Summary Of Paule Marshall's Brown Girl Brownstones

Privacy is complementary with intimacy. Private spaces are secure, safe, and secluded, which provide a sense of protection for the intimate. In the absence of privacy, the intimate risk intrusion from outside forces—outside forces who may harm them. Consequently, spaces without privacy are bereft of intimacy and discourage effable expressions, which reveal the condition of one’s heart. Paule Marshall’s, Brown Girl, Brownstones, illustrates the predicament that results from the absence of privacy. For example, the dominant setting of her book is the Brownstone apartments, which situate characters in close proximity to each other and contributes to the reticence of occupants to articulate their pain in words. Therefore, other modes of expression

Marshall demonstrates how instruments are used to voice the pain characters’ experience, however, this form of expression isn’t effective for everyone. For the character, Ina, instruments effectively voice the pain that she experiences within the Brownstone apartments. An example of her pain occurs in one scene where she and Selina get into an intense argument over who holds their father’s deepest affection. The quarrel then escalates into physical violence as Selena begins to strike Ina. The violence quickly spills into their father, Deighton’s, parlor, which causes him to scold the two. Deighton’s words pain Ina and her pain realizes itself through the piano: “… Ina ran down the hall, her dress flicking away in the dimness. ‘You, Miss Ina, come back here,’ he called, but the parlor door slammed on his voice and the piano erupted into sound as Ina piled loud jarring chords into a wall high enough to shut out the world” (91). Marshall describes how Ina “ran” down the hall and how she “slammed” the door on her father’s voice. These verbs indicate an intensity in Ina’s actions that reflects the pain

This is the scene where Silla informs Deighton that she has sold the parcel of land. This confrontation takes place in the kitchen, and it is important to recognize that Ina leaves the kitchen. Before Deighton arrives, Selina brings a brown envelope into the kitchen. All three females are aware of the envelope’s contents and the inevitable drama to come. This awareness is illustrated through Ina dashing out of the kitchen. Ina tells her mother that she needs to “practice” playing her piano, but this is a lie. Ina is upset about the arrival of the envelope, and is reticent to articulate her displeasure with words. Instead, Ina decides to voice her pain through her piano. Marshall drives home this point brilliantly: “’Silla, this ain no joke time.’ ‘Joke! Ha! I has sold it, I tell yuh.’ Upstairs Ina suddenly began a loud lush piece by Rachmaninoff” (111). The first aspect of this quote to be understood should be Ina’s location. The kitchen is the center of the conflict, and Ina is in her room—on the margins. Ina’s location away from the kitchen should severely limit her ability to influence what occurs in the kitchen, but her piano nullifies this limitation. The quotation depicts the incipience of the climax—Deighton learns that Silla has sold his land—and despite Ina’s position on the margins, her piano allows her to center herself in the scene. The piano is an effective way for her to voice