Ghenesis Mendez HumW 011-06 Professor Debelius October 24, 2013 Silence Should be Broken In Brownies,, ZZ Packer blames

societys divide on the lack of communication between different races and among people in the same race. In the story, a troop of young black girls come together to fight another troop of a different race. Throughout the entire story, the narrator, Laurel, faces an internal struggle when deciding whether or not to fight Troop 909. Because no one speaks out against it, or tells her not to, she decides to join the rest of her troop in the fight against the white girls. As the fight gets closer, Laurel realizes that she doesnt even know what shes fighting for, shes just following what seems to be the goal of the rest of the troop, at least those who voice their opinions. The characters in the story justify their exploitation of others with the injustices done to them, both directly and indirectly. Through the use of silence, ZZ Packer suggests that making progress in racial conflict is very difficult when not enough people are willing to talk to each other about their similarities. From the very beginning of Brownies, there is clear divide between our narrator, Laurels, troop, and Brownie Troop 909 which is caused by a lack of communication between races. Before the reader even gets to know who the other troop is, Troop 909 is already portrayed as the enemy. The story begins with the line: By our second day at Camp Crescendo, the girls in my Brownie troop had decided to kick the asses of each and every girl in Brownie Troop 909(1). Equally important is the first description of the other troop: they were white girls (1). This is the root of the problem. As soon as the girls see white people, they are taught to distance themselves instead of talking to them. Moreover, they are taught that they need to defend something even though they do not know what it is. Laurel does not identify a single similarity

between herself and the Troop 909. Packers use of diction proves my point further; the words they, tourists, and invaders to describe Troop 909. She separates both troops and, consequently, both races. Our author also withholds the handicap of the troop until the end of the story. Had it been mentioned earlier, the handicap may have brought the girls together because both blacks and people with disabilities are marginalized in society. Laurel could have also noticed that they were all around the same age, gender, and that they probably had similar interests due to their participation in the camping trip, but she did not mention any of these. This omission provides insight as to what the setting and the social dynamic are in the story. In a southern suburb of Atlanta, where the girls go to school, most of the inhabitants are black. Laurel even says, it was easy to forget about whites(4); the only time they do see whites is shopping and the businessmen who act like Superman. They do not identify the humanity in the whites, which is an issue that shows up multiple times in the story. Laurel and the other characters see the skin color instead of trying to dig deeper and get to know them beyond what they look like. Packer provides many instances where the characters in the stories, of both races, have more in common than they actually notice. The dividing line between them is not as thick as they make it to be, they just are not aware of it because no one communicates with each other. The dehumanization and victimization of whites is something that Laurel is taught by her father. Daphnes poem echoes in Laurels head: you are my father, the veteran(6). She spends the entire story trying to figure out what it means. By the end of the story, a lightbulb turns on in Laurels mind and it is obvious that she finally knows what the poem is talking about. Her father is a fighter, not from a war with guns and bombs, but from a war with race. He tries to fight against the social structure and power dynamic that exists in suburban Atlanta. In this story, there is an interesting shift in who is being victimized; the white people of the story (Troop 909 and

the Mennonites) are judged and are the subjects of racism because the only reason they are treated poorly is for the color of their skin. Laurels father commands the Mennonites, a white religious group who must do every favor they are asked to do, to paint his porch. He takes pleasure in seeing a white man on his knees doing something for a black man for free (27). After the favor was completed, he didnt even thank them. Laurels father is so focused on feeling that power for once that he overlooks his hypocrisy. He is so used to being in a position of less power that he jumps at the chance to make someone else feel the way he does. As she tells this eye opening story, she realizes something about human nature that makes her ashamed. There is something mean in the world that could not be stopped because veterans do not exist because the fight is never over and in order for a veteran to exist, he or she needs to have stopped fighting. Laurel comes to this conclusion silently, however. She says the story out loud so everyone hears that, but her own opinion, which could have been used to teach a valuable lesson to the other girls in the troop, stays in her mind. Although Laurels opinion remains silent, Packers argument is loud and clear. Communication is the only way to progress. In this final scene, Packer makes it very obvious that Laurel shouldve spoken up and told the rest of the girls how she thought what her father did was mean and unnecessary because it is very hypocritical to bring someone else down as a retaliation to being oppressed yourself. In Brownies, various fights occur simultaneously which bring light to the racial tensions between the two troops. The characters create problems with one another and in their minds because they refuse to talk about where the problems actually originate. There is the actual fight between Laurels troop, Laurels own fight where she debates whether or not she wants to join the cause or remain pacifist in a world where fighting/separation seems to be the center, and Laurels fathers fight against the white Mennonites who he takes pleasure in having power over.

