Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn (African American, Latinx, Middle Eastern Analysis)

QUESTION 1. A literary work that demonstrates the moral and/or psychological development of a main character is referred to as a “Bildungsroman” in literature. This is frequently referred to as a “coming of age story,” in which the main character matures by the book’s conclusion. Describe the changes August, the story’s main character, undergoes by the conclusion. Highlight significant moments in her development and discuss their significance. Your main focus should be on the main character, though you can also discuss how Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi develop (August). one page long in response.

QUESTION 2. Explain how the African American experience is represented in Another Brooklyn and explain how gender also shapes this representation (considering the core friendship between August, Sylvia, Angela and Gigi, and how this friendship is enhanced and complicated by race and sex/sexism). One full page response. 

QUESTION 3. In this book, how are Latinx communities portrayed in comparison to African Americans? What similarities and/or differences do these Latinx representations have with the African American experience? one page long in response.

QUESTION 4: Islam and Muslims are predominant figures throughout the entire novel. Explain their role and influence throughout the story, particularly what Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta represent in the development of the main character, August. One full page response.

QUESTION 5. How do time and memory, the passing of August’s mother, and the Biafara war and its repercussions shape the meaning of this book? one page long in response.

Question One ANSWER: 

In literature, the word “Bildungsroman” refers to the literary work that illustrates a central character’s moral and psychological development. Ideally, the term is commonly known as “coming of age story,” where the main character reaches maturity or adulthood at the novel’s close. The novel “Another Brooklyn,” authored by Jacqueline Woodson, can be claimed to be “Bildungsroman” because August, the main character in the narrative, has shown some critical development forms that progress through to the end of the story. The main character has shown some progressive development from denial about mother’s death to the reality of the death, thus maturing psychologically.

Since childhood, August has been living in self-denial about her mother’s death. August, as the main character, is also the narrator in the narrative. August moved from Sweet Grove to Tennessee to Brooklyn; however, August hadn’t accepted that her mother died and will return to all these places. As a result, August kept telling her brother and herself that their mother will return tomorrow. To evade or avoid loneliness, August spent most of her moments with her best friends Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi. These girls complimented each other about their beauty and helped each of them go through hard life and nasty experiences in Brooklyn. Brooklyn was beleaguered and inundated with heroin, sexual harassment/assault, and poverty. As these girls transition into womanhood, they share their encounters with boys, their home experiences, and how to evade bad men.

These girls’ friendship started to fade away after Angela vanished into the care system following the death of her mother. Also, August noticed that Sylvia was dating Jerome, August’s former boyfriend. He left her because she denied him sex. Sylvia became pregnant for Jerome, and August refused to talk to her anymore. Gigi committed suicide after seeing none of her friends support her in the music career. To show maturity, August never concentrated on these tragedies; instead, he focused on pursuing education when he joined Brown University, Rhode Island. In her adulthood, August became an anthropologist studying cultural conceptions of death. Ultimately, she had gotten the tools of handling her mother’s death. Eventually, even though he was immature, she progressively became mature psychologically and could accept her mother’s death.

– USE QUOTES for ANSWER ONE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “For a long time, my mother wasn’t dead yet. Mine could have been a more tragic story.â€�

(Chapter 1, Page 1)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: In the opening lines of the book, August creates uncertainty around her mother’s death. She acknowledges that her mother, at some point, died—but the assertion that she “wasn’t dead yetâ€� goes unexplained for most of the book. Eventually, it is clear that this line has a hidden meaning. For a long time, August didn’t believe her mother was dead, and thus did not experience her as being dead (yet)

“When you’re fifteen, the world collapses in a moment, different from when you’re eight and you learn that your mother walked into water—and kept on walking.

When you’re fifteen, you can’t make promises of a return to the before place. Your aging eyes tell a different, truer story. “(150)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This passage appears when August sees Sylvia and Jerome holding hands in the park and she realizes that Sylvia has betrayed her by secretly dating August’s ex-boyfriend. What’s unique about this moment is that it contains two revelations: first, August learns about Sylvia’s betrayal. More importantly, though, August also finally admits that her mother committed suicide. The reason these two acknowledgements come at the same time is that August finds herself incapable of denying reality when she sees Sylvia and Jerome holding hands. Although August usually tries to protect herself from heartache by overlooking anything that might trouble her, there’s nothing she can do in this moment to ignore the fact that Sylvia and Jerome are in a romantic relationship. As a result, her world “collapsesâ€� around her, and this makes it all but impossible for her to continue deluding herself about her mother, too. Whereas she used to be able to convince herself to live in the past of her childhood without acknowledging the present reality that her mother is dead, she now has no choice but to live in the present. She has, it seems, become too old to convince herself of false realities. In turn, Woodson implies that denial is an undependable coping mechanism, one that falters as people get older and are forced to admit certain irrefutable realities.

Question Two ANSWER: 

“Another Brooklyn” novel is a narrative that explains the experiences encountered by African Americans. The theme of gender, classism, and sexism have deep roots in this novel based on the core friendship of the four girls, August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi. These girls’ friendship was further promulgated by the concepts of race and sex in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Even though “Another Brooklyn” has not directly or explicitly highlighted the ideologies of racism on the life of August, the novel’s storyline plays out against the context of racial discrimination and tense race relationships. Although August’s life as a black girl seems free from the effects of racism and bigotry of the 1970s, most of her social interactions in the African American community present some sense of prejudice and racism. For instance, the Nation of Islam’s presence in the Brooklyn neighborhood is a reflection that the society was eagerly waiting for a stand against racism since the group was a separatist movement. The themes of racism, classism, and sexism have been depicted in the relationship and friendship August encountered with her three friends; Angela, Sylvia, and Gigi. The sense of prejudice was exhibited when Sylvia’s elitist father denies her daughter from associating with August, Angela, and Gigi, Black girls from low class. The basis of prohibiting Sylvia from befriending these low-class black girls was poverty that exemplified African Americans’ stereotypes. The Nation of Islam symbolizes racism because it was inherently associated with the advocacy of separation of white and black people in America, focusing on creating an all-black nation. Since almost all of August’s community members have membership of the Nation of Islam, they embrace the organization’s philosophy and ideology on separatism. All these aspects show racism, classism, and sexism in August’s neighborhood.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER TWO AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “The parents questioned us. Who were our people? What did they do? How were our grades? What were our ambitions? Did we understand, her father wanted to know, the Negro problem in America? Did we understand it was up to us to rise above? His girls, he believed, would become doctors and lawyers. It’s up to parents, he said, to push, push, push.” (102)

-EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: When August, Angela, and Gigi visit Sylvia’s house, they encounter Sylvia’s overbearing parents, who mercilessly question them about their personal lives. Their questions highlight their judgmental attitude toward anyone who doesn’t come from what they might consider a good family, anyone whose parents don’t have elite jobs, anyone whose grades aren’t perfect, or anyone who doesn’t have plans to pursue a competitive, widely-respected career. Even more revealing, though, are the questions Sylvia’s father asks about the girls’ thoughts concerning racism, since these questions indicate that his classist worldview is fueled by a desire to “rise above� bigotry. Indeed, he believes that it is his daughters’ responsibility to overcome racism by becoming doctors or lawyers, clearly thinking that the only way for a person to stand up against discrimination is to make it impossible for racists to align them with bigoted stereotypes about black people. The problem with this approach, however, is that it causes Sylvia’s father to adopt racist standards himself, effectively subjecting August, Angela, and Gigi to the same kind of unfair scrutiny to which he’s so worried bigots will subject his family. Accordingly, Woodson warns readers about the dangerous overlap between elitism and racism, ultimately suggesting that it’s unfortunately all too common for minorities to perpetuate bigotry while ostensibly trying to fight it.

Question Three ANSWER: 

The Latinx communities are highly represented in this novel as compared to African Americans. However, the Latinx community is differently represented in the Brooklyn neighborhood as compared to the African Americans. Latinx refers to the gender-neutral neologism; commonly associated with the Latin American cultural and ethnic identity. The novel shows minimal episodes of gender-neutrality represented by the Latinx community. However, common sexism has been depicted by African Americans. For instance, in “Another Brooklyn,” the society is happy for the empowerment of female friendship qualities but agonizing that these relationships are commonly the resources present for women encountering objectification and violence. Gender violence is a common theme in a society where the girls ought to be vital to face the feral boy’s sexual harassment and assault appetite. Society doesn’t show gender- neutrality (Latinx ideology) in the neighborhood. For instance, Gigi is raped, and the other girls request her to carry razor blades to cut the boy’s manhood if they come near her. Society is doing very little to safeguard the life of a girl-child. Lack of Latinx perceptions was demonstrated through the female friendship that was critical in empowering each other. Because of rampant sexism and sex discrimination in the Brooklyn community, these women banded together to sharpen each other about the right men to date. Therefore, the novel reflects Latinx communities’ presence by explaining the African American gender and sexual orientation.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER THREE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “What keeps keeping us here? Gigi asked one day, the rain coming down hard, her shirt torn at the shoulder. We didn’t know that for weeks and weeks, the lock had been broken on her building’s front door. We didn’t know about the soldier who kept behind the darkened basement stairwell, how he had waited for her in shadow. We were twelve.

I can’t tell anybody but you guys, Gigi said. My mom will say it was my fault.” (57)

-EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: When Gigi tells August, Sylvia, and Angela that a homeless, drug-addicted veteran raped her in the basement stairwell of her apartment building, the girls see for perhaps the first time how dangerous the world can be. This traumatic event causes Gigi to wonder what, exactly, is keeping her from escaping her current circumstances. Though this might seem like a logistical question about why she doesn’t leave Brooklyn to live somewhere else, the question takes on even more significance when she commits suicide several years later. This suggests that Gigi’s rape traumatized her so thoroughly that it has interfered with her ability to see the point in life. Worse, she suffers with such thoughts alone, or at least without any kind of adult guidance or support. This is because Gigi believes that her mom would say that her rape was Gigi’s own fault, a sentiment that underlines the extent to which she is expected to fend for herself in a world that is treacherous for young women. Indeed, the fact that Gigi’s mother would blame her for the soldier’s violence proves that Gigi and her friends live in a world that looks the other way when young women need help, thereby allowing violence against women to perpetuate itself.

– Quotes: “When boys called our names, we said, Don’t even say my name. Don’t even put it in your mouth. When they said, You ugly anyway, we knew they were lying. When they hollered, Conceited! We said, No—convinced! We watched them dip-walk away, too young to know how to respond. The four of us together weren’t something they understood. They understood girls alone, folding their arms across their breasts, praying for invisibility.â€� (70)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: As August and her friends get older, boys begin to notice their bodies. They also begin to yell out at them, but August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi feel no pressure to respond to their advances. This is significant, considering that Gigi was recently raped by a man, which means the girls must certainly feel on edge about the interactions they have with men (even if those men are still quite young). And yet, moving through the world as a group makes them feel unafraid of ignoring and even insulting boys. In turn, Woodson intimates that female companionship is something that can give young women a sense of strength, power, and fearlessness. The problem, of course, is that they have to band together like this to feel safe in the first place. Although it’s certainly a positive thing that friendship makes the girls feel more confident, it’s upsetting to think that they struggle to feel this way when they’re on their own, since this indicates that the society they live in makes it difficult for them to feel comfortable and safe in their own skin.

Question Four ANSWER:

Islam and Muslims are predominant figures throughout the whole novel. Islam religion has played a critical role and influence in the Brooklyn community described by the novel. Specifically, Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta have essentially promoted the development of August, the protagonist. The presence of Islam religion and Muslims are depicted by the Nation of Islam, an organization commonly pursuing the Black and White separatism agenda. The Nation of Islam essentially impacted August’s predominantly African American community. The organization was established around 1930 in Detroit. From the Nation of Islam, August’s father can come across Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta. Through several sessions, Sister Sonja was a therapist who helped August to realize that her mother committed suicide and is dead. Sister Sonja was one of the Nations of Islam members who fought for the separation of Whites and Blacks. On the other hand, Sister Loretta is a woman who develops a romantic relationship with August’s father while living in Brooklyn. Sister Loretta introduces August’s father to the Nation of Islam. She prays with family, urging both August and her brother to join the Nation of Islam. Therefore, both Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta have critically helped August develop psychologically and mature upstairs to accept her mother’s death.

As a religious and political organization, the Nation of Islam informed the Black community that White man is a factor behind racism and is a devil oppressing the black people.

