Brown Girl, Brownstones (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Paule Marshall
- First Published: 1959
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: 1939 to the late 1940’s
- Setting: Brooklyn, New York
- Principal Characters: Selina Boyce, Silla Boyce, Deighton Boyce, Ina Boyce, Beryl Challenor, Clive Springer, Rachel Fine
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Social realism, Bildungsroman, Domestic realism
- Subjects: African Americans, Girls, Maturation or coming of age, Family or family life, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Parents and children, Caribbean, Blacks, New York City, 1940’s, 1930’s, Ethnic groups, Ethnic relations, Immigration or emigration, Inner cities or inner-city life
- Locales: Brooklyn, NY
The Novel
Written as an attempt by Paule Marshall to reflect on her own life, Brown Girl, Brownstones is an autobiographically based novel about a young black woman growing up among the Barbadian immigrant community of Brooklyn in the 1940’s. From the beginning, Brown Girl, Brownstones is a novel about the conflicting set of values represented by Deighton and Silla Boyce, with Selina, their daughter and the novel’s main character, caught in the middle. On one side is Deighton Boyce, idle because he lacks the drive and discipline to embrace a culture and its...
[The entire page is 3906 words long]
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