The only reason Packer directly states for the troops fight is because Arnetta thought she heard one of the girls calling Daphne a nigger. Although Packer does not say it directly, it is evident that many of the girls see violence as the only way to resolve their problem. Every time one of them recommends a peaceful solution, either Octavia, Arnetta, or silence shuts them down. Because they do not know each others stances on the issue, they decide to do what seems most natural to them: fight. Through the use of Daphnes silence, Packer comments on the positive effects of speaking. The first time Daphnes voice is heard is in her poem: You are my father, the veteran / When you cry in the dark/It rains and rains and rains in my heart (6). She shares her poem with the entire school, but does not discuss it further. For much of the story she is silent. When the girls were asking her about whether or not someone called her nigger, she did not respond; she also did not respond when the girls were in the bathroom plotting the fight; she does not write anything in the journal she gives to Laurel; and finally, she does not speak after Laurel finishes her story. All of these instances could have been very valuable in order to create solidarity between Daphne and Laurel. Two voices are louder and more powerful than one, and people are generally more likely to speak up when they know that they are not alone. Through her poem, Daphne reveals an important part of herself that reveals the pain she feels when there is violence. She removes herself from the violence in order to prove a point that violence is not the way to solve things. However, her method of dealing with conflict is not accepted by the rest of the girls because she does not tell them anything. She removes herself, but does not encourage the rest of the girls to do so with her. We do not know why her father is crying, but we do know that it is dark and that he has stopped fighting from something. The darkness is a sign of silence; when someone is in the dark about something, they are in the unknown. The only way to get out

of the darkness is to gain knowledge and that can happen either through experience or through communication with others. Laurel does not understand what Daphnes poem means when she first hears it. She does not connect what Daphnes father is fighting for to what her own father is fighting for, nor does she connect the darkness to the silence. When Laurel is telling her story and Octavia tells her to shut up, Daphne speaks once again and says, Go on, Laurel (26). It seems that she knows where Laurels story is was getting to. It seems that she sees through Laurels actions and recognizes a big similarity between herself and Laurel: their yearning for peace through words. Violence is engrained in the culture and is passed on from generation to generation and is what causes Laurels own struggle in the story and is a result of a long history of very little communication between the blacks and whites. When the girls are getting ready to fight, Laurel says even though I didnt fight to fight, was afraid of fighting, I felt I was part of the rest of the troop; like I was defending something(19). She does not even know exactly what she is fighting for, but she goes along with it anyway because its the norm. Its ironic that theyre all so invested in a cause, but very few of them actually know why its such a big deal. Theres a community that she wants to be a part of, but the only way she thinks she can be part of it is by fighting. She ignores the humanity of the white girls that she wants to fight by noticing only their skin color and immediately deciding that they would not be friends. This ambiguity leaves Laurel and the rest of the girls with an unclear understanding of what it is that they should be so passionate about fighting for. Crescendo literally means a progressive increase in force or effect; Laurel had a chance to use her voice (which had been silenced so many times) to increase the impact of her own conclusion about this inherent meanness in the world, but she does not. Because of her silence, by the end of

the story everyone except Laurel and Daphne remain in the mindset that violence and silence is the only way to resolve racial conflict. Unless people like Laurel and Daphne speak up, there will be no progress in racial relations.

Work Cited ZZ Packer. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. "Brownies." New York, Riverhead Books, 2003. XV, 131. Print.