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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
Although August prays, August decides not to wear a hijab in public like Sister Loretta. She also eats pork when she’s with her friends and she doesn’t take her Muslim beliefs very seriously. This doesn’t bother August’s father, who insists that he and Sister Loretta should give August space to become her own person. Still, August becomes close with Sister Loretta and even starts calling her “Sister Mama Loretta,” though she never forgets that Sister Loretta isn’t her real mother. To that end, August continues to wait for her mother’s return.
No matter what happens in her life, August maintains her belief that her mother will someday come back to the family. Nothing, it seems, can distract August from this, not even Sister Loretta’s motherly presence or the new role religion plays in her life. In turn, readers see how narrowly focused August is on the memory of her mother and the pain of her absence.
Themes
August’s relationship with Jerome started long before they actually knew each other—he was the boy who used to wink at her through the window. Then, when August is 12, he comes up to her and says that he recognizes her, then says, “One day, you and me gonna do that thing.” As a young teenager, August thinks this is simply how 16-year-old boys talk to girls, so she doesn’t object and she kisses him back when he puts his lips to hers. The only people who could possibly understand what this is like, August knows, are Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi.
As August tries to make sense of her developing relationship with Jerome, she feels as if nobody in her family could possibly understand what she’s going through. Rather, she turns to her friends for support, guidance, and camaraderie, once again proving the value of adolescent companionship, which ultimately helps her move through life without traditional forms of parental guidance.
Themes
Whenever August, Angela, and Gigi go to Sylvia’s house, they feel uncomfortable because her parents are so proper and strict. Each Sunday afternoon, they hire a French woman to teach Sylvia and her sisters how to be proper and polite, telling them how to sit, which fork to use for salad, and which glass to use for wine. When August and the others come to see her, they stop in the entryway, too nervous to advance any further because of the pointed look Sylvia’s mother gives them. Suddenly, they no longer feel “lost and beautiful.” Instead, they feel “ragged and ugly” under Sylvia’s mother’s gaze.
When August and her friends feel suddenly self-conscious under the gaze of Sylvia’s mother, Woodson shows readers how destructive such judgment can be to a person’s self-image. Whereas August and the others previously felt beautiful, they now feel ugly, an obvious response to the elitist and classist attitude to which Sylvia’s parents subject them. As a result, the harmful effects of this kind of attitude bring themselves to bear on the girls and the way they conceive of themselves.
Themes
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While spending time at Sylvia’s house one day, the girls start laughing but abruptly stop when Sylvia’s older sister bounds into the room and slaps Sylvia across the face. As the girls look at her in shock, Sylvia explains that it’s against the rules to laugh so loudly. Later, Sylvia’s father interrogates August, Angela, and Gigi, asking them about their parents, their grades, and their goals in life. He also asks them if they understand the country’s “Negro problem,” saying that it will be up to them to “rise above” racism. In keeping with this, he says that his daughters will become lawyers and doctors. As he speaks this way, August feels unbearably self-conscious, sensing that he disapproves of her hole-filled socks and frayed bellbottoms. When the girls finally leave, Sylvia’s mother gives them a look, one that says, “Dreams are not for people who look like you.”
When Sylvia’s father tells the girls they must find a way to “rise above” racism, he makes it clear through his disapproving tone that he doubts they’ll be able to do this. He makes this viewpoint overwhelmingly obvious by asking them questions about their personal lives, doing very little to hide his belief that they aren’t good enough for his daughter. Once again, then, this kind of disapproval alters the way August sees herself, making her self-conscious of her looks in a way that is directly linked to her family’s financial standing, since she’s embarrassed by the state of her worn-in clothes. What’s more, Sylvia’s father subjects her to a form of classism that is racially-inflected, suggesting not only that she and her friends aren’t worthy of his or his daughter’s time, but also that this renders them unfit to succeed in a racist world.
Themes
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August wants to be Sylvia, whose parents still live together and whose life is glamorous. And yet, Sylvia’s life is challenging in other ways. After slapping her for laughing, her sister says, “Don’t try to act like a dusty, dirty black American.” Feeling close to Sylvia, August tells her about her relationship with Jerome, hoping that this will endear her to her perfect friend. Thinking this way, she tells Sylvia when she and Jerome start doing more than just kissing, loving the idea that only Sylvia knows about the most intimate part of her life.
That Sylvia’s sister tells her not to act like “a dusty, dirty black American” proves the extent to which Sylvia’s family buys into racist stereotypes about black people. Indeed, everyone in the family except Sylvia wants to set themselves apart from other black people by acting rich and proper, thereby casting a negative light on anyone who is black and poor. In doing so, they subject other black people to the same kind of racism that they want so badly to overcome. And yet, despite this fraught dynamic, August still wishes she could have Sylvia’s life—an indication of just how badly she wants to be part of an intact family again.
Themes
