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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
The final white people left in August’s neighborhood move away. August and her friends never got to know these families, all of whom are Irish or Italian immigrants, but they watch them load their moving vans and depart. August thinks about how these families must be afraid of the boys playing in the streets, mistaking sticks for weapons and wooden tops for dangerous spikes. Even though some children sing, “Ungawa, Black Power. Destroy! White boy!” everyone knows these are just songs—everyone, that is, except the white people who permanently flee the neighborhood.
Woodson’s attention to the phenomenon known as “white flight” underlines the tense racial dynamics constantly playing out in the background of August’s life. There is an inherent sense of racism in the fact that white families are leaving because they suddenly find themselves surrounded by black people, as if this is reason enough to relocate. Trying to make sense of this, August wonders if her white neighbors are frightened because of the altogether harmless songs that some black children sing, and she undoubtedly has a hard time imagining that this small amount of animosity would be strong enough to drive white people away forever.
Themes
August’s brother develops an interest in math and starts doing problems that are far beyond his age level. He explains to August what it means for something to be “absolute,” adding how much he likes that nobody can argue against the truth in mathematics. Then, switching gears, he abruptly looks up from a worksheet and tells August that their mother is never going to return. “She’s gone, August,” he says. “It’s absolute.”
August’s brother gravitates toward anything that gives him a sense of certainty. This clashes with August’s unwillingness to acknowledge reality, which is why her brother goes out of his way to tell her that their mother is undeniably “gone”—something he finds himself capable of accepting once he learns the value of recognizing “absolute” truths. This mindset aligns with his later affinity for religion and its ability to help him accept things that might otherwise feel uncertain.
Themes
In the fall, the woman from child services returns and takes Jennie’s children away once again. The woman has to carry the younger child in her arms, but the older sibling willingly trots down the stairs and exits the building, not even looking back when she reaches the street.
The willingness of Jennie’s oldest child to leave Jennie behind stands in stark contrast to everything August feels about her relationship with her own mother. Whereas August would do anything to go back to her mother even though her mother was incapable of caring for her, Jennie’s child is ready to move on with her life because she recognizes that her unstable, drug-addicted mother is only making things harder for her. In turn, witnessing this surely complicates August’s desire to be reunited with her own mother.
Themes
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As August continues to wait for her mother to come back to the family, she imagines that the women her father brings to the apartment late at night will act as surrogate mothers in the meantime. Lying bed, she hears her father dropping ice cubes into two glasses and she fantasizes about waking up to find a woman cooking the family breakfast and sitting the children down at the table to serve them pancakes. She even pictures sharing pig’s feet and ham with whomever fills her mother’s place—but the woman with whom her father eventually becomes serious doesn’t eat pork. Her name is Sister Loretta, and she belongs to the Nation of Islam. Wearing a hijab and long clothes that cover her entire body, Sister Loretta tells August that she knows “how amazing and lovely” she is. What’s more, she says that August’s father is ready to “change his life.”
When Sister Loretta says that she knows “how amazing and lovely” she is, she is referring to the fact that her faith requires her—as a woman—to cover her body so that men cannot look at anything but her face. According to Sister Loretta’s system of belief, this is a way of respecting herself, suggesting that keeping her body from men is empowering. This idea is important to note, since August herself has been trying to navigate how, exactly, to cultivate a sense of power in the face of sexual objectification. As a result, Sister Loretta’s beliefs have an undeniable impact on August’s transition from girlhood to womanhood, though it remains to be seen whether or not she will fully adopt such ideas.
Themes
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Sister Loretta teaches August and her family that they have been eating food made by “the white devil” to harm black people. One Sunday morning she comes to the apartment and cleans all of the family’s pots and pans while August’s father reads from the Qur’an. As Sister Loretta scrubs the dishes, August looks at her and wonders what her real mother’s hands are doing at that moment. She also studies Sister Loretta’s figure and senses that her body is curved and beautiful beneath her robes. This makes August think about the fact that she herself will one day “tell the world stories beneath the fabric of [her] clothes,” too.
For the first time since August lived in Tennessee, there is a motherly presence in her life. However, Sister Loretta inevitably makes August wonder about the whereabouts of her real mother, once again highlighting the extent to which she struggles to move on from the past and the trauma of being separated from her mother. All the same, though, she watches Sister Loretta as a way of making sense of her journey into adulthood, realizing that she will someday be a grown woman and wondering what, exactly, that will be like. Mixed into this dynamic is the fact that Sister Loretta is deeply religious, meaning that she has a value system which helps her navigate the world in a way that might make it easier for August to deal with the uncertainty surrounding her mother’s absence—if, that is, she chooses to adopt Sister Loretta’s worldview.
Themes
Sister Loretta teaches August and her brother about the Nation of Islam. Becoming a daily presence in their household, she tells August and her brother not to use “jive talk” because it will keep them “uneducated and in the ghetto.” When August and her brother say that Jesus is white, Sister Loretta shakes her head and corrects them. She also explains that “the white devil” tries to keep black people in oppression by forcing “slave food” upon them, reminding the children that they are nobody’s slaves. August learns to pray with Sister Loretta, kneeling toward Mecca every afternoon. When Sister Loretta tells her that she’ll become a beautiful woman if only she eats well and follows the teachings of the Nation of Islam, August promises to stay away from boys. As she says this, though, she knows she’s lying.
The Nation of Islam believes that white people are devils sent to keep black people oppressed. Needless to say, this belief is directly linked to the history of persecution that black people have suffered at the hands of white people. In this regard, then, the Nation of Islam’s outsized presence in August’s neighborhood is an indication of just how much racism and discrimination her community faces, even if Woodson doesn’t necessarily draw attention to specific instances of bigotry.
Themes
August continues to try to pray, finding that she doesn’t derive any sense of clarity from the process. She wants prayer to help her make sense of the feeling she gets when she kisses her new boyfriend, Jerome, who lets his hands slide all over her body when they kiss, but she has no success in this regard.
At the same time that August is introduced to religion and the Nation of Islam, she starts having new experiences with boys. In particular, she hopes to gain clarity about her developing relationship with Jerome, though she finds that prayer does little to help her make sense of their physical encounters. This, of course, is because devout people like Sister Loretta tend to believe that a woman should wait until marriage to have a sexual relationship. Consequently, religion doesn’t help August navigate her developing sexuality.
Themes
