War Between Generations

There is an obvious social drama in Brown Girl Dreaming, namely the racial tension from the historical context of the plot.  However, along with this racial tension comes the tension between generations reacting to the new laws and race relations.  The oldest generation, Jackie’s grandparents and her New York neighbor, tends to hold tradition above all else. The neighbor laments that there used to be all sorts of white people on the street, but now things have changed.  The grandmother holds her Jehovah’s Witness traditions above all else, controlling the grandchildren’s entire lives with it for the time that they are in Greenville.  The grandfather, meanwhile, believes we should be willing to die for our traditions and what we believe.

Jackie’s parents’ generation has a much different relationship with time and tradition. Her uncle actively works against tradition by converting Islam, while her father wants nothing to do with Southern tradition by refusing to enter South Carolina.  Finally, her mother does not necessarily support any tradition, but just wants her kids to grow up safe.

Meanwhile, Jackie’s generation is simply stuck in the middle of this generational war.  The siblings tend to lean toward the more conservative side, as evidenced by Cora telling Jackie she is going to be haunted by the devil (114), or Della tattling on Jackie by occasion.  Despite these subtle examples, they are more the result of conditioning by their elders than their own thinking, which in this case excludes the youngest generation from the debate.

This generational difference of their relationships with the past is just as much an obstacle to navigate for Jackie as is the racial conflict.  This is evidenced in her last section of the novel, when she combines what her parents resemble: Irreligiousness, Ohio, and a writer with what her grandparents resemble: Jehovah’s witnesses, Greenville, and reading the world.  This dualism is what Jackie identifies as making her herself, and until the last page of the novel, summarizes the rest of the novel’s obstacles.