Further, the Nation Islam promulgated the separation of whites and blacks within the United States, aiming to achieve all-black territory. As a result, most of August’s community members joined and pledged loyalty to the Nation of Islam. This is notable primarily because Woodson hasn’t heralded attention to any overt factor of white-on-black racism. Instead, Woodson has focused on the daily plights of August in the predominantly African American community. Almost everyone in her community was aligned with the separatist movement (Nation of Islam) shows how heavily racism invaded the community. The Nation of Islam symbolizes racism because it was inherently associated with the advocacy of separation of white and black people in America, focusing on creating an all-black nation. Since almost all of August’s community members have membership of the Nation of Islam, they embrace the organization’s philosophy and ideology on separatism. Therefore, the Brooklynese were gravitated and pulled towards the Nation of Islam not necessarily for religious purposes but to fight bigotry and racism that plighted the society.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER FOUR AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH)

“My brother had discovered math, the wonder of numbers, the infinite doubtless possibility. He sat on his bed most days solving problems no eight-year-old should understand. Squared, he said, is absolute. No one in the world can argue algebra or geometry. No one can say pi is wrong.

Come with me, I begged.

But my brother looked up from his numbers and said, She’s gone, August. It’s absolute.” (84)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: August’s brother’s interest in math predates his devotion to religion and particularly to the Nation of Islam movement, highlighting his attraction to things that explain certain facts of life. When he gravitates toward the “infinite doubtless possibilityâ€� of math, what he’s really taking pleasure in is the idea that, unlike so many other things in his life, he can know with complete certainty not only why something is the way it is, but also that it will always be that way. He then takes this mindset and applies it to the areas of uncertainty in his own life, coming to terms with the fact that his mother isn’t coming back. Whereas August refuses to acknowledge reality, her brother finds a certain amount of comfort in eliminating his sense of uncertainty by simply accepting that their mother is gone. In this way, Woodson spotlights the ways in which believing in a certain worldview, philosophy, or practice can help people cope with otherwise ambiguous and unsettling situations.

“I prayed that my own brain, fuzzy with clouded memory, would settle into a clarity that helped me to understand the feeling I got when I pressed my lips against my new boyfriend, Jerome, his shaking hands searching my body.â€� (95)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This passage appears as August tries to devote herself to prayer in the way that Sister Loretta, a devout member of the Nation of Islam, has taught her. As August kneels beside Sister Loretta, she tries to find “clarityâ€� in the act of prayer. What’s interesting, though, is that she doesn’t search for clarity simply by praying about something else, but by directly addressing the fact that she lacks clarity in the first place. Instead of letting the act of prayer steer her toward a certain kind of peace of mind, she actively tries to address the fact that her mind feels “fuzzy with clouded memory.â€� What’s more, this feeling is specifically tied to the exploration of her sexuality, meaning that she’s actually praying for a sense of understanding when it comes to the way she feels about her boyfriend, Jerome. In this way, her engagement with religion is predicated on her desire to find the guidance she lacks as a result of transitioning into adolescence without the support of a mother. Because Sister Loretta is the only person in August’s life in a position to give her any kind of motherly support, it makes sense that August would turn to prayer in this manner, since religion is the only way she knows how to connect with Sister Loretta.

Question Five ANSWER: 

The novel “Another Brooklyn” has several themes and symbols that shape the message and its meaning. These themes and symbols include time and memory, August’s mother’s death, and the Biafra war and its aftermath. The theme of time and memory has been used to reflect the progressive psychological development of August. The phrase “this is memory” reappears severely in the novel to draw the reader’s attention and use memory to recreate the truth of life in the past. Regularly, the narrative reminds the reader that it is a memory. Instead of focusing on explicit storyline drawing connections between August’s present moments and scenes, the narrative gives flashbacks to project her life’s general trajectory. In doing this, the story functions episodically to show how adamant August was in moving on from her past death experiences. August’s mother’s death was a symbol that reflected the maintained message of the novel. Because of her mother’s death, August’s memories couldn’t be blotted away, and throughout the story, the flashbacks of August’s mother enhanced the theme of time and memory. The theme of death was portrayed through August’s father and mother’s death. At the start of the novel, Mother’s death occurred before August became mature to accept the death robs our loved ones ultimately. Her father’s death took place at the end of the novel when she had developed psychological maturity through Anthropological education. At this time, August could accept death and its fate. Therefore, the mother’s death was a prelude to set the pace for the message and the narrative’s development as “Bildungsroman.”

– USE QUOTES for ANSWER FIVE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “What’s in that jar, Daddy?

You know what’s in that jar.

You said it was ashes. But whose?

You know whose.

Clyde’s?

We buried Clyde.

Mine?

This is memory.” (78)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This conversation takes place between August and her father sometime after they move to Brooklyn. The context surrounding this exchange isn’t exactly clear, since Woodson simply presents it at the end of a chapter without explaining what “jarâ€� August is asking about. All the same, it’s perfectly clear that the “jarâ€� in question isn’t actually a jar but an urn, since it’s full of ashes. More importantly, August’s father provides answers without ever actually answering her questions, thereby revealing that August is purposefully keeping herself from acknowledging things she already knows. Indeed, when she asks what’s inside the “jar,â€� her father replies, “You know what’s in that jar,â€� to which she admits to remembering that he has already told her it contains ashes. Going on like this, she asks whose ashes are in the “jar,â€� but he once again insists that she already knows. In this way, August is effectively interrogating herself, which means that she is also purposefully prohibiting herself from accessing certain information. As a result, readers realize for perhaps the first time in the novel that August’s mother isn’t simply absent, but dead—after all, what else would August so adamantly keep herself from accepting?

QUESTION FIVE ANSWER: The novel “Another Brooklyn” has reflected the Biafra war and its effects. The novel was authored within the 1960s and 1970s during the turbulent era in the United States era. This is the time when African Americans were fighting for their civil rights and social justice. During this era, young ladies were experiencing horrific episodes nationally and internationally. For example, “the starving children of Biafra, the Son of Sam Murders, and the Great Blackout of 1977” were all reflecting the plight against the girls come of age. The Vietnam War and the national impacts or aftermaths loom large. Uncle Clyde’s death on the battlefield triggered August’s mother’s madness that further led to her suicide by drowning herself. Therefore, the Biafra war and its effects influenced the message of the story.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER FIVE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH)

“In 1968, the children of Biafra were starving. My brother was not yet born and I was too young to understand what it meant to be a child, to be Biafran, to starve. Biafra was a country that lived only inside my mother’s admonitions—Eat your peas, there are children starving in Biafra—and in the empty-eyed, brown, big-bellied children moving across my parents’ television screen. But long after Biafra melted back into Nigeria, the country from which it had fought so hard to secede, the faces and swollen bellies of those children haunted me. In a pile of old magazines my father kept on our kitchen table in Brooklyn, I found a copy of Life with two genderless children on the cover and the words STARVING CHILDREN OF BIAFRA WAR blared across the ragged white garment of the taller child.” (65)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: Woodson references the Nigerian Civil War several times throughout the novel, using it as a point of comparison between the straightforward, livable poverty August experiences and the harrowing destitution created by violent conflict. The war itself took place between 1967 and 1970 and it was fought between the Nigerian government and the Igbo people, who wanted to secede from the rest of the country and create their own state called Biafra. Although the details of this struggle don’t necessarily make their way into Another Brooklyn, the conflict is important to the narrative because it helps August put her hardships in perspective. Indeed, she is surrounded by dangerous men, many of whom are addicted to drugs, but she also has enough food to eat—a fact that stands in stark contrast to the children of Biafra, many of whom are so starving that their stomachs have become distended.

What’s more, Woodson turns to the Biafran War as something that factors into August’s memories about her mother, who often urged her to finish her dinner by referencing the starving children of Biafra. To August, these references were abstract since she didn’t understand the circumstances surrounding the conflict. Now that August is older and her mother is gone, though, she has a better understanding of the war and is able to recognize that her mother was worried about children who lived so far away. Considering that August believes her mother is still alive but living apart from her, then, it becomes obvious why her memories about her mother’s concern about the Biafran War are relevant—after all, if her mother worried about unknown children living on another continent, surely she’s capable of caring about August’s wellbeing even when they no longer live together.

In a five-page response (double-spaced), address the following questions based on your complete reading of Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn.

QUESTION 1. A literary work that demonstrates the moral and/or psychological development of a main character is referred to as a “Bildungsroman” in literature. This is frequently referred to as a “coming of age story,” in which the main character matures by the book’s conclusion. Describe the changes August, the story’s main character, undergoes by the conclusion. Highlight significant moments in her development and discuss their significance. Your main focus should be on the main character, though you can also discuss how Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi develop (August). one page long in response.

QUESTION 2. Explain how the African American experience is represented in Another Brooklyn and explain how gender also shapes this representation (considering the core friendship between August, Sylvia, Angela and Gigi, and how this friendship is enhanced and complicated by race and sex/sexism). One full page response. 

QUESTION 3. In this book, how are Latinx communities portrayed in comparison to African Americans? What similarities and/or differences do these Latinx representations have with the African American experience? one page long in response.

QUESTION 4: Islam and Muslims are predominant figures throughout the entire novel. Explain their role and influence throughout the story, particularly what Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta represent in the development of the main character, August. One full page response.

QUESTION 5. How do time and memory, the passing of August’s mother, and the Biafara war and its repercussions shape the meaning of this book? one page long in response.

Question One ANSWER: 

In literature, the word “Bildungsroman” refers to the literary work that illustrates a central character’s moral and psychological development. Ideally, the term is commonly known as “coming of age story,” where the main character reaches maturity or adulthood at the novel’s close. The novel “Another Brooklyn,” authored by Jacqueline Woodson, can be claimed to be “Bildungsroman” because August, the main character in the narrative, has shown some critical development forms that progress through to the end of the story. The main character has shown some progressive development from denial about mother’s death to the reality of the death, thus maturing psychologically.

Since childhood, August has been living in self-denial about her mother’s death. August, as the main character, is also the narrator in the narrative. August moved from Sweet Grove to Tennessee to Brooklyn; however, August hadn’t accepted that her mother died and will return to all these places. As a result, August kept telling her brother and herself that their mother will return tomorrow. To evade or avoid loneliness, August spent most of her moments with her best friends Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi. These girls complimented each other about their beauty and helped each of them go through hard life and nasty experiences in Brooklyn. Brooklyn was beleaguered and inundated with heroin, sexual harassment/assault, and poverty. As these girls transition into womanhood, they share their encounters with boys, their home experiences, and how to evade bad men.

These girls’ friendship started to fade away after Angela vanished into the care system following the death of her mother. Also, August noticed that Sylvia was dating Jerome, August’s former boyfriend. He left her because she denied him sex. Sylvia became pregnant for Jerome, and August refused to talk to her anymore. Gigi committed suicide after seeing none of her friends support her in the music career. To show maturity, August never concentrated on these tragedies; instead, he focused on pursuing education when he joined Brown University, Rhode Island. In her adulthood, August became an anthropologist studying cultural conceptions of death. Ultimately, she had gotten the tools of handling her mother’s death. Eventually, even though he was immature, she progressively became mature psychologically and could accept her mother’s death.

– USE QUOTES for ANSWER ONE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “For a long time, my mother wasn’t dead yet. Mine could have been a more tragic story.â€�

(Chapter 1, Page 1)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: In the opening lines of the book, August creates uncertainty around her mother’s death. She acknowledges that her mother, at some point, died—but the assertion that she “wasn’t dead yetâ€� goes unexplained for most of the book. Eventually, it is clear that this line has a hidden meaning. For a long time, August didn’t believe her mother was dead, and thus did not experience her as being dead (yet)

“When you’re fifteen, the world collapses in a moment, different from when you’re eight and you learn that your mother walked into water—and kept on walking.

When you’re fifteen, you can’t make promises of a return to the before place. Your aging eyes tell a different, truer story. “(150)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This passage appears when August sees Sylvia and Jerome holding hands in the park and she realizes that Sylvia has betrayed her by secretly dating August’s ex-boyfriend. What’s unique about this moment is that it contains two revelations: first, August learns about Sylvia’s betrayal. More importantly, though, August also finally admits that her mother committed suicide. The reason these two acknowledgements come at the same time is that August finds herself incapable of denying reality when she sees Sylvia and Jerome holding hands. Although August usually tries to protect herself from heartache by overlooking anything that might trouble her, there’s nothing she can do in this moment to ignore the fact that Sylvia and Jerome are in a romantic relationship. As a result, her world “collapsesâ€� around her, and this makes it all but impossible for her to continue deluding herself about her mother, too. Whereas she used to be able to convince herself to live in the past of her childhood without acknowledging the present reality that her mother is dead, she now has no choice but to live in the present. She has, it seems, become too old to convince herself of false realities. In turn, Woodson implies that denial is an undependable coping mechanism, one that falters as people get older and are forced to admit certain irrefutable realities.

