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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Another Brooklyn, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Loss, Denial, and Grief
Friendship, Womanhood, and Support
Religion, Tradition, and Death
Racism and Classism
Summary
Analysis
August jumps back in time to when she’s still 16, narrating a trip she takes with her father and brother back to SweetGrove. It is the first time they have returned since they moved to Brooklyn, and August is shocked to find the land significantly changed. Where their house once stood, there are now thick weeds that are taller than August herself. As she walks around, she can smell the nearby water and hear it lapping against the shore. Walking toward it, she passes bright signs that say “NO TRESPASSING. PRIVATE LAND. DO NOT CROSS.”
Finally, August confronts the landscape that looms large in her memories of her mother and childhood. It’s worth noting that the government has completely reclaimed this land, turning August into a trespasser on the very grounds to which she used to feel so intimately connected. Moreover, the house she grew up in has been destroyed, a representation of the fact that she literally cannot return to her past. In turn, August has to face the harsh reality that the world has continued to develop and change in the aftermath of her mother’s death. In this sense, she has not only lost her mother, but also the landscape of her childhood.
Themes
August walks past the trespassing signs and makes her way to the water, where she looks out over the inky black surface. In retrospect, she remembers Sister Sonja’s question about when August first realized her mother was dead, and though she’s tempted to say that she still hasn’t accepted this, she knows that the true answer is that she accepted the truth that day while staring at the water. Years later, at the diner after burying their father, August’s brother asks her why she used to tell him that their mother would come back, and she tells him that she simply believed it was true.
August is finally able to be completely honest with herself only after returning to SweetGrove and seeing the water in which her mother drowned herself. This is because there’s no way to deny that everything SweetGrove used to be no longer exists—the house is gone, the land has been reclaimed, and August’s mother is nowhere to be found. In the same way that August can’t pretend the house still stands, she can no longer delude herself that her mother is alive.
Themes
August sees Angela once again when she’s in her first year at Brown. August is sitting in a dorm with a boy when she unexpectedly recognizes a woman on the TV before her. She and the boy are watching a movie about a dancer, and Angela has just appeared onscreen. As Angela dances, August recognizes the grace in her body and calls out her name, and though the boy she’s with merely remarks that Angela is “hot,” August ignores him, whispering, “Angela […] You made it.”
Angela’s appearance on TV most likely plays an important role in August’s path through life. Now that she’s in college, she has to find a way to navigate the world on her own, without the help of her old friends. That Angela has succeeded despite the hardship she went through with her own mother’s death ultimately shows August that it’s possible not only to move on from painful experiences, but to succeed in the face of staggering loss. Needless to say, this is a crucial message for August to receive, since she herself is still fighting to process her mother’s death (and, for that matter, Gigi’s death).
Themes
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Returning to her final experience at SweetGrove, August recalls her father telling her and her brother that it’s time for them to leave. She’s still watching the water but she doesn’t mind the idea of departing, knowing that there’s no longer anything for her in Tennessee. Looking up, she reflects upon the fact that no matter what, everything and every person in life fades to memory.
The final lines of Another Brooklyn suggest that August has finally learned to accept that loss is an inherent part of life. Although she has tried hard to deny her mother’s death, she now sees that it’s futile to delude herself in this manner. Thinking this way, she embraces life’s impermanence, recognizing once and for all that there is no way to avoid loss, which is integral to the human experience itself.
Themes
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