Brown Girl, Brownstones

Silla Boyce is a hardworking, determined, and ruthless woman whose choices serve as important contributors to the development of her daughter’s character. Silla believes in the American Dream. She left Barbados at 18 to come to America, and she gives up everything in an effort to gain the money she needs to purchase a brownstone for her family.

Her fierceness and determination both impress and frighten her daughters, while her decision to sell her husband’s land without his permission leads to the break-up of her family. She betrays her husband and family by calling immigration on her husband after he abandons his family. This act is so unforgiveable that it causes a rupture with Selina. Faced with her own guilt and her daughter’s anger, Silla comes to respect her daughter and to question her own choices. By the end of the novel, the narrative paints Silla as a sympathetic character who has made poor decisions with the best of intentions. Marshall presents her as the quintessential immigrant mother who wants the best for her children.

Deighton Boyce is Silla’s husband and Selina and Ina’s father. Deighton is an improvident dandy who is full of ideas but poor at execution. As the novel progresses, he transforms from a father who is full of promises into one who abandons his family to join a cult. He leaves the frame of the narrative after being deported and dies off stage on the way back to Barbados. Marshall presents Deighton as a tragic figure who is unable to fulfill the expectations of his wife and community.

Clive Springer is the 29-year old son of Barbadian immigrants. He is a failed artist and a veteran so damaged by the war and his family’s expectations that he has no passion for life. In the novel, he plays an important role because he is Selina’s first lover and provides context that helps Selina to understand the existential crisis facing people of color in a racist world. Clive is a flat, static character who enters and leaves the novel as the same person: one who has given up on his dreams because the world overwhelms him.

Beryl Challenor is the daughter of prosperous Barbadian immigrants. She is Selina’s best friend for a time, and Selina has a crush on her in the early chapters of the novel. Beryl is the ideal Barbadian-American daughter—she excels at school, dates the right kind of boys, and is content to fulfill the expectations of her parents and community. She serves as a foil to Selina, and her character is relatively static throughout the novel.

Ina Boyce is the eldest child of the Boyce family. Ina is another foil to Selina. While Selina is boisterous, rebellious, and willful, Ina is delicate, traditionally beautiful, and compliant when it comes to fulfilling the expectations of her family and community. Ina does not change much over the course of the novel. She marries a mild-mannered Barbadian-American man and moves to the suburbs by the end of the book.

Suggie is an attractive Barbadian immigrant who rooms with the Boyce family. Suggie’s refusal to abide by the expectation that Barbadian women will be chaste and thrifty makes her an object of scorn for the women in her community. Suggie teaches Selina that it is possible to reject the pressure to conform, and she emphasizes the importance of honoring one’s desires, sexual or otherwise. Her eviction by Silla also serves as an object lesson to Selina, who learns that there are harsh consequences for failing to live up to community expectations.

Miss Thompson is an older woman who mentors Selina by nurturing her and forcing her to question her assumptions about her family and community. She is a gentler mother figure than Silla. Miss Thompson is one of the few well-developed African American characters in her novel, so she serves as a connection to African-American culture for Selina. Racism has marred Miss Thompson’s life and body, so she also helps Selina understand the impact of prejudice on the lives of people of color in the United States.

Miss Mary is an elderly white women and former servant of the white family that lived in the Boyce house. Miss Mary spends her days lost in memories of the white family and telling her daughter stories about their lives. She lives surrounded by the remaining belongings of the family. For both Selina and Silla, the old woman is a relic of the white past of the home. Silla threatens to choke Miss Mary, while Selina is intrigued by the woman’s idealized stories of the white family. Miss Mary is one of the few white characters present in the novel.

Maritze is Miss Mary’s daughter. She hates the stories her mother tells and feels trapped in the brownstone. She is an unhappy single woman who wants to marry and move to the suburbs. She represents unsuccessful whites who feel a sense of grievance because they have been left behind their more successful white peers.

Virgie Farnum is one of the many first-generation Barbadian immigrants in Silla Boyce’s circle of friends. Virgie is always pregnant, has extremely fair skin, and is a malicious gossip who eggs Silla on in denigrating Deighton, with whom Virgie grew up. Virgie is one of the loudest voices in the chorus of Barbadian immigrant women whose expectations oppress Selina.

Father Peace is an old man who leads the cult-like group that Deighton joins after his arm injury. Father Peace claims to be God on Earth, and he demands that his worshippers surrender all other loyalties in order to join his group. Father Peace appears to be loosely based on Father Divine, the leader of the International Peace Mission Movement, a quasi-cult that advocated for communal ownership and racial equality during the 1920s-1930s in Harlem.