Question Two ANSWER: 

“Another Brooklyn” novel is a narrative that explains the experiences encountered by African Americans. The theme of gender, classism, and sexism have deep roots in this novel based on the core friendship of the four girls, August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi. These girls’ friendship was further promulgated by the concepts of race and sex in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Even though “Another Brooklyn” has not directly or explicitly highlighted the ideologies of racism on the life of August, the novel’s storyline plays out against the context of racial discrimination and tense race relationships. Although August’s life as a black girl seems free from the effects of racism and bigotry of the 1970s, most of her social interactions in the African American community present some sense of prejudice and racism. For instance, the Nation of Islam’s presence in the Brooklyn neighborhood is a reflection that the society was eagerly waiting for a stand against racism since the group was a separatist movement. The themes of racism, classism, and sexism have been depicted in the relationship and friendship August encountered with her three friends; Angela, Sylvia, and Gigi. The sense of prejudice was exhibited when Sylvia’s elitist father denies her daughter from associating with August, Angela, and Gigi, Black girls from low class. The basis of prohibiting Sylvia from befriending these low-class black girls was poverty that exemplified African Americans’ stereotypes. The Nation of Islam symbolizes racism because it was inherently associated with the advocacy of separation of white and black people in America, focusing on creating an all-black nation. Since almost all of August’s community members have membership of the Nation of Islam, they embrace the organization’s philosophy and ideology on separatism. All these aspects show racism, classism, and sexism in August’s neighborhood.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER TWO AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “The parents questioned us. Who were our people? What did they do? How were our grades? What were our ambitions? Did we understand, her father wanted to know, the Negro problem in America? Did we understand it was up to us to rise above? His girls, he believed, would become doctors and lawyers. It’s up to parents, he said, to push, push, push.” (102)

-EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: When August, Angela, and Gigi visit Sylvia’s house, they encounter Sylvia’s overbearing parents, who mercilessly question them about their personal lives. Their questions highlight their judgmental attitude toward anyone who doesn’t come from what they might consider a good family, anyone whose parents don’t have elite jobs, anyone whose grades aren’t perfect, or anyone who doesn’t have plans to pursue a competitive, widely-respected career. Even more revealing, though, are the questions Sylvia’s father asks about the girls’ thoughts concerning racism, since these questions indicate that his classist worldview is fueled by a desire to “rise above� bigotry. Indeed, he believes that it is his daughters’ responsibility to overcome racism by becoming doctors or lawyers, clearly thinking that the only way for a person to stand up against discrimination is to make it impossible for racists to align them with bigoted stereotypes about black people. The problem with this approach, however, is that it causes Sylvia’s father to adopt racist standards himself, effectively subjecting August, Angela, and Gigi to the same kind of unfair scrutiny to which he’s so worried bigots will subject his family. Accordingly, Woodson warns readers about the dangerous overlap between elitism and racism, ultimately suggesting that it’s unfortunately all too common for minorities to perpetuate bigotry while ostensibly trying to fight it.

Question Three ANSWER: 

The Latinx communities are highly represented in this novel as compared to African Americans. However, the Latinx community is differently represented in the Brooklyn neighborhood as compared to the African Americans. Latinx refers to the gender-neutral neologism; commonly associated with the Latin American cultural and ethnic identity. The novel shows minimal episodes of gender-neutrality represented by the Latinx community. However, common sexism has been depicted by African Americans. For instance, in “Another Brooklyn,” the society is happy for the empowerment of female friendship qualities but agonizing that these relationships are commonly the resources present for women encountering objectification and violence. Gender violence is a common theme in a society where the girls ought to be vital to face the feral boy’s sexual harassment and assault appetite. Society doesn’t show gender- neutrality (Latinx ideology) in the neighborhood. For instance, Gigi is raped, and the other girls request her to carry razor blades to cut the boy’s manhood if they come near her. Society is doing very little to safeguard the life of a girl-child. Lack of Latinx perceptions was demonstrated through the female friendship that was critical in empowering each other. Because of rampant sexism and sex discrimination in the Brooklyn community, these women banded together to sharpen each other about the right men to date. Therefore, the novel reflects Latinx communities’ presence by explaining the African American gender and sexual orientation.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER THREE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “What keeps keeping us here? Gigi asked one day, the rain coming down hard, her shirt torn at the shoulder. We didn’t know that for weeks and weeks, the lock had been broken on her building’s front door. We didn’t know about the soldier who kept behind the darkened basement stairwell, how he had waited for her in shadow. We were twelve.

I can’t tell anybody but you guys, Gigi said. My mom will say it was my fault.” (57)

-EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: When Gigi tells August, Sylvia, and Angela that a homeless, drug-addicted veteran raped her in the basement stairwell of her apartment building, the girls see for perhaps the first time how dangerous the world can be. This traumatic event causes Gigi to wonder what, exactly, is keeping her from escaping her current circumstances. Though this might seem like a logistical question about why she doesn’t leave Brooklyn to live somewhere else, the question takes on even more significance when she commits suicide several years later. This suggests that Gigi’s rape traumatized her so thoroughly that it has interfered with her ability to see the point in life. Worse, she suffers with such thoughts alone, or at least without any kind of adult guidance or support. This is because Gigi believes that her mom would say that her rape was Gigi’s own fault, a sentiment that underlines the extent to which she is expected to fend for herself in a world that is treacherous for young women. Indeed, the fact that Gigi’s mother would blame her for the soldier’s violence proves that Gigi and her friends live in a world that looks the other way when young women need help, thereby allowing violence against women to perpetuate itself.

– Quotes: “When boys called our names, we said, Don’t even say my name. Don’t even put it in your mouth. When they said, You ugly anyway, we knew they were lying. When they hollered, Conceited! We said, No—convinced! We watched them dip-walk away, too young to know how to respond. The four of us together weren’t something they understood. They understood girls alone, folding their arms across their breasts, praying for invisibility.â€� (70)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: As August and her friends get older, boys begin to notice their bodies. They also begin to yell out at them, but August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi feel no pressure to respond to their advances. This is significant, considering that Gigi was recently raped by a man, which means the girls must certainly feel on edge about the interactions they have with men (even if those men are still quite young). And yet, moving through the world as a group makes them feel unafraid of ignoring and even insulting boys. In turn, Woodson intimates that female companionship is something that can give young women a sense of strength, power, and fearlessness. The problem, of course, is that they have to band together like this to feel safe in the first place. Although it’s certainly a positive thing that friendship makes the girls feel more confident, it’s upsetting to think that they struggle to feel this way when they’re on their own, since this indicates that the society they live in makes it difficult for them to feel comfortable and safe in their own skin.

Question Four ANSWER:

Islam and Muslims are predominant figures throughout the whole novel. Islam religion has played a critical role and influence in the Brooklyn community described by the novel. Specifically, Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta have essentially promoted the development of August, the protagonist. The presence of Islam religion and Muslims are depicted by the Nation of Islam, an organization commonly pursuing the Black and White separatism agenda. The Nation of Islam essentially impacted August’s predominantly African American community. The organization was established around 1930 in Detroit. From the Nation of Islam, August’s father can come across Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta. Through several sessions, Sister Sonja was a therapist who helped August to realize that her mother committed suicide and is dead. Sister Sonja was one of the Nations of Islam members who fought for the separation of Whites and Blacks. On the other hand, Sister Loretta is a woman who develops a romantic relationship with August’s father while living in Brooklyn. Sister Loretta introduces August’s father to the Nation of Islam. She prays with family, urging both August and her brother to join the Nation of Islam. Therefore, both Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta have critically helped August develop psychologically and mature upstairs to accept her mother’s death.

As a religious and political organization, the Nation of Islam informed the Black community that White man is a factor behind racism and is a devil oppressing the black people.

Further, the Nation Islam promulgated the separation of whites and blacks within the United States, aiming to achieve all-black territory. As a result, most of August’s community members joined and pledged loyalty to the Nation of Islam. This is notable primarily because Woodson hasn’t heralded attention to any overt factor of white-on-black racism. Instead, Woodson has focused on the daily plights of August in the predominantly African American community. Almost everyone in her community was aligned with the separatist movement (Nation of Islam) shows how heavily racism invaded the community. The Nation of Islam symbolizes racism because it was inherently associated with the advocacy of separation of white and black people in America, focusing on creating an all-black nation. Since almost all of August’s community members have membership of the Nation of Islam, they embrace the organization’s philosophy and ideology on separatism. Therefore, the Brooklynese were gravitated and pulled towards the Nation of Islam not necessarily for religious purposes but to fight bigotry and racism that plighted the society.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER FOUR AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH)

“My brother had discovered math, the wonder of numbers, the infinite doubtless possibility. He sat on his bed most days solving problems no eight-year-old should understand. Squared, he said, is absolute. No one in the world can argue algebra or geometry. No one can say pi is wrong.

Come with me, I begged.

But my brother looked up from his numbers and said, She’s gone, August. It’s absolute.” (84)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: August’s brother’s interest in math predates his devotion to religion and particularly to the Nation of Islam movement, highlighting his attraction to things that explain certain facts of life. When he gravitates toward the “infinite doubtless possibilityâ€� of math, what he’s really taking pleasure in is the idea that, unlike so many other things in his life, he can know with complete certainty not only why something is the way it is, but also that it will always be that way. He then takes this mindset and applies it to the areas of uncertainty in his own life, coming to terms with the fact that his mother isn’t coming back. Whereas August refuses to acknowledge reality, her brother finds a certain amount of comfort in eliminating his sense of uncertainty by simply accepting that their mother is gone. In this way, Woodson spotlights the ways in which believing in a certain worldview, philosophy, or practice can help people cope with otherwise ambiguous and unsettling situations.

“I prayed that my own brain, fuzzy with clouded memory, would settle into a clarity that helped me to understand the feeling I got when I pressed my lips against my new boyfriend, Jerome, his shaking hands searching my body.â€� (95)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This passage appears as August tries to devote herself to prayer in the way that Sister Loretta, a devout member of the Nation of Islam, has taught her. As August kneels beside Sister Loretta, she tries to find “clarityâ€� in the act of prayer. What’s interesting, though, is that she doesn’t search for clarity simply by praying about something else, but by directly addressing the fact that she lacks clarity in the first place. Instead of letting the act of prayer steer her toward a certain kind of peace of mind, she actively tries to address the fact that her mind feels “fuzzy with clouded memory.â€� What’s more, this feeling is specifically tied to the exploration of her sexuality, meaning that she’s actually praying for a sense of understanding when it comes to the way she feels about her boyfriend, Jerome. In this way, her engagement with religion is predicated on her desire to find the guidance she lacks as a result of transitioning into adolescence without the support of a mother. Because Sister Loretta is the only person in August’s life in a position to give her any kind of motherly support, it makes sense that August would turn to prayer in this manner, since religion is the only way she knows how to connect with Sister Loretta.

Question Five ANSWER: 

The novel “Another Brooklyn” has several themes and symbols that shape the message and its meaning. These themes and symbols include time and memory, August’s mother’s death, and the Biafra war and its aftermath. The theme of time and memory has been used to reflect the progressive psychological development of August. The phrase “this is memory” reappears severely in the novel to draw the reader’s attention and use memory to recreate the truth of life in the past. Regularly, the narrative reminds the reader that it is a memory. Instead of focusing on explicit storyline drawing connections between August’s present moments and scenes, the narrative gives flashbacks to project her life’s general trajectory. In doing this, the story functions episodically to show how adamant August was in moving on from her past death experiences. August’s mother’s death was a symbol that reflected the maintained message of the novel. Because of her mother’s death, August’s memories couldn’t be blotted away, and throughout the story, the flashbacks of August’s mother enhanced the theme of time and memory. The theme of death was portrayed through August’s father and mother’s death. At the start of the novel, Mother’s death occurred before August became mature to accept the death robs our loved ones ultimately. Her father’s death took place at the end of the novel when she had developed psychological maturity through Anthropological education. At this time, August could accept death and its fate. Therefore, the mother’s death was a prelude to set the pace for the message and the narrative’s development as “Bildungsroman.”

– USE QUOTES for ANSWER FIVE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “What’s in that jar, Daddy?

You know what’s in that jar.

You said it was ashes. But whose?

You know whose.

Clyde’s?

We buried Clyde.

Mine?

This is memory.” (78)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This conversation takes place between August and her father sometime after they move to Brooklyn. The context surrounding this exchange isn’t exactly clear, since Woodson simply presents it at the end of a chapter without explaining what “jarâ€� August is asking about. All the same, it’s perfectly clear that the “jarâ€� in question isn’t actually a jar but an urn, since it’s full of ashes. More importantly, August’s father provides answers without ever actually answering her questions, thereby revealing that August is purposefully keeping herself from acknowledging things she already knows. Indeed, when she asks what’s inside the “jar,â€� her father replies, “You know what’s in that jar,â€� to which she admits to remembering that he has already told her it contains ashes. Going on like this, she asks whose ashes are in the “jar,â€� but he once again insists that she already knows. In this way, August is effectively interrogating herself, which means that she is also purposefully prohibiting herself from accessing certain information. As a result, readers realize for perhaps the first time in the novel that August’s mother isn’t simply absent, but dead—after all, what else would August so adamantly keep herself from accepting?

