Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Women of Brewster Place, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Poverty
Sexism and Female Relationships
Sexuality
Motherhood
Religion
Summary
Analysis
It rains for a week starting the day of Ben’s death. Brewster Place thinks it will have to cancel its block party, and the girls and women have nightmares about Lorraine. Yet the block party does take place. While Mattie tends to a grill, Ciel approaches, apologizes for not calling or writing, and says that she had to escape Brewster Place. As Mattie hugs Ciel, Ciel begins to cry but keeps talking: she had planned to write to Mattie once she had healed from her “scars” but realized that would never happen. Mattie thanks God and gives Ciel some angel food cake—Eva’s recipe.
The women’s nightmares about Lorraine imply that the women correctly identify Lorraine’s gang-rape as a misogynistic policing of female sexuality—something that could happen to any of them if violent men feel they have stepped out of bounds of “appropriate” sexual behavior. Meanwhile, when Mattie offers Ciel angel food cake made according to Ciel’s grandmother Eva’s recipe, it emphasizes the strong bonds between Eva, Mattie, and Ciel—in particular how Mattie stepped into a maternal role for Ciel in the aftermath of Eva’s death, the grandmother who raised Ciel.
Themes
Ciel reminisces about how she and Basil used to squabble. She asks whether Mattie has heard from him. Mattie says no—he hasn’t gained the wisdom Ciel has. Etta approaches and asks after Ciel, who explains that she works in San Francisco and has a boyfriend who’s talking about marriage. When Mattie praises God, Ciel hesitantly admits her boyfriend isn’t Black. Etta scoffs and says it matters more what he is: “Is he good to you, child?” When Ciel says he is, Mattie volunteers to bake their wedding cake.
Though Mattie partly blames her own mothering for Basil’s selfish and immature decision to skip town, her claim here that Basil isn’t as wise as Ciel implies that she has come to (correctly) blame Basil for his own behavior as well. Meanwhile, when Mattie and Etta assert that Ciel’s boyfriend’s behavior toward her is more important than his race, they show solidarity with Ciel and warm support for her happiness.
Themes
Etta says it’s lucky Ciel had vacation during Brewster Place’s block party. Ciel admits she’s not on vacation. She impulsively decided to visit after dreaming about Ben, the wall, and a woman who both was and wasn’t her. The woman wore a green and black dress, and something bad happened to her. When Ciel notices Etta and Mattie’s expressions, she asks what’s wrong. They dodge the question. Then Ciel asks where Ben is. Mattie says he died the previous week.
Mattie looks at the sky and hopes it won’t rain. Then a rubber ball flies onto the grill she’s tending. Kiswana sprints up, apologizes, and brings the ball back to a pregnant Cora Lee and her children. Cora Lee mentions to Kiswana that pregnancy is giving her weird dreams. Kiswana replies that she’s glad it stopped raining for the party: they’ve raised almost $100 already. Another resident predicts they’ll have enough money for a lawyer to sue the landlord soon.
Cora Lee is pregnant again, suggesting that she failed to follow through on her resolution to focus on her older children’s education rather than lavishing attention solely on her newborns, which she finds cuter. Meanwhile, this passage reveals the purpose of the block party: Kiswana and the tenants’ association are trying to raise money to sue their neglectful, absentee landlord. This suit will legally contest structural racism, as readers have previously seen how dilapidated conditions in the neglected apartment complex have endangered the Black residents—and even killed baby Serena.
Themes
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Theresa exits her apartment building, drops something on the garbage cans, and reenters. One woman whispers that she thought Theresa had moved; another replies that she’s moving that day. When Cora Lee asks Kiswana how much more they need to raise for a lawyer, Kiswana estimates another $100 but says they’ll reach it as long as rain doesn’t stop the party.
When the women of Brewster Place whisper about Theresa rather than interacting with her, it suggests that they are still homophobically keeping a distance from her rather than offering her solidarity and support in the face of her personal tragedy, her girlfriend Lorraine’s gang-rape.
Themes
Clouds gather and the wind starts blowing. Kiswana suggests to a nearby woman that they’d better clear away the food, but the woman insists that it won’t rain. Kiswana approaches the party’s DJ and tells him to pack up his equipment, but the boy insists that he has to keep playing as long as people are dancing. Kiswana, unnerved, runs to Mattie, insists it will rain, and begs her to help collect the money. Mattie and Etta languidly assure Kiswana that it won’t rain.
