ipl-logo

Similarities Between Brownies And Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

1054 Words5 Pages

In ZZ Packer's “Brownies” and “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” both discuss the obstacles in life that allow reflection in the characters lives to discover the meanness in the world. “Brownies” is when young black girls go to summer camp with white girls, they are racially segregated by choice and prejudice is present. When they encounter a difficult situation with the white girls they are able to understand the world better as they go home. Furthermore in “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” Dina the main character is a black lady who struggles with finding her identity and accepting that she is lesbian while isolating herself from everyone around her. Through her encounter with a canadian white girl named Heidi they form a friendship that changes into …show more content…

In this short story the Brownie troops at the summer camp appear either all black or all white, no mixed troop is present. This displays the constant segregation occurring and the influence it has on young children who are vulnerable to a racially segregated environment causing them to portray themselves a certain way. The black girls have little knowledge of people different than them, “When you lived in the south suburbs of Atlanta, it was easy to forget about whites. Whites were like those baby pigeons: real and existing, but rarely seen or thought about” (pg. 5), because of these girls have little contact with one another and the black girls are extremely conscious of the differences they posses. The feeling of differences comes from the world around them, what they hear and see affect their opinions tremendously. Many of the differences are purely imaginary because of how others perceptions of whites have rubbed off on them “Man, did you smell them?" (pg. )These imaginary ideas stem from racial prejudice and the hostility history and current segregation at their time had pushed into their

Open Document