QUESTION FIVE ANSWER: The novel “Another Brooklyn” has reflected the Biafra war and its effects. The novel was authored within the 1960s and 1970s during the turbulent era in the United States era. This is the time when African Americans were fighting for their civil rights and social justice. During this era, young ladies were experiencing horrific episodes nationally and internationally. For example, “the starving children of Biafra, the Son of Sam Murders, and the Great Blackout of 1977” were all reflecting the plight against the girls come of age. The Vietnam War and the national impacts or aftermaths loom large. Uncle Clyde’s death on the battlefield triggered August’s mother’s madness that further led to her suicide by drowning herself. Therefore, the Biafra war and its effects influenced the message of the story.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER FIVE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH)

“In 1968, the children of Biafra were starving. My brother was not yet born and I was too young to understand what it meant to be a child, to be Biafran, to starve. Biafra was a country that lived only inside my mother’s admonitions—Eat your peas, there are children starving in Biafra—and in the empty-eyed, brown, big-bellied children moving across my parents’ television screen. But long after Biafra melted back into Nigeria, the country from which it had fought so hard to secede, the faces and swollen bellies of those children haunted me. In a pile of old magazines my father kept on our kitchen table in Brooklyn, I found a copy of Life with two genderless children on the cover and the words STARVING CHILDREN OF BIAFRA WAR blared across the ragged white garment of the taller child.” (65)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: Woodson references the Nigerian Civil War several times throughout the novel, using it as a point of comparison between the straightforward, livable poverty August experiences and the harrowing destitution created by violent conflict. The war itself took place between 1967 and 1970 and it was fought between the Nigerian government and the Igbo people, who wanted to secede from the rest of the country and create their own state called Biafra. Although the details of this struggle don’t necessarily make their way into Another Brooklyn, the conflict is important to the narrative because it helps August put her hardships in perspective. Indeed, she is surrounded by dangerous men, many of whom are addicted to drugs, but she also has enough food to eat—a fact that stands in stark contrast to the children of Biafra, many of whom are so starving that their stomachs have become distended.

What’s more, Woodson turns to the Biafran War as something that factors into August’s memories about her mother, who often urged her to finish her dinner by referencing the starving children of Biafra. To August, these references were abstract since she didn’t understand the circumstances surrounding the conflict. Now that August is older and her mother is gone, though, she has a better understanding of the war and is able to recognize that her mother was worried about children who lived so far away. Considering that August believes her mother is still alive but living apart from her, then, it becomes obvious why her memories about her mother’s concern about the Biafran War are relevant—after all, if her mother worried about unknown children living on another continent, surely she’s capable of caring about August’s wellbeing even when they no longer live together.

In a five-page response (double-spaced), address the following questions based on your complete reading of Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn.

QUESTION 1. A literary work that demonstrates the moral and/or psychological development of a main character is referred to as a “Bildungsroman” in literature. This is frequently referred to as a “coming of age story,” in which the main character matures by the book’s conclusion. Describe the changes August, the story’s main character, undergoes by the conclusion. Highlight significant moments in her development and discuss their significance. Your main focus should be on the main character, though you can also discuss how Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi develop (August). one page long in response.

QUESTION 2. Explain how the African American experience is represented in Another Brooklyn and explain how gender also shapes this representation (considering the core friendship between August, Sylvia, Angela and Gigi, and how this friendship is enhanced and complicated by race and sex/sexism). One full page response. 

QUESTION 3. In this book, how are Latinx communities portrayed in comparison to African Americans? What similarities and/or differences do these Latinx representations have with the African American experience? one page long in response.

QUESTION 4: Islam and Muslims are predominant figures throughout the entire novel. Explain their role and influence throughout the story, particularly what Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta represent in the development of the main character, August. One full page response.

QUESTION 5. How do time and memory, the passing of August’s mother, and the Biafara war and its repercussions shape the meaning of this book? one page long in response.

Question One ANSWER: 

In literature, the word “Bildungsroman” refers to the literary work that illustrates a central character’s moral and psychological development. Ideally, the term is commonly known as “coming of age story,” where the main character reaches maturity or adulthood at the novel’s close. The novel “Another Brooklyn,” authored by Jacqueline Woodson, can be claimed to be “Bildungsroman” because August, the main character in the narrative, has shown some critical development forms that progress through to the end of the story. The main character has shown some progressive development from denial about mother’s death to the reality of the death, thus maturing psychologically.

Since childhood, August has been living in self-denial about her mother’s death. August, as the main character, is also the narrator in the narrative. August moved from Sweet Grove to Tennessee to Brooklyn; however, August hadn’t accepted that her mother died and will return to all these places. As a result, August kept telling her brother and herself that their mother will return tomorrow. To evade or avoid loneliness, August spent most of her moments with her best friends Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi. These girls complimented each other about their beauty and helped each of them go through hard life and nasty experiences in Brooklyn. Brooklyn was beleaguered and inundated with heroin, sexual harassment/assault, and poverty. As these girls transition into womanhood, they share their encounters with boys, their home experiences, and how to evade bad men.

These girls’ friendship started to fade away after Angela vanished into the care system following the death of her mother. Also, August noticed that Sylvia was dating Jerome, August’s former boyfriend. He left her because she denied him sex. Sylvia became pregnant for Jerome, and August refused to talk to her anymore. Gigi committed suicide after seeing none of her friends support her in the music career. To show maturity, August never concentrated on these tragedies; instead, he focused on pursuing education when he joined Brown University, Rhode Island. In her adulthood, August became an anthropologist studying cultural conceptions of death. Ultimately, she had gotten the tools of handling her mother’s death. Eventually, even though he was immature, she progressively became mature psychologically and could accept her mother’s death.

– USE QUOTES for ANSWER ONE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “For a long time, my mother wasn’t dead yet. Mine could have been a more tragic story.â€�

(Chapter 1, Page 1)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: In the opening lines of the book, August creates uncertainty around her mother’s death. She acknowledges that her mother, at some point, died—but the assertion that she “wasn’t dead yetâ€� goes unexplained for most of the book. Eventually, it is clear that this line has a hidden meaning. For a long time, August didn’t believe her mother was dead, and thus did not experience her as being dead (yet)

“When you’re fifteen, the world collapses in a moment, different from when you’re eight and you learn that your mother walked into water—and kept on walking.

When you’re fifteen, you can’t make promises of a return to the before place. Your aging eyes tell a different, truer story. “(150)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This passage appears when August sees Sylvia and Jerome holding hands in the park and she realizes that Sylvia has betrayed her by secretly dating August’s ex-boyfriend. What’s unique about this moment is that it contains two revelations: first, August learns about Sylvia’s betrayal. More importantly, though, August also finally admits that her mother committed suicide. The reason these two acknowledgements come at the same time is that August finds herself incapable of denying reality when she sees Sylvia and Jerome holding hands. Although August usually tries to protect herself from heartache by overlooking anything that might trouble her, there’s nothing she can do in this moment to ignore the fact that Sylvia and Jerome are in a romantic relationship. As a result, her world “collapsesâ€� around her, and this makes it all but impossible for her to continue deluding herself about her mother, too. Whereas she used to be able to convince herself to live in the past of her childhood without acknowledging the present reality that her mother is dead, she now has no choice but to live in the present. She has, it seems, become too old to convince herself of false realities. In turn, Woodson implies that denial is an undependable coping mechanism, one that falters as people get older and are forced to admit certain irrefutable realities.

Question Two ANSWER: 

“Another Brooklyn” novel is a narrative that explains the experiences encountered by African Americans. The theme of gender, classism, and sexism have deep roots in this novel based on the core friendship of the four girls, August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi. These girls’ friendship was further promulgated by the concepts of race and sex in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Even though “Another Brooklyn” has not directly or explicitly highlighted the ideologies of racism on the life of August, the novel’s storyline plays out against the context of racial discrimination and tense race relationships. Although August’s life as a black girl seems free from the effects of racism and bigotry of the 1970s, most of her social interactions in the African American community present some sense of prejudice and racism. For instance, the Nation of Islam’s presence in the Brooklyn neighborhood is a reflection that the society was eagerly waiting for a stand against racism since the group was a separatist movement. The themes of racism, classism, and sexism have been depicted in the relationship and friendship August encountered with her three friends; Angela, Sylvia, and Gigi. The sense of prejudice was exhibited when Sylvia’s elitist father denies her daughter from associating with August, Angela, and Gigi, Black girls from low class. The basis of prohibiting Sylvia from befriending these low-class black girls was poverty that exemplified African Americans’ stereotypes. The Nation of Islam symbolizes racism because it was inherently associated with the advocacy of separation of white and black people in America, focusing on creating an all-black nation. Since almost all of August’s community members have membership of the Nation of Islam, they embrace the organization’s philosophy and ideology on separatism. All these aspects show racism, classism, and sexism in August’s neighborhood.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER TWO AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “The parents questioned us. Who were our people? What did they do? How were our grades? What were our ambitions? Did we understand, her father wanted to know, the Negro problem in America? Did we understand it was up to us to rise above? His girls, he believed, would become doctors and lawyers. It’s up to parents, he said, to push, push, push.” (102)

-EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: When August, Angela, and Gigi visit Sylvia’s house, they encounter Sylvia’s overbearing parents, who mercilessly question them about their personal lives. Their questions highlight their judgmental attitude toward anyone who doesn’t come from what they might consider a good family, anyone whose parents don’t have elite jobs, anyone whose grades aren’t perfect, or anyone who doesn’t have plans to pursue a competitive, widely-respected career. Even more revealing, though, are the questions Sylvia’s father asks about the girls’ thoughts concerning racism, since these questions indicate that his classist worldview is fueled by a desire to “rise above� bigotry. Indeed, he believes that it is his daughters’ responsibility to overcome racism by becoming doctors or lawyers, clearly thinking that the only way for a person to stand up against discrimination is to make it impossible for racists to align them with bigoted stereotypes about black people. The problem with this approach, however, is that it causes Sylvia’s father to adopt racist standards himself, effectively subjecting August, Angela, and Gigi to the same kind of unfair scrutiny to which he’s so worried bigots will subject his family. Accordingly, Woodson warns readers about the dangerous overlap between elitism and racism, ultimately suggesting that it’s unfortunately all too common for minorities to perpetuate bigotry while ostensibly trying to fight it.

Question Three ANSWER: 

The Latinx communities are highly represented in this novel as compared to African Americans. However, the Latinx community is differently represented in the Brooklyn neighborhood as compared to the African Americans. Latinx refers to the gender-neutral neologism; commonly associated with the Latin American cultural and ethnic identity. The novel shows minimal episodes of gender-neutrality represented by the Latinx community. However, common sexism has been depicted by African Americans. For instance, in “Another Brooklyn,” the society is happy for the empowerment of female friendship qualities but agonizing that these relationships are commonly the resources present for women encountering objectification and violence. Gender violence is a common theme in a society where the girls ought to be vital to face the feral boy’s sexual harassment and assault appetite. Society doesn’t show gender- neutrality (Latinx ideology) in the neighborhood. For instance, Gigi is raped, and the other girls request her to carry razor blades to cut the boy’s manhood if they come near her. Society is doing very little to safeguard the life of a girl-child. Lack of Latinx perceptions was demonstrated through the female friendship that was critical in empowering each other. Because of rampant sexism and sex discrimination in the Brooklyn community, these women banded together to sharpen each other about the right men to date. Therefore, the novel reflects Latinx communities’ presence by explaining the African American gender and sexual orientation.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER THREE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “What keeps keeping us here? Gigi asked one day, the rain coming down hard, her shirt torn at the shoulder. We didn’t know that for weeks and weeks, the lock had been broken on her building’s front door. We didn’t know about the soldier who kept behind the darkened basement stairwell, how he had waited for her in shadow. We were twelve.

I can’t tell anybody but you guys, Gigi said. My mom will say it was my fault.” (57)

-EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: When Gigi tells August, Sylvia, and Angela that a homeless, drug-addicted veteran raped her in the basement stairwell of her apartment building, the girls see for perhaps the first time how dangerous the world can be. This traumatic event causes Gigi to wonder what, exactly, is keeping her from escaping her current circumstances. Though this might seem like a logistical question about why she doesn’t leave Brooklyn to live somewhere else, the question takes on even more significance when she commits suicide several years later. This suggests that Gigi’s rape traumatized her so thoroughly that it has interfered with her ability to see the point in life. Worse, she suffers with such thoughts alone, or at least without any kind of adult guidance or support. This is because Gigi believes that her mom would say that her rape was Gigi’s own fault, a sentiment that underlines the extent to which she is expected to fend for herself in a world that is treacherous for young women. Indeed, the fact that Gigi’s mother would blame her for the soldier’s violence proves that Gigi and her friends live in a world that looks the other way when young women need help, thereby allowing violence against women to perpetuate itself.