Previously, the novel has characterized Kiswana as the most politically engaged and knowledgeable character. Now, in a somewhat surreal sequence, Kiswana is trying to warn the other characters of a threat to their attempt at political action—which everyone else ignores. This sequence hints at the question: what looming threat does the rain represent?
Themes
Kiswana starts crying and says again that it’s going to rain. Ciel agrees, stares at the wall, and shivers. Meanwhile, Cora Lee is looking for her youngest daughter Sonya. She finds Sonya trying to clean the wall with a popsicle stick. Cora Lee sees a dark stain on the wall and announces that the wall is still bloody. She pulls the stained brick from the wall, scraping her knuckles.
Ciel stares at the wall, which has previously symbolized how structural racism keeps Black Americans in poverty, while agreeing with Kiswana about the rain. This connection suggests that the rain represents how structural racism will prevent or defeat the tenants’ associations’ attempts to hold Brewster Place’s landlord accountable for dangerously neglecting the tenants.
Themes
While the men and children flee for cover, Cora Lee runs to Mattie, shows her the brick, and tells her there’s still blood on the wall. Women pass the brick hand to hand until someone throws it out of Brewster Place. Cora Lee and Mattie run to the wall to make sure they’ve gotten rid of the stain—but Cora Lee sees more blood and Mattie announces that it's “spreading everywhere.” When Mattie yells for help, Brewster Place’s women begin tearing the wall apart.
Up to this point, the novel has been realistic. Now, however, its events are becoming surreal: blood is “spreading everywhere” across the wall, which represents how structural racism endangers Black Americans by keeping them in poverty. When the women begin tearing the wall apart, then, the novel symbolically implies that they are becoming conscious of and attempting to combat the structural violence—both racist and misogynistic—that threatens them.
Themes
Ciel tries to hand Kiswana a brick. When Kiswana tells her there’s no blood—the supposed stains are raindrops—Ciel asks her whether that matters. Kiswana, crying, throws the brick “spotted with her blood” into the boulevard. More women throw the bricks into the boulevard, hitting cars.
Here the novel offers a realistic explanation for the apparently surreal growing bloodstain: the women of Brewster Place, traumatized by Lorraine’s gang-rape and by the racist and sexist structural violence that threatens them, are mistaking for blood the raindrops that threaten their efforts to sue their landlord and improve the dilapidated, dangerous conditions in which they live. When Kiswana suddenly sees a brick “spotted with her blood,” it indicates that she has abruptly understood the symbolic import of the blood on the wall: it represents the violence that structural racism and sexism have inflicted on her and women like her.
Themes
As Theresa puts a bag into the cab she’s called, the cabbie tells her the street is rioting and drives away. Theresa looks at Brewster Place’s women, who are now dragging furniture from their apartments and smashing it, and comments that they’re just having a party—to which they didn’t invite her. Cora Lee runs to Theresa and asks for help with the bricks she’s carrying. When Theresa refuses, Cora Lee says, “Please. Please.” Theresa screams at Cora Lee never to say that, throws away the bricks Cora Lee is carrying, and orders Cora Lee to get more—so long as she never says please again. As police sirens approach, rain suddenly pours down.
Lorraine was saying “Please, please” when C.C. Baker and his friends gang-raped her and again when she killed Ben. When Theresa screams at Cora Lee for saying “please” and joins in the Brewster Place women’s attempts to tear down the wall, it shows that she has finally accepted her fundamental similarity to them—their shared vulnerability to racism and sexism—due to Lorraine’s gang-rape.
Themes
Mattie wakes up and sees that the sun is out for the first time in a week. When she looks out her window, Kiswana and others are setting up the party, though clouds are speeding toward Brewster Place. Etta, outside, looks up at Mattie’s window and asks whether she’s still in bed on party day.
Mattie wakes up on the morning of the block party at the end of a chapter describing the block party—indicating either that the novel is flashing back in time or that the previous scenes of the block party were actually one of Mattie’s nightmares in the aftermath of Lorraine’s gang-rape. The latter explanation—the previous scenes were a dream—would explain the scenes’ surreal quality in an otherwise realist novel. It would also imply that the women of Brewster Place can’t really tear down the “wall” representing structural racism and sexual violence—that kind of change is currently beyond their power.
Themes
