AI ToolsNew
Tools to make learning and teaching easier
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’s memories sit alongside her friends’ memories about their own mothers. Ever since Gigi was a child, Gigi’s mother has told her she is beautiful enough to be a famous actress. She praises the beautiful shape of Gigi’s eyes, which Gigi inherited from her half-Chinese great-grandmother. Gigi is also African American, which her mother says is a “curse.” Thinking this way, she instructs Gigi to “find a way past” the color of her skin, urging her to avoid the sun so her skin doesn’t darken. Gigi repeats this to her friends, telling them what her mother has said. In response, they crowd around her and admire the beautiful colors woven throughout her hair, telling her that they can’t wait for the day when everybody in the country will know her name.
When Gigi’s mother speaks negatively about the darkness of her skin, she makes the implication that it’s impossible for black people to become famous actors. By urging Gigi to avoid anything that will darken her skin tone, she subjects her daughter to colorism (racism within the same racial group), thereby perpetuating racist ideas that will only make it harder for Gigi to proceed through life with confidence. Thankfully, though, August and the other girls are there to support Gigi when her mother fails, assuring her that she’ll certainly become famous despite her mother’s internalized racism.
Themes
One day, Gigi asks August, Sylvia, and Angela, “What keeps keeping us here?” Her shirt is torn, and the girls don’t know why she’s asking this, but they soon learn that a veteran living under the stairwell in her building brought Gigi into this space and raped her. The girls are 12 at the time. Knowing that Gigi’s mother will only blame her for what happened, Gigi says she can’t tell her. Gigi’s friends assure her that it wasn’t her fault and they pool together their change and go to the bodega to buy razorblades, telling Gigi to hide them and use them on the soldier the next time he comes near. Feeling their support, Gigi asks them if the four of them will always be together, and they insist that they will. Shortly after this, the soldier is found dead under the stairwell with a heroin needle in his hand.
Gigi’s rape is one of the first indications that August and her friends live in an environment that is incredibly and undeniably dangerous for young women. Worse, Gigi knows her mother would blame her if she told her what happened—a sign that the girls’ surrounding community tacitly condones violence against women by turning a blind eye and absolving male rapists and abusers of their transgressions. And though Gigi no longer has to worry about her rapist when he dies of a heroin overdose, the fact remains that Gigi and the girls are still largely unprotected by society.
Themes
August focuses on Angela’s skin color, which is so light that she can see her friend’s veins winding through her body. Whenever Angela dances, August and the others sense sadness coursing through her. Meeting up with them after returning from dance school one day, Angela casually notes that her mother used to be a dancer. When the girls ask if Angela’s mother still dances, though, Angela shuts down and indicates that she doesn’t want to talk about this anymore. Still, she says that her mother “kind of” dances, then she asks her friends why everything has to be so complicated. Burying her face in Gigi’s hair, Angela begins to weep, and the girls crowd around her, reminding her that they love her and urging her to keep dancing no matter what.
By this point, it is rather clear that whatever Angela is struggling with in her personal life has something to do with her mother. This is made especially evident by the fact that she breaks into tears after casually referencing that her mother used to be a dancer. Though Angela won’t elaborate on why, exactly, this is such an upsetting topic, she still allows her friends to comfort her, thereby illustrating the power of companionship and interpersonal support.
Themes
Upgrade to unlock the analysis and theme tracking for all of Another BrooklynAnother Brooklyn!
Get LitCharts A+
August starts to wish she was Sylvia, admiring her beauty and confidence. In fact, everyone in the friend group covets Sylvia, who is not only beautiful but fiercely intelligent. In keeping with this, she reads the books assigned in school to her older sister, studies advanced math after school, and learns Latin. Meanwhile, Sylvia’s father quotes French philosophers at home and urges her to study law. When August and the others ask Sylvia if she actually wants to be a lawyer, she says she doesn’t even know. This causes August to reflect upon the fact that parents try to push their children into their own “failed futures.” August’s father insists that she’s smart enough to become a teacher, Sylvia’s father wants her to become a lawyer, Angela’s mother instills in Angela a desire to become a professional dancer, and Gigi’s mother urges Gigi to become a famous actress.
In many ways, it’s a good thing for parents to urge their children do pursue ambitious goals, since this can be a way of guiding them into stable and rewarding lives. However, August has a negative view of this style of parenting, seeing it as a way of steering people like her and her friends into “failed futures,” or futures that parents never accomplished for themselves. And though this might be the case, it’s worth considering that this idea might have something to do with the fact that August doesn’t know what her mother would want for her, since she’s not in her life. Therefore, listening to what her friends parents want for their daughters (or listening to what her father wants for her) is simply yet another reminder of her mother’s absence.
Themes
Get the entire Another Brooklyn LitChart as a printable PDF.