– Quotes: “When boys called our names, we said, Don’t even say my name. Don’t even put it in your mouth. When they said, You ugly anyway, we knew they were lying. When they hollered, Conceited! We said, No—convinced! We watched them dip-walk away, too young to know how to respond. The four of us together weren’t something they understood. They understood girls alone, folding their arms across their breasts, praying for invisibility.â€� (70)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: As August and her friends get older, boys begin to notice their bodies. They also begin to yell out at them, but August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi feel no pressure to respond to their advances. This is significant, considering that Gigi was recently raped by a man, which means the girls must certainly feel on edge about the interactions they have with men (even if those men are still quite young). And yet, moving through the world as a group makes them feel unafraid of ignoring and even insulting boys. In turn, Woodson intimates that female companionship is something that can give young women a sense of strength, power, and fearlessness. The problem, of course, is that they have to band together like this to feel safe in the first place. Although it’s certainly a positive thing that friendship makes the girls feel more confident, it’s upsetting to think that they struggle to feel this way when they’re on their own, since this indicates that the society they live in makes it difficult for them to feel comfortable and safe in their own skin.

Question Four ANSWER:

Islam and Muslims are predominant figures throughout the whole novel. Islam religion has played a critical role and influence in the Brooklyn community described by the novel. Specifically, Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta have essentially promoted the development of August, the protagonist. The presence of Islam religion and Muslims are depicted by the Nation of Islam, an organization commonly pursuing the Black and White separatism agenda. The Nation of Islam essentially impacted August’s predominantly African American community. The organization was established around 1930 in Detroit. From the Nation of Islam, August’s father can come across Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta. Through several sessions, Sister Sonja was a therapist who helped August to realize that her mother committed suicide and is dead. Sister Sonja was one of the Nations of Islam members who fought for the separation of Whites and Blacks. On the other hand, Sister Loretta is a woman who develops a romantic relationship with August’s father while living in Brooklyn. Sister Loretta introduces August’s father to the Nation of Islam. She prays with family, urging both August and her brother to join the Nation of Islam. Therefore, both Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta have critically helped August develop psychologically and mature upstairs to accept her mother’s death.

As a religious and political organization, the Nation of Islam informed the Black community that White man is a factor behind racism and is a devil oppressing the black people.

Further, the Nation Islam promulgated the separation of whites and blacks within the United States, aiming to achieve all-black territory. As a result, most of August’s community members joined and pledged loyalty to the Nation of Islam. This is notable primarily because Woodson hasn’t heralded attention to any overt factor of white-on-black racism. Instead, Woodson has focused on the daily plights of August in the predominantly African American community. Almost everyone in her community was aligned with the separatist movement (Nation of Islam) shows how heavily racism invaded the community. The Nation of Islam symbolizes racism because it was inherently associated with the advocacy of separation of white and black people in America, focusing on creating an all-black nation. Since almost all of August’s community members have membership of the Nation of Islam, they embrace the organization’s philosophy and ideology on separatism. Therefore, the Brooklynese were gravitated and pulled towards the Nation of Islam not necessarily for religious purposes but to fight bigotry and racism that plighted the society.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER FOUR AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH)

“My brother had discovered math, the wonder of numbers, the infinite doubtless possibility. He sat on his bed most days solving problems no eight-year-old should understand. Squared, he said, is absolute. No one in the world can argue algebra or geometry. No one can say pi is wrong.

Come with me, I begged.

But my brother looked up from his numbers and said, She’s gone, August. It’s absolute.” (84)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: August’s brother’s interest in math predates his devotion to religion and particularly to the Nation of Islam movement, highlighting his attraction to things that explain certain facts of life. When he gravitates toward the “infinite doubtless possibilityâ€� of math, what he’s really taking pleasure in is the idea that, unlike so many other things in his life, he can know with complete certainty not only why something is the way it is, but also that it will always be that way. He then takes this mindset and applies it to the areas of uncertainty in his own life, coming to terms with the fact that his mother isn’t coming back. Whereas August refuses to acknowledge reality, her brother finds a certain amount of comfort in eliminating his sense of uncertainty by simply accepting that their mother is gone. In this way, Woodson spotlights the ways in which believing in a certain worldview, philosophy, or practice can help people cope with otherwise ambiguous and unsettling situations.

“I prayed that my own brain, fuzzy with clouded memory, would settle into a clarity that helped me to understand the feeling I got when I pressed my lips against my new boyfriend, Jerome, his shaking hands searching my body.â€� (95)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This passage appears as August tries to devote herself to prayer in the way that Sister Loretta, a devout member of the Nation of Islam, has taught her. As August kneels beside Sister Loretta, she tries to find “clarityâ€� in the act of prayer. What’s interesting, though, is that she doesn’t search for clarity simply by praying about something else, but by directly addressing the fact that she lacks clarity in the first place. Instead of letting the act of prayer steer her toward a certain kind of peace of mind, she actively tries to address the fact that her mind feels “fuzzy with clouded memory.â€� What’s more, this feeling is specifically tied to the exploration of her sexuality, meaning that she’s actually praying for a sense of understanding when it comes to the way she feels about her boyfriend, Jerome. In this way, her engagement with religion is predicated on her desire to find the guidance she lacks as a result of transitioning into adolescence without the support of a mother. Because Sister Loretta is the only person in August’s life in a position to give her any kind of motherly support, it makes sense that August would turn to prayer in this manner, since religion is the only way she knows how to connect with Sister Loretta.

Question Five ANSWER: 

The novel “Another Brooklyn” has several themes and symbols that shape the message and its meaning. These themes and symbols include time and memory, August’s mother’s death, and the Biafra war and its aftermath. The theme of time and memory has been used to reflect the progressive psychological development of August. The phrase “this is memory” reappears severely in the novel to draw the reader’s attention and use memory to recreate the truth of life in the past. Regularly, the narrative reminds the reader that it is a memory. Instead of focusing on explicit storyline drawing connections between August’s present moments and scenes, the narrative gives flashbacks to project her life’s general trajectory. In doing this, the story functions episodically to show how adamant August was in moving on from her past death experiences. August’s mother’s death was a symbol that reflected the maintained message of the novel. Because of her mother’s death, August’s memories couldn’t be blotted away, and throughout the story, the flashbacks of August’s mother enhanced the theme of time and memory. The theme of death was portrayed through August’s father and mother’s death. At the start of the novel, Mother’s death occurred before August became mature to accept the death robs our loved ones ultimately. Her father’s death took place at the end of the novel when she had developed psychological maturity through Anthropological education. At this time, August could accept death and its fate. Therefore, the mother’s death was a prelude to set the pace for the message and the narrative’s development as “Bildungsroman.”

– USE QUOTES for ANSWER FIVE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “What’s in that jar, Daddy?

You know what’s in that jar.

You said it was ashes. But whose?

You know whose.

Clyde’s?

We buried Clyde.

Mine?

This is memory.” (78)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This conversation takes place between August and her father sometime after they move to Brooklyn. The context surrounding this exchange isn’t exactly clear, since Woodson simply presents it at the end of a chapter without explaining what “jarâ€� August is asking about. All the same, it’s perfectly clear that the “jarâ€� in question isn’t actually a jar but an urn, since it’s full of ashes. More importantly, August’s father provides answers without ever actually answering her questions, thereby revealing that August is purposefully keeping herself from acknowledging things she already knows. Indeed, when she asks what’s inside the “jar,â€� her father replies, “You know what’s in that jar,â€� to which she admits to remembering that he has already told her it contains ashes. Going on like this, she asks whose ashes are in the “jar,â€� but he once again insists that she already knows. In this way, August is effectively interrogating herself, which means that she is also purposefully prohibiting herself from accessing certain information. As a result, readers realize for perhaps the first time in the novel that August’s mother isn’t simply absent, but dead—after all, what else would August so adamantly keep herself from accepting?

QUESTION FIVE ANSWER: The novel “Another Brooklyn” has reflected the Biafra war and its effects. The novel was authored within the 1960s and 1970s during the turbulent era in the United States era. This is the time when African Americans were fighting for their civil rights and social justice. During this era, young ladies were experiencing horrific episodes nationally and internationally. For example, “the starving children of Biafra, the Son of Sam Murders, and the Great Blackout of 1977” were all reflecting the plight against the girls come of age. The Vietnam War and the national impacts or aftermaths loom large. Uncle Clyde’s death on the battlefield triggered August’s mother’s madness that further led to her suicide by drowning herself. Therefore, the Biafra war and its effects influenced the message of the story.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER FIVE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH)

“In 1968, the children of Biafra were starving. My brother was not yet born and I was too young to understand what it meant to be a child, to be Biafran, to starve. Biafra was a country that lived only inside my mother’s admonitions—Eat your peas, there are children starving in Biafra—and in the empty-eyed, brown, big-bellied children moving across my parents’ television screen. But long after Biafra melted back into Nigeria, the country from which it had fought so hard to secede, the faces and swollen bellies of those children haunted me. In a pile of old magazines my father kept on our kitchen table in Brooklyn, I found a copy of Life with two genderless children on the cover and the words STARVING CHILDREN OF BIAFRA WAR blared across the ragged white garment of the taller child.” (65)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: Woodson references the Nigerian Civil War several times throughout the novel, using it as a point of comparison between the straightforward, livable poverty August experiences and the harrowing destitution created by violent conflict. The war itself took place between 1967 and 1970 and it was fought between the Nigerian government and the Igbo people, who wanted to secede from the rest of the country and create their own state called Biafra. Although the details of this struggle don’t necessarily make their way into Another Brooklyn, the conflict is important to the narrative because it helps August put her hardships in perspective. Indeed, she is surrounded by dangerous men, many of whom are addicted to drugs, but she also has enough food to eat—a fact that stands in stark contrast to the children of Biafra, many of whom are so starving that their stomachs have become distended.

What’s more, Woodson turns to the Biafran War as something that factors into August’s memories about her mother, who often urged her to finish her dinner by referencing the starving children of Biafra. To August, these references were abstract since she didn’t understand the circumstances surrounding the conflict. Now that August is older and her mother is gone, though, she has a better understanding of the war and is able to recognize that her mother was worried about children who lived so far away. Considering that August believes her mother is still alive but living apart from her, then, it becomes obvious why her memories about her mother’s concern about the Biafran War are relevant—after all, if her mother worried about unknown children living on another continent, surely she’s capable of caring about August’s wellbeing even when they no longer live together.

In a five-page response (double-spaced), address the following questions based on your complete reading of Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn.

QUESTION 1. A literary work that demonstrates the moral and/or psychological development of a main character is referred to as a “Bildungsroman” in literature. This is frequently referred to as a “coming of age story,” in which the main character matures by the book’s conclusion. Describe the changes August, the story’s main character, undergoes by the conclusion. Highlight significant moments in her development and discuss their significance. Your main focus should be on the main character, though you can also discuss how Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi develop (August). one page long in response.

QUESTION 2. Explain how the African American experience is represented in Another Brooklyn and explain how gender also shapes this representation (considering the core friendship between August, Sylvia, Angela and Gigi, and how this friendship is enhanced and complicated by race and sex/sexism). One full page response. 

QUESTION 3. In this book, how are Latinx communities portrayed in comparison to African Americans? What similarities and/or differences do these Latinx representations have with the African American experience? one page long in response.

QUESTION 4: Islam and Muslims are predominant figures throughout the entire novel. Explain their role and influence throughout the story, particularly what Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta represent in the development of the main character, August. One full page response.

QUESTION 5. How do time and memory, the passing of August’s mother, and the Biafara war and its repercussions shape the meaning of this book? one page long in response.

Question One ANSWER: 

In literature, the word “Bildungsroman” refers to the literary work that illustrates a central character’s moral and psychological development. Ideally, the term is commonly known as “coming of age story,” where the main character reaches maturity or adulthood at the novel’s close. The novel “Another Brooklyn,” authored by Jacqueline Woodson, can be claimed to be “Bildungsroman” because August, the main character in the narrative, has shown some critical development forms that progress through to the end of the story. The main character has shown some progressive development from denial about mother’s death to the reality of the death, thus maturing psychologically.

Since childhood, August has been living in self-denial about her mother’s death. August, as the main character, is also the narrator in the narrative. August moved from Sweet Grove to Tennessee to Brooklyn; however, August hadn’t accepted that her mother died and will return to all these places. As a result, August kept telling her brother and herself that their mother will return tomorrow. To evade or avoid loneliness, August spent most of her moments with her best friends Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi. These girls complimented each other about their beauty and helped each of them go through hard life and nasty experiences in Brooklyn. Brooklyn was beleaguered and inundated with heroin, sexual harassment/assault, and poverty. As these girls transition into womanhood, they share their encounters with boys, their home experiences, and how to evade bad men.

These girls’ friendship started to fade away after Angela vanished into the care system following the death of her mother. Also, August noticed that Sylvia was dating Jerome, August’s former boyfriend. He left her because she denied him sex. Sylvia became pregnant for Jerome, and August refused to talk to her anymore. Gigi committed suicide after seeing none of her friends support her in the music career. To show maturity, August never concentrated on these tragedies; instead, he focused on pursuing education when he joined Brown University, Rhode Island. In her adulthood, August became an anthropologist studying cultural conceptions of death. Ultimately, she had gotten the tools of handling her mother’s death. Eventually, even though he was immature, she progressively became mature psychologically and could accept her mother’s death.

