Stereotypes In Paule Marshall's Brown Girl, Brownstones

Paule Marshall 's Brown Girl, Brownstones is a remarkable novel of an astonishing young woman, named Selina Boyce. She is the daughter of Barbadian immigrants; her mother, Silla and her father, Deighton. Growing up in Brooklyn during the eras of the Depression and World War II, Selina lived a rough life. Throughout the novel, the struggles of her mother and father in Barbadian neighborhood were seen through their differences and desires for dissimilar things. Along with her parents is Ina, Selina 's older sister and that makes up the whole Boyce family. They all have to adapt to the society they lived in as well as being criticized by gender, as a foreigner and most importantly by their skin color. Throughout the novel, Selina seeks to define her own identity and values. Not only does she and her family face these horrifying issues, they also have to learn to survive in a large, hostile world. Furthermore, Selina learns the meaning of being black, particularly a Caribbean black after immigrating to white America.
Stereotype is a rigid image of the members of a particular group in which it may be true or untrue. This can be referred to Selina as her image is a Barbadian black American and she was discriminated by the people in her neighborhood. "Discrimination is a behavior that treats people unfairly on the basis of their group membership and prejudice is an attitude that prejudges a person on the basis of a real or imagined characteristic of a group to which that person belongs" (Kornblum