of the outside world, highlighting this desire (306). The ethnic group's coercion is a manifestation of their insecurity and the realization that individuality may harm the group's efforts to survive in a hostile society (Hathaway 132). Saline's experience of racism reveals that her skin color, rather than her culture, will determine her social and economic status (Detention 24-25), blurring ethnic distinctions and serving as a form of 'Americanization.' Even though the racist incident helps Salina understand the need for ethnic solidarity, it also highlights that color might be more significant than ethnic culture. The conclusion is ambiguous; Salina rejects a scholarship from the Barbarian Association because she believes she obtained it by pretending to have false motivations. However, this moment also leads her to feel the weight of love and experience a strong sense of ethnic solidarity, perhaps for the first time.Salina contemplates her community on her way to receive a scholarship. She admires their endurance and feels love towards them, realizing that she is a part of them. She sees the varied reflections

of her own dark face in the crowd and is in awe of their resilience despite adverse circumstances. Her individuality is now understood as a variation on a theme rather than standing in opposition. However, she also feels alienated because she is not willing to do the community's adding, even though she recognizes that her strength and the community's strength are the same. This paradoxical realization underpins her purpose to reveal that she does not share in their goals. The applause burst afresh as Salina gazes wonderingly over the smiling faces resembling a dark sea alive with endless mutations of one color (302-03).The revelation, occurring during a time of great unity between Salina and the community, highlights the division between individualism and communality once again. Despite declining an award because it represented something she didn't desire, Salina leaves the hall to the sound of hollow words and her own rustling. Her detachment from the community is solidified as she walks away from familiar faces, feeling isolated and alone. The price of embracing individuality seems to be at odds with ethnic solidarity and communalism. (303)