– USE QUOTES for ANSWER ONE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “For a long time, my mother wasn’t dead yet. Mine could have been a more tragic story.â€�

(Chapter 1, Page 1)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: In the opening lines of the book, August creates uncertainty around her mother’s death. She acknowledges that her mother, at some point, died—but the assertion that she “wasn’t dead yetâ€� goes unexplained for most of the book. Eventually, it is clear that this line has a hidden meaning. For a long time, August didn’t believe her mother was dead, and thus did not experience her as being dead (yet)

“When you’re fifteen, the world collapses in a moment, different from when you’re eight and you learn that your mother walked into water—and kept on walking.

When you’re fifteen, you can’t make promises of a return to the before place. Your aging eyes tell a different, truer story. “(150)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This passage appears when August sees Sylvia and Jerome holding hands in the park and she realizes that Sylvia has betrayed her by secretly dating August’s ex-boyfriend. What’s unique about this moment is that it contains two revelations: first, August learns about Sylvia’s betrayal. More importantly, though, August also finally admits that her mother committed suicide. The reason these two acknowledgements come at the same time is that August finds herself incapable of denying reality when she sees Sylvia and Jerome holding hands. Although August usually tries to protect herself from heartache by overlooking anything that might trouble her, there’s nothing she can do in this moment to ignore the fact that Sylvia and Jerome are in a romantic relationship. As a result, her world “collapsesâ€� around her, and this makes it all but impossible for her to continue deluding herself about her mother, too. Whereas she used to be able to convince herself to live in the past of her childhood without acknowledging the present reality that her mother is dead, she now has no choice but to live in the present. She has, it seems, become too old to convince herself of false realities. In turn, Woodson implies that denial is an undependable coping mechanism, one that falters as people get older and are forced to admit certain irrefutable realities.

Question Two ANSWER: 

“Another Brooklyn” novel is a narrative that explains the experiences encountered by African Americans. The theme of gender, classism, and sexism have deep roots in this novel based on the core friendship of the four girls, August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi. These girls’ friendship was further promulgated by the concepts of race and sex in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Even though “Another Brooklyn” has not directly or explicitly highlighted the ideologies of racism on the life of August, the novel’s storyline plays out against the context of racial discrimination and tense race relationships. Although August’s life as a black girl seems free from the effects of racism and bigotry of the 1970s, most of her social interactions in the African American community present some sense of prejudice and racism. For instance, the Nation of Islam’s presence in the Brooklyn neighborhood is a reflection that the society was eagerly waiting for a stand against racism since the group was a separatist movement. The themes of racism, classism, and sexism have been depicted in the relationship and friendship August encountered with her three friends; Angela, Sylvia, and Gigi. The sense of prejudice was exhibited when Sylvia’s elitist father denies her daughter from associating with August, Angela, and Gigi, Black girls from low class. The basis of prohibiting Sylvia from befriending these low-class black girls was poverty that exemplified African Americans’ stereotypes. The Nation of Islam symbolizes racism because it was inherently associated with the advocacy of separation of white and black people in America, focusing on creating an all-black nation. Since almost all of August’s community members have membership of the Nation of Islam, they embrace the organization’s philosophy and ideology on separatism. All these aspects show racism, classism, and sexism in August’s neighborhood.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER TWO AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “The parents questioned us. Who were our people? What did they do? How were our grades? What were our ambitions? Did we understand, her father wanted to know, the Negro problem in America? Did we understand it was up to us to rise above? His girls, he believed, would become doctors and lawyers. It’s up to parents, he said, to push, push, push.” (102)

-EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: When August, Angela, and Gigi visit Sylvia’s house, they encounter Sylvia’s overbearing parents, who mercilessly question them about their personal lives. Their questions highlight their judgmental attitude toward anyone who doesn’t come from what they might consider a good family, anyone whose parents don’t have elite jobs, anyone whose grades aren’t perfect, or anyone who doesn’t have plans to pursue a competitive, widely-respected career. Even more revealing, though, are the questions Sylvia’s father asks about the girls’ thoughts concerning racism, since these questions indicate that his classist worldview is fueled by a desire to “rise above� bigotry. Indeed, he believes that it is his daughters’ responsibility to overcome racism by becoming doctors or lawyers, clearly thinking that the only way for a person to stand up against discrimination is to make it impossible for racists to align them with bigoted stereotypes about black people. The problem with this approach, however, is that it causes Sylvia’s father to adopt racist standards himself, effectively subjecting August, Angela, and Gigi to the same kind of unfair scrutiny to which he’s so worried bigots will subject his family. Accordingly, Woodson warns readers about the dangerous overlap between elitism and racism, ultimately suggesting that it’s unfortunately all too common for minorities to perpetuate bigotry while ostensibly trying to fight it.

Question Three ANSWER: 

The Latinx communities are highly represented in this novel as compared to African Americans. However, the Latinx community is differently represented in the Brooklyn neighborhood as compared to the African Americans. Latinx refers to the gender-neutral neologism; commonly associated with the Latin American cultural and ethnic identity. The novel shows minimal episodes of gender-neutrality represented by the Latinx community. However, common sexism has been depicted by African Americans. For instance, in “Another Brooklyn,” the society is happy for the empowerment of female friendship qualities but agonizing that these relationships are commonly the resources present for women encountering objectification and violence. Gender violence is a common theme in a society where the girls ought to be vital to face the feral boy’s sexual harassment and assault appetite. Society doesn’t show gender- neutrality (Latinx ideology) in the neighborhood. For instance, Gigi is raped, and the other girls request her to carry razor blades to cut the boy’s manhood if they come near her. Society is doing very little to safeguard the life of a girl-child. Lack of Latinx perceptions was demonstrated through the female friendship that was critical in empowering each other. Because of rampant sexism and sex discrimination in the Brooklyn community, these women banded together to sharpen each other about the right men to date. Therefore, the novel reflects Latinx communities’ presence by explaining the African American gender and sexual orientation.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER THREE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “What keeps keeping us here? Gigi asked one day, the rain coming down hard, her shirt torn at the shoulder. We didn’t know that for weeks and weeks, the lock had been broken on her building’s front door. We didn’t know about the soldier who kept behind the darkened basement stairwell, how he had waited for her in shadow. We were twelve.

I can’t tell anybody but you guys, Gigi said. My mom will say it was my fault.” (57)

-EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: When Gigi tells August, Sylvia, and Angela that a homeless, drug-addicted veteran raped her in the basement stairwell of her apartment building, the girls see for perhaps the first time how dangerous the world can be. This traumatic event causes Gigi to wonder what, exactly, is keeping her from escaping her current circumstances. Though this might seem like a logistical question about why she doesn’t leave Brooklyn to live somewhere else, the question takes on even more significance when she commits suicide several years later. This suggests that Gigi’s rape traumatized her so thoroughly that it has interfered with her ability to see the point in life. Worse, she suffers with such thoughts alone, or at least without any kind of adult guidance or support. This is because Gigi believes that her mom would say that her rape was Gigi’s own fault, a sentiment that underlines the extent to which she is expected to fend for herself in a world that is treacherous for young women. Indeed, the fact that Gigi’s mother would blame her for the soldier’s violence proves that Gigi and her friends live in a world that looks the other way when young women need help, thereby allowing violence against women to perpetuate itself.

– Quotes: “When boys called our names, we said, Don’t even say my name. Don’t even put it in your mouth. When they said, You ugly anyway, we knew they were lying. When they hollered, Conceited! We said, No—convinced! We watched them dip-walk away, too young to know how to respond. The four of us together weren’t something they understood. They understood girls alone, folding their arms across their breasts, praying for invisibility.â€� (70)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: As August and her friends get older, boys begin to notice their bodies. They also begin to yell out at them, but August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi feel no pressure to respond to their advances. This is significant, considering that Gigi was recently raped by a man, which means the girls must certainly feel on edge about the interactions they have with men (even if those men are still quite young). And yet, moving through the world as a group makes them feel unafraid of ignoring and even insulting boys. In turn, Woodson intimates that female companionship is something that can give young women a sense of strength, power, and fearlessness. The problem, of course, is that they have to band together like this to feel safe in the first place. Although it’s certainly a positive thing that friendship makes the girls feel more confident, it’s upsetting to think that they struggle to feel this way when they’re on their own, since this indicates that the society they live in makes it difficult for them to feel comfortable and safe in their own skin.

Question Four ANSWER:

Islam and Muslims are predominant figures throughout the whole novel. Islam religion has played a critical role and influence in the Brooklyn community described by the novel. Specifically, Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta have essentially promoted the development of August, the protagonist. The presence of Islam religion and Muslims are depicted by the Nation of Islam, an organization commonly pursuing the Black and White separatism agenda. The Nation of Islam essentially impacted August’s predominantly African American community. The organization was established around 1930 in Detroit. From the Nation of Islam, August’s father can come across Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta. Through several sessions, Sister Sonja was a therapist who helped August to realize that her mother committed suicide and is dead. Sister Sonja was one of the Nations of Islam members who fought for the separation of Whites and Blacks. On the other hand, Sister Loretta is a woman who develops a romantic relationship with August’s father while living in Brooklyn. Sister Loretta introduces August’s father to the Nation of Islam. She prays with family, urging both August and her brother to join the Nation of Islam. Therefore, both Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta have critically helped August develop psychologically and mature upstairs to accept her mother’s death.

As a religious and political organization, the Nation of Islam informed the Black community that White man is a factor behind racism and is a devil oppressing the black people.

Further, the Nation Islam promulgated the separation of whites and blacks within the United States, aiming to achieve all-black territory. As a result, most of August’s community members joined and pledged loyalty to the Nation of Islam. This is notable primarily because Woodson hasn’t heralded attention to any overt factor of white-on-black racism. Instead, Woodson has focused on the daily plights of August in the predominantly African American community. Almost everyone in her community was aligned with the separatist movement (Nation of Islam) shows how heavily racism invaded the community. The Nation of Islam symbolizes racism because it was inherently associated with the advocacy of separation of white and black people in America, focusing on creating an all-black nation. Since almost all of August’s community members have membership of the Nation of Islam, they embrace the organization’s philosophy and ideology on separatism. Therefore, the Brooklynese were gravitated and pulled towards the Nation of Islam not necessarily for religious purposes but to fight bigotry and racism that plighted the society.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER FOUR AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH)

“My brother had discovered math, the wonder of numbers, the infinite doubtless possibility. He sat on his bed most days solving problems no eight-year-old should understand. Squared, he said, is absolute. No one in the world can argue algebra or geometry. No one can say pi is wrong.

Come with me, I begged.

But my brother looked up from his numbers and said, She’s gone, August. It’s absolute.” (84)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: August’s brother’s interest in math predates his devotion to religion and particularly to the Nation of Islam movement, highlighting his attraction to things that explain certain facts of life. When he gravitates toward the “infinite doubtless possibilityâ€� of math, what he’s really taking pleasure in is the idea that, unlike so many other things in his life, he can know with complete certainty not only why something is the way it is, but also that it will always be that way. He then takes this mindset and applies it to the areas of uncertainty in his own life, coming to terms with the fact that his mother isn’t coming back. Whereas August refuses to acknowledge reality, her brother finds a certain amount of comfort in eliminating his sense of uncertainty by simply accepting that their mother is gone. In this way, Woodson spotlights the ways in which believing in a certain worldview, philosophy, or practice can help people cope with otherwise ambiguous and unsettling situations.

“I prayed that my own brain, fuzzy with clouded memory, would settle into a clarity that helped me to understand the feeling I got when I pressed my lips against my new boyfriend, Jerome, his shaking hands searching my body.â€� (95)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This passage appears as August tries to devote herself to prayer in the way that Sister Loretta, a devout member of the Nation of Islam, has taught her. As August kneels beside Sister Loretta, she tries to find “clarityâ€� in the act of prayer. What’s interesting, though, is that she doesn’t search for clarity simply by praying about something else, but by directly addressing the fact that she lacks clarity in the first place. Instead of letting the act of prayer steer her toward a certain kind of peace of mind, she actively tries to address the fact that her mind feels “fuzzy with clouded memory.â€� What’s more, this feeling is specifically tied to the exploration of her sexuality, meaning that she’s actually praying for a sense of understanding when it comes to the way she feels about her boyfriend, Jerome. In this way, her engagement with religion is predicated on her desire to find the guidance she lacks as a result of transitioning into adolescence without the support of a mother. Because Sister Loretta is the only person in August’s life in a position to give her any kind of motherly support, it makes sense that August would turn to prayer in this manner, since religion is the only way she knows how to connect with Sister Loretta.

