Brown Girl Brownstoness Analysis

Paule Marshall in her first semi-autobiographical novel Brown girl, Brownstones gives a panoramic view of the multifarious aspects of black experience through a collage of black men and women characters in the Depression era America. The central figure Selina Boyce, the point of impact of the novel, who like “a faceted crystal or gem mounted on a pivot” (Marshall, Brown girl, Brownstones 237)refracts light on a multitude of themes and experiences pivotal in the construction of the contemporary post-War diasporic Afro-American consciousness. Issues of racism, poverty, nostalgia for the homeland, an urge to migrate from the marginal to the mainstream, rising atmosphere of ethnic solidarity, pan-Africanism and Garveyism forms the matrix of the
Selina rejects the scholarship awarded by the Association as a firm declaration of the digressive course she intends to take, because it means to her “something I don’t want for myself…” (262). Through reconciliation with her ethnic community, her divided self achieves integration. Her search for her purpose in life is over. She doesn’t want to be a part of her community, yet she has internalized the community within herself. Thus, even though she had resisted ethnic communalism in the beginning, she embraces the principal credo of Marcus Garvey-- of “return to one’s roots”, as her purpose in life. Initially opposed to her mother’s fierce competitiveness, she finally realizes the same ruthless determination and purposefulness charge both their lives. She has come to know who she is, and what she wants, because she has come to know where she comes from and what her roots are. Thus her quest towards wholeness begins by journeying to her roots, her origins, her heritage. However her journey towards fulfillment should occur without the support and solidarity of her immediate family and community. Like Tom Wingfield of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie and Tennyson’s Ulysses, Selina chooses the inevitable course of desertion and alienation from her own people in order to fulfill her commitment towards self-realisation. She says,“…in making your way you always hurt someone” (265). Her symbolic act of throwing away one of her silver bangles “she had always worn” (268) is an attestation of the fact that severance from the encumbrances of an old life is necessary to begin a new one. After her rejection of the scholarship awarded to her she