Question Five ANSWER: 

The novel “Another Brooklyn” has several themes and symbols that shape the message and its meaning. These themes and symbols include time and memory, August’s mother’s death, and the Biafra war and its aftermath. The theme of time and memory has been used to reflect the progressive psychological development of August. The phrase “this is memory” reappears severely in the novel to draw the reader’s attention and use memory to recreate the truth of life in the past. Regularly, the narrative reminds the reader that it is a memory. Instead of focusing on explicit storyline drawing connections between August’s present moments and scenes, the narrative gives flashbacks to project her life’s general trajectory. In doing this, the story functions episodically to show how adamant August was in moving on from her past death experiences. August’s mother’s death was a symbol that reflected the maintained message of the novel. Because of her mother’s death, August’s memories couldn’t be blotted away, and throughout the story, the flashbacks of August’s mother enhanced the theme of time and memory. The theme of death was portrayed through August’s father and mother’s death. At the start of the novel, Mother’s death occurred before August became mature to accept the death robs our loved ones ultimately. Her father’s death took place at the end of the novel when she had developed psychological maturity through Anthropological education. At this time, August could accept death and its fate. Therefore, the mother’s death was a prelude to set the pace for the message and the narrative’s development as “Bildungsroman.”

– USE QUOTES for ANSWER FIVE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “What’s in that jar, Daddy?

You know what’s in that jar.

You said it was ashes. But whose?

You know whose.

Clyde’s?

We buried Clyde.

Mine?

This is memory.” (78)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This conversation takes place between August and her father sometime after they move to Brooklyn. The context surrounding this exchange isn’t exactly clear, since Woodson simply presents it at the end of a chapter without explaining what “jarâ€� August is asking about. All the same, it’s perfectly clear that the “jarâ€� in question isn’t actually a jar but an urn, since it’s full of ashes. More importantly, August’s father provides answers without ever actually answering her questions, thereby revealing that August is purposefully keeping herself from acknowledging things she already knows. Indeed, when she asks what’s inside the “jar,â€� her father replies, “You know what’s in that jar,â€� to which she admits to remembering that he has already told her it contains ashes. Going on like this, she asks whose ashes are in the “jar,â€� but he once again insists that she already knows. In this way, August is effectively interrogating herself, which means that she is also purposefully prohibiting herself from accessing certain information. As a result, readers realize for perhaps the first time in the novel that August’s mother isn’t simply absent, but dead—after all, what else would August so adamantly keep herself from accepting?

QUESTION FIVE ANSWER: The novel “Another Brooklyn” has reflected the Biafra war and its effects. The novel was authored within the 1960s and 1970s during the turbulent era in the United States era. This is the time when African Americans were fighting for their civil rights and social justice. During this era, young ladies were experiencing horrific episodes nationally and internationally. For example, “the starving children of Biafra, the Son of Sam Murders, and the Great Blackout of 1977” were all reflecting the plight against the girls come of age. The Vietnam War and the national impacts or aftermaths loom large. Uncle Clyde’s death on the battlefield triggered August’s mother’s madness that further led to her suicide by drowning herself. Therefore, the Biafra war and its effects influenced the message of the story.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER FIVE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH)

“In 1968, the children of Biafra were starving. My brother was not yet born and I was too young to understand what it meant to be a child, to be Biafran, to starve. Biafra was a country that lived only inside my mother’s admonitions—Eat your peas, there are children starving in Biafra—and in the empty-eyed, brown, big-bellied children moving across my parents’ television screen. But long after Biafra melted back into Nigeria, the country from which it had fought so hard to secede, the faces and swollen bellies of those children haunted me. In a pile of old magazines my father kept on our kitchen table in Brooklyn, I found a copy of Life with two genderless children on the cover and the words STARVING CHILDREN OF BIAFRA WAR blared across the ragged white garment of the taller child.” (65)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: Woodson references the Nigerian Civil War several times throughout the novel, using it as a point of comparison between the straightforward, livable poverty August experiences and the harrowing destitution created by violent conflict. The war itself took place between 1967 and 1970 and it was fought between the Nigerian government and the Igbo people, who wanted to secede from the rest of the country and create their own state called Biafra. Although the details of this struggle don’t necessarily make their way into Another Brooklyn, the conflict is important to the narrative because it helps August put her hardships in perspective. Indeed, she is surrounded by dangerous men, many of whom are addicted to drugs, but she also has enough food to eat—a fact that stands in stark contrast to the children of Biafra, many of whom are so starving that their stomachs have become distended.

What’s more, Woodson turns to the Biafran War as something that factors into August’s memories about her mother, who often urged her to finish her dinner by referencing the starving children of Biafra. To August, these references were abstract since she didn’t understand the circumstances surrounding the conflict. Now that August is older and her mother is gone, though, she has a better understanding of the war and is able to recognize that her mother was worried about children who lived so far away. Considering that August believes her mother is still alive but living apart from her, then, it becomes obvious why her memories about her mother’s concern about the Biafran War are relevant—after all, if her mother worried about unknown children living on another continent, surely she’s capable of caring about August’s wellbeing even when they no longer live together.

In a five-page response (double-spaced), address the following questions based on your complete reading of Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn.

QUESTION 1. A literary work that demonstrates the moral and/or psychological development of a main character is referred to as a “Bildungsroman” in literature. This is frequently referred to as a “coming of age story,” in which the main character matures by the book’s conclusion. Describe the changes August, the story’s main character, undergoes by the conclusion. Highlight significant moments in her development and discuss their significance. Your main focus should be on the main character, though you can also discuss how Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi develop (August). one page long in response.

QUESTION 2. Explain how the African American experience is represented in Another Brooklyn and explain how gender also shapes this representation (considering the core friendship between August, Sylvia, Angela and Gigi, and how this friendship is enhanced and complicated by race and sex/sexism). One full page response. 

QUESTION 3. In this book, how are Latinx communities portrayed in comparison to African Americans? What similarities and/or differences do these Latinx representations have with the African American experience? one page long in response.

QUESTION 4: Islam and Muslims are predominant figures throughout the entire novel. Explain their role and influence throughout the story, particularly what Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta represent in the development of the main character, August. One full page response.

QUESTION 5. How do time and memory, the passing of August’s mother, and the Biafara war and its repercussions shape the meaning of this book? one page long in response.

Question One ANSWER: 

In literature, the word “Bildungsroman” refers to the literary work that illustrates a central character’s moral and psychological development. Ideally, the term is commonly known as “coming of age story,” where the main character reaches maturity or adulthood at the novel’s close. The novel “Another Brooklyn,” authored by Jacqueline Woodson, can be claimed to be “Bildungsroman” because August, the main character in the narrative, has shown some critical development forms that progress through to the end of the story. The main character has shown some progressive development from denial about mother’s death to the reality of the death, thus maturing psychologically.

Since childhood, August has been living in self-denial about her mother’s death. August, as the main character, is also the narrator in the narrative. August moved from Sweet Grove to Tennessee to Brooklyn; however, August hadn’t accepted that her mother died and will return to all these places. As a result, August kept telling her brother and herself that their mother will return tomorrow. To evade or avoid loneliness, August spent most of her moments with her best friends Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi. These girls complimented each other about their beauty and helped each of them go through hard life and nasty experiences in Brooklyn. Brooklyn was beleaguered and inundated with heroin, sexual harassment/assault, and poverty. As these girls transition into womanhood, they share their encounters with boys, their home experiences, and how to evade bad men.

These girls’ friendship started to fade away after Angela vanished into the care system following the death of her mother. Also, August noticed that Sylvia was dating Jerome, August’s former boyfriend. He left her because she denied him sex. Sylvia became pregnant for Jerome, and August refused to talk to her anymore. Gigi committed suicide after seeing none of her friends support her in the music career. To show maturity, August never concentrated on these tragedies; instead, he focused on pursuing education when he joined Brown University, Rhode Island. In her adulthood, August became an anthropologist studying cultural conceptions of death. Ultimately, she had gotten the tools of handling her mother’s death. Eventually, even though he was immature, she progressively became mature psychologically and could accept her mother’s death.

– USE QUOTES for ANSWER ONE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “For a long time, my mother wasn’t dead yet. Mine could have been a more tragic story.â€�

(Chapter 1, Page 1)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: In the opening lines of the book, August creates uncertainty around her mother’s death. She acknowledges that her mother, at some point, died—but the assertion that she “wasn’t dead yetâ€� goes unexplained for most of the book. Eventually, it is clear that this line has a hidden meaning. For a long time, August didn’t believe her mother was dead, and thus did not experience her as being dead (yet)

“When you’re fifteen, the world collapses in a moment, different from when you’re eight and you learn that your mother walked into water—and kept on walking.

When you’re fifteen, you can’t make promises of a return to the before place. Your aging eyes tell a different, truer story. “(150)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This passage appears when August sees Sylvia and Jerome holding hands in the park and she realizes that Sylvia has betrayed her by secretly dating August’s ex-boyfriend. What’s unique about this moment is that it contains two revelations: first, August learns about Sylvia’s betrayal. More importantly, though, August also finally admits that her mother committed suicide. The reason these two acknowledgements come at the same time is that August finds herself incapable of denying reality when she sees Sylvia and Jerome holding hands. Although August usually tries to protect herself from heartache by overlooking anything that might trouble her, there’s nothing she can do in this moment to ignore the fact that Sylvia and Jerome are in a romantic relationship. As a result, her world “collapsesâ€� around her, and this makes it all but impossible for her to continue deluding herself about her mother, too. Whereas she used to be able to convince herself to live in the past of her childhood without acknowledging the present reality that her mother is dead, she now has no choice but to live in the present. She has, it seems, become too old to convince herself of false realities. In turn, Woodson implies that denial is an undependable coping mechanism, one that falters as people get older and are forced to admit certain irrefutable realities.

Question Two ANSWER: 

“Another Brooklyn” novel is a narrative that explains the experiences encountered by African Americans. The theme of gender, classism, and sexism have deep roots in this novel based on the core friendship of the four girls, August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi. These girls’ friendship was further promulgated by the concepts of race and sex in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Even though “Another Brooklyn” has not directly or explicitly highlighted the ideologies of racism on the life of August, the novel’s storyline plays out against the context of racial discrimination and tense race relationships. Although August’s life as a black girl seems free from the effects of racism and bigotry of the 1970s, most of her social interactions in the African American community present some sense of prejudice and racism. For instance, the Nation of Islam’s presence in the Brooklyn neighborhood is a reflection that the society was eagerly waiting for a stand against racism since the group was a separatist movement. The themes of racism, classism, and sexism have been depicted in the relationship and friendship August encountered with her three friends; Angela, Sylvia, and Gigi. The sense of prejudice was exhibited when Sylvia’s elitist father denies her daughter from associating with August, Angela, and Gigi, Black girls from low class. The basis of prohibiting Sylvia from befriending these low-class black girls was poverty that exemplified African Americans’ stereotypes. The Nation of Islam symbolizes racism because it was inherently associated with the advocacy of separation of white and black people in America, focusing on creating an all-black nation. Since almost all of August’s community members have membership of the Nation of Islam, they embrace the organization’s philosophy and ideology on separatism. All these aspects show racism, classism, and sexism in August’s neighborhood.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER TWO AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “The parents questioned us. Who were our people? What did they do? How were our grades? What were our ambitions? Did we understand, her father wanted to know, the Negro problem in America? Did we understand it was up to us to rise above? His girls, he believed, would become doctors and lawyers. It’s up to parents, he said, to push, push, push.” (102)

-EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: When August, Angela, and Gigi visit Sylvia’s house, they encounter Sylvia’s overbearing parents, who mercilessly question them about their personal lives. Their questions highlight their judgmental attitude toward anyone who doesn’t come from what they might consider a good family, anyone whose parents don’t have elite jobs, anyone whose grades aren’t perfect, or anyone who doesn’t have plans to pursue a competitive, widely-respected career. Even more revealing, though, are the questions Sylvia’s father asks about the girls’ thoughts concerning racism, since these questions indicate that his classist worldview is fueled by a desire to “rise above� bigotry. Indeed, he believes that it is his daughters’ responsibility to overcome racism by becoming doctors or lawyers, clearly thinking that the only way for a person to stand up against discrimination is to make it impossible for racists to align them with bigoted stereotypes about black people. The problem with this approach, however, is that it causes Sylvia’s father to adopt racist standards himself, effectively subjecting August, Angela, and Gigi to the same kind of unfair scrutiny to which he’s so worried bigots will subject his family. Accordingly, Woodson warns readers about the dangerous overlap between elitism and racism, ultimately suggesting that it’s unfortunately all too common for minorities to perpetuate bigotry while ostensibly trying to fight it.

Question Three ANSWER: 

The Latinx communities are highly represented in this novel as compared to African Americans. However, the Latinx community is differently represented in the Brooklyn neighborhood as compared to the African Americans. Latinx refers to the gender-neutral neologism; commonly associated with the Latin American cultural and ethnic identity. The novel shows minimal episodes of gender-neutrality represented by the Latinx community. However, common sexism has been depicted by African Americans. For instance, in “Another Brooklyn,” the society is happy for the empowerment of female friendship qualities but agonizing that these relationships are commonly the resources present for women encountering objectification and violence. Gender violence is a common theme in a society where the girls ought to be vital to face the feral boy’s sexual harassment and assault appetite. Society doesn’t show gender- neutrality (Latinx ideology) in the neighborhood. For instance, Gigi is raped, and the other girls request her to carry razor blades to cut the boy’s manhood if they come near her. Society is doing very little to safeguard the life of a girl-child. Lack of Latinx perceptions was demonstrated through the female friendship that was critical in empowering each other. Because of rampant sexism and sex discrimination in the Brooklyn community, these women banded together to sharpen each other about the right men to date. Therefore, the novel reflects Latinx communities’ presence by explaining the African American gender and sexual orientation.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER THREE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “What keeps keeping us here? Gigi asked one day, the rain coming down hard, her shirt torn at the shoulder. We didn’t know that for weeks and weeks, the lock had been broken on her building’s front door. We didn’t know about the soldier who kept behind the darkened basement stairwell, how he had waited for her in shadow. We were twelve.

I can’t tell anybody but you guys, Gigi said. My mom will say it was my fault.” (57)

-EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: When Gigi tells August, Sylvia, and Angela that a homeless, drug-addicted veteran raped her in the basement stairwell of her apartment building, the girls see for perhaps the first time how dangerous the world can be. This traumatic event causes Gigi to wonder what, exactly, is keeping her from escaping her current circumstances. Though this might seem like a logistical question about why she doesn’t leave Brooklyn to live somewhere else, the question takes on even more significance when she commits suicide several years later. This suggests that Gigi’s rape traumatized her so thoroughly that it has interfered with her ability to see the point in life. Worse, she suffers with such thoughts alone, or at least without any kind of adult guidance or support. This is because Gigi believes that her mom would say that her rape was Gigi’s own fault, a sentiment that underlines the extent to which she is expected to fend for herself in a world that is treacherous for young women. Indeed, the fact that Gigi’s mother would blame her for the soldier’s violence proves that Gigi and her friends live in a world that looks the other way when young women need help, thereby allowing violence against women to perpetuate itself.

– Quotes: “When boys called our names, we said, Don’t even say my name. Don’t even put it in your mouth. When they said, You ugly anyway, we knew they were lying. When they hollered, Conceited! We said, No—convinced! We watched them dip-walk away, too young to know how to respond. The four of us together weren’t something they understood. They understood girls alone, folding their arms across their breasts, praying for invisibility.â€� (70)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: As August and her friends get older, boys begin to notice their bodies. They also begin to yell out at them, but August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi feel no pressure to respond to their advances. This is significant, considering that Gigi was recently raped by a man, which means the girls must certainly feel on edge about the interactions they have with men (even if those men are still quite young). And yet, moving through the world as a group makes them feel unafraid of ignoring and even insulting boys. In turn, Woodson intimates that female companionship is something that can give young women a sense of strength, power, and fearlessness. The problem, of course, is that they have to band together like this to feel safe in the first place. Although it’s certainly a positive thing that friendship makes the girls feel more confident, it’s upsetting to think that they struggle to feel this way when they’re on their own, since this indicates that the society they live in makes it difficult for them to feel comfortable and safe in their own skin.

Question Four ANSWER:

Islam and Muslims are predominant figures throughout the whole novel. Islam religion has played a critical role and influence in the Brooklyn community described by the novel. Specifically, Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta have essentially promoted the development of August, the protagonist. The presence of Islam religion and Muslims are depicted by the Nation of Islam, an organization commonly pursuing the Black and White separatism agenda. The Nation of Islam essentially impacted August’s predominantly African American community. The organization was established around 1930 in Detroit. From the Nation of Islam, August’s father can come across Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta. Through several sessions, Sister Sonja was a therapist who helped August to realize that her mother committed suicide and is dead. Sister Sonja was one of the Nations of Islam members who fought for the separation of Whites and Blacks. On the other hand, Sister Loretta is a woman who develops a romantic relationship with August’s father while living in Brooklyn. Sister Loretta introduces August’s father to the Nation of Islam. She prays with family, urging both August and her brother to join the Nation of Islam. Therefore, both Sister Sonja and Sister Loretta have critically helped August develop psychologically and mature upstairs to accept her mother’s death.

As a religious and political organization, the Nation of Islam informed the Black community that White man is a factor behind racism and is a devil oppressing the black people.

Further, the Nation Islam promulgated the separation of whites and blacks within the United States, aiming to achieve all-black territory. As a result, most of August’s community members joined and pledged loyalty to the Nation of Islam. This is notable primarily because Woodson hasn’t heralded attention to any overt factor of white-on-black racism. Instead, Woodson has focused on the daily plights of August in the predominantly African American community. Almost everyone in her community was aligned with the separatist movement (Nation of Islam) shows how heavily racism invaded the community. The Nation of Islam symbolizes racism because it was inherently associated with the advocacy of separation of white and black people in America, focusing on creating an all-black nation. Since almost all of August’s community members have membership of the Nation of Islam, they embrace the organization’s philosophy and ideology on separatism. Therefore, the Brooklynese were gravitated and pulled towards the Nation of Islam not necessarily for religious purposes but to fight bigotry and racism that plighted the society.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER FOUR AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH)

“My brother had discovered math, the wonder of numbers, the infinite doubtless possibility. He sat on his bed most days solving problems no eight-year-old should understand. Squared, he said, is absolute. No one in the world can argue algebra or geometry. No one can say pi is wrong.

Come with me, I begged.

But my brother looked up from his numbers and said, She’s gone, August. It’s absolute.” (84)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: August’s brother’s interest in math predates his devotion to religion and particularly to the Nation of Islam movement, highlighting his attraction to things that explain certain facts of life. When he gravitates toward the “infinite doubtless possibilityâ€� of math, what he’s really taking pleasure in is the idea that, unlike so many other things in his life, he can know with complete certainty not only why something is the way it is, but also that it will always be that way. He then takes this mindset and applies it to the areas of uncertainty in his own life, coming to terms with the fact that his mother isn’t coming back. Whereas August refuses to acknowledge reality, her brother finds a certain amount of comfort in eliminating his sense of uncertainty by simply accepting that their mother is gone. In this way, Woodson spotlights the ways in which believing in a certain worldview, philosophy, or practice can help people cope with otherwise ambiguous and unsettling situations.

“I prayed that my own brain, fuzzy with clouded memory, would settle into a clarity that helped me to understand the feeling I got when I pressed my lips against my new boyfriend, Jerome, his shaking hands searching my body.â€� (95)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This passage appears as August tries to devote herself to prayer in the way that Sister Loretta, a devout member of the Nation of Islam, has taught her. As August kneels beside Sister Loretta, she tries to find “clarityâ€� in the act of prayer. What’s interesting, though, is that she doesn’t search for clarity simply by praying about something else, but by directly addressing the fact that she lacks clarity in the first place. Instead of letting the act of prayer steer her toward a certain kind of peace of mind, she actively tries to address the fact that her mind feels “fuzzy with clouded memory.â€� What’s more, this feeling is specifically tied to the exploration of her sexuality, meaning that she’s actually praying for a sense of understanding when it comes to the way she feels about her boyfriend, Jerome. In this way, her engagement with religion is predicated on her desire to find the guidance she lacks as a result of transitioning into adolescence without the support of a mother. Because Sister Loretta is the only person in August’s life in a position to give her any kind of motherly support, it makes sense that August would turn to prayer in this manner, since religion is the only way she knows how to connect with Sister Loretta.

Question Five ANSWER: 

The novel “Another Brooklyn” has several themes and symbols that shape the message and its meaning. These themes and symbols include time and memory, August’s mother’s death, and the Biafra war and its aftermath. The theme of time and memory has been used to reflect the progressive psychological development of August. The phrase “this is memory” reappears severely in the novel to draw the reader’s attention and use memory to recreate the truth of life in the past. Regularly, the narrative reminds the reader that it is a memory. Instead of focusing on explicit storyline drawing connections between August’s present moments and scenes, the narrative gives flashbacks to project her life’s general trajectory. In doing this, the story functions episodically to show how adamant August was in moving on from her past death experiences. August’s mother’s death was a symbol that reflected the maintained message of the novel. Because of her mother’s death, August’s memories couldn’t be blotted away, and throughout the story, the flashbacks of August’s mother enhanced the theme of time and memory. The theme of death was portrayed through August’s father and mother’s death. At the start of the novel, Mother’s death occurred before August became mature to accept the death robs our loved ones ultimately. Her father’s death took place at the end of the novel when she had developed psychological maturity through Anthropological education. At this time, August could accept death and its fate. Therefore, the mother’s death was a prelude to set the pace for the message and the narrative’s development as “Bildungsroman.”

– USE QUOTES for ANSWER FIVE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH) : “What’s in that jar, Daddy?

You know what’s in that jar.

You said it was ashes. But whose?

You know whose.

Clyde’s?

We buried Clyde.

Mine?

This is memory.” (78)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: This conversation takes place between August and her father sometime after they move to Brooklyn. The context surrounding this exchange isn’t exactly clear, since Woodson simply presents it at the end of a chapter without explaining what “jarâ€� August is asking about. All the same, it’s perfectly clear that the “jarâ€� in question isn’t actually a jar but an urn, since it’s full of ashes. More importantly, August’s father provides answers without ever actually answering her questions, thereby revealing that August is purposefully keeping herself from acknowledging things she already knows. Indeed, when she asks what’s inside the “jar,â€� her father replies, “You know what’s in that jar,â€� to which she admits to remembering that he has already told her it contains ashes. Going on like this, she asks whose ashes are in the “jar,â€� but he once again insists that she already knows. In this way, August is effectively interrogating herself, which means that she is also purposefully prohibiting herself from accessing certain information. As a result, readers realize for perhaps the first time in the novel that August’s mother isn’t simply absent, but dead—after all, what else would August so adamantly keep herself from accepting?

QUESTION FIVE ANSWER: The novel “Another Brooklyn” has reflected the Biafra war and its effects. The novel was authored within the 1960s and 1970s during the turbulent era in the United States era. This is the time when African Americans were fighting for their civil rights and social justice. During this era, young ladies were experiencing horrific episodes nationally and internationally. For example, “the starving children of Biafra, the Son of Sam Murders, and the Great Blackout of 1977” were all reflecting the plight against the girls come of age. The Vietnam War and the national impacts or aftermaths loom large. Uncle Clyde’s death on the battlefield triggered August’s mother’s madness that further led to her suicide by drowning herself. Therefore, the Biafra war and its effects influenced the message of the story.

-USE QUOTES for ANSWER FIVE AND CHANGE WORDING (PARAPHRASE ABOVE PARAGRAPH)

“In 1968, the children of Biafra were starving. My brother was not yet born and I was too young to understand what it meant to be a child, to be Biafran, to starve. Biafra was a country that lived only inside my mother’s admonitions—Eat your peas, there are children starving in Biafra—and in the empty-eyed, brown, big-bellied children moving across my parents’ television screen. But long after Biafra melted back into Nigeria, the country from which it had fought so hard to secede, the faces and swollen bellies of those children haunted me. In a pile of old magazines my father kept on our kitchen table in Brooklyn, I found a copy of Life with two genderless children on the cover and the words STARVING CHILDREN OF BIAFRA WAR blared across the ragged white garment of the taller child.” (65)

– EXPLANATION OF QUOTE: Woodson references the Nigerian Civil War several times throughout the novel, using it as a point of comparison between the straightforward, livable poverty August experiences and the harrowing destitution created by violent conflict. The war itself took place between 1967 and 1970 and it was fought between the Nigerian government and the Igbo people, who wanted to secede from the rest of the country and create their own state called Biafra. Although the details of this struggle don’t necessarily make their way into Another Brooklyn, the conflict is important to the narrative because it helps August put her hardships in perspective. Indeed, she is surrounded by dangerous men, many of whom are addicted to drugs, but she also has enough food to eat—a fact that stands in stark contrast to the children of Biafra, many of whom are so starving that their stomachs have become distended.

What’s more, Woodson turns to the Biafran War as something that factors into August’s memories about her mother, who often urged her to finish her dinner by referencing the starving children of Biafra. To August, these references were abstract since she didn’t understand the circumstances surrounding the conflict. Now that August is older and her mother is gone, though, she has a better understanding of the war and is able to recognize that her mother was worried about children who lived so far away. Considering that August believes her mother is still alive but living apart from her, then, it becomes obvious why her memories about her mother’s concern about the Biafran War are relevant—after all, if her mother worried about unknown children living on another continent, surely she’s capable of caring about August’s wellbeing even when they no longer live together.