Literary Analysis Essay on Brownies by ZZ Packer

Introduction

Brownies by ZZ Packer is a short story that is set at a summer camp in Crescendo, near Atlanta, Georgia. The story revolves around two brownie troops, one comprising of African American students from Woodrow Wilson Elementary school, which is a predominantly black school with only one white student. The other troop is a white girl's troop, commonly referred to as troop 909. The black girls' ring leader Arnetta describes the white girls as having a striking appearance, with a complexion that looks like ice cream, strawberry, and vanilla, but smells like wet Chihuahuas (Packer 2). Right from the first time that the African American troop met with troop 909, they developed a dislike for them. Not long after their first encounter, the black girls hatch a plan to teach the white girls a lesson after Arnetta claimed that she overheard the white girls calling Daphne a "nigger," which was derogatory (Packer 5). The plan was to teach the white girls a lesson involved beating them up or placing daddy long legs in their sleeping bags. The scene ends in a messy bathroom, and the girls' plan did not materialize. Later on, the black girls come to learn that troop 909 consists of special needs students who had Echolalia. The narrator then relates this story to her father's story of the Mennonite family, who does work for him without pay or a thank you, and it was the only time that he had seen a white person working for a black person (Packer 26). In the end, the author realizes that there is just something mean in the world that she cannot stop.

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Hills like White Elephants is a story that is set up in a train station in Spain with an American man and his girlfriend drinking beer as they await the train (Hemingway 229). The girl sees the hills nearby and remarks that they look like white elephants, which the American man exclaims that he had never seen one. They continue to take more drinks, and the man suggests that they should have tried to enjoy themselves. The girl then says that she is merely having fun and retracts back from her statement that the hills look like white elephants and claims that the hills don't actually look like the white elephants (Hemingway 230). Shortly after, the man suggests that the girl should have an operation, which he claims would be simple and that the procedure itself is not an actual operation at all (Hemingway 230). The girl is hesitant and asks him what would happen after the operation, which he answers that everything would be fine, just like before. He even said that he knew people who had done it and that they had found happiness afterward. The girl is convinced and agrees to undertake the operation with the condition that the man would still love her even after. The man, however, says that he was not forcing the operation on the girl and that she had the freedom not to do it, but according to him, it would be the best cause of action for them (Hemingway 231). The two engage in a back and forth argument until the train arrives.

Use of Symbolism Within the Two Stories

Symbolism is extensively used in the two stories. In Brownies by ZZ Packer, the brownies themselves are a symbol of innocence, leadership, and compassion and often sells cookies for charity (Packer 8). Generally, brownies are expected to be kind, loving, and friendly, but the black girls' troop, in this case, is the opposite of the expectation. They are harsh and mistreat the white girls' troops and even threatens to teach them a lesson (Packer 11). Also, within the African American troop, there is a lot of conflicts with some agreeing to teach the white girl's troop a lesson and others being undecided. While brownies in this story are supposed to portray compassion and leadership, they fail to do so and instead become a source of conflict and discrimination to others. Broadly, theses brownies symbolize the leaders in today's society. Instead of upholding peace and unity as expected, they are often a source of conflict and hatred within themselves and others. The narrator, Laura, has also been used as a symbol of the personal conflict and tensions that exist between belonging to a particular group or community and maintaining individuality. She is torn between joining her brownie troop in harassing the white girl's troops and maintaining her individual calm personality.

In the Hills like White Elephants' short story by Ernest Hemingway, the white elephants are used symbolically. They symbolize an unwanted thing or object. In this story, the white elephants are a symbol of the unwanted child who the American man suggests that should be aborted (Hemingway 229). Even though abortion is not directly mentioned in the story, the operation that the American man referred to was abortion. Initially, when the girlfriend stated that the hills look like white elephants, it was a move to initiate the conversation between her and her lover about the possibility of aborting the child. However, the girl, later on, retracts from the statement and states that the hills don't look like white elephants, symbolizing that she was considering keeping the child and that the child was not unwanted. The hills that look like white elephants symbolize the baby. The girl states that at first glance, the hills look like white elephants, but upon having a closer look, the hills are actually beautiful. The elephants in this story have also been used as a symbol of a significant and painful encounter that no one wants to discuss.

The white elephants, which are wild animals, have been used to symbolize the wildlife that the American man and his girlfriend have been living (Hemingway 229). The hills are also a symbol of stability. It signifies that the two lovers had been living wildlife and were stable in their relationship before the baby came along. Jig, the girlfriend, even fears whether their relationship would remain stable and loving after the operation. The boyfriend then assures her that he knows people who had been through the operation and were happier afterward. Further, the fact that the man suggested that the girl should have an abortion indicates that he was not ready to be a hill, i.e., he was not prepared to settle. Keeping the baby would mean that he would have to marry the girl and eventually settle, but that is not what he wanted. He wanted to live a happy and wildlife without responsibilities and having to settle down.

The bamboo beaded curtain that is talked about in the story symbolizes the boundaries and separations between the couples that had been created by the pregnancy issue (Hemingway 229). The society's stigma of having children before marriage is a curtain that the couple must decide whether to go through past it and keep the baby regardless of the stigmatization or choose to terminate the pregnancy and avoid stigmatization. Additionally, the pregnancy itself acts as a curtain that separates the opinions of the couple on whether to keep the baby or not. The girlfriend wants to keep the baby, but the boyfriend does not.

The train and train station in this story is also used as a symbol. The train symbolizes the long journey that awaits the couple ahead (Hemingway 229). The train station symbolizes the transition that the couple is just about to experience. It is a mid-point between the couple's past and their future. The transition is both physically and through experiences since they are physically moving from one place to another, and since by the time they will be leaving the train station, they would have made the decision whether to keep the child or not. Additionally, the railroad tracks at the railway station is a symbol of the possible varied life paths that they are likely to take (Hemingway 229). Every track symbolizes a step closer to their parenthood journey. Their luggage, which has been labeled by their names, is also a symbol of the map that had led them to that point. It symbolizes that up to the point when they were at the train station, they had journeyed together even though it was not clear whether their journey together would continue after terminating or keeping the baby.

The author uses the white color of the hills when there is sunshine and the brown and dry sight of the bare land around the hills as a symbol of the directions in which their lives would take should the couple decide to keep the baby or terminate it (Hemingway 229). The white hills on the glare of sunshine symbolize the pure joy and happiness that might come with keeping the baby while the dry and brown land is a symbol of unfruitfulness and unfulfillment that might come with terminating the pregnancy.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills like white elephants." Men without women (1927). https://faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/English%202500/Readings%20for%20English%202500/Hills%20Like%20White%20Elephants.pdf

Packer, Z. Z. Drinking coffee elsewhere. Penguin, 2004. http://writ101van.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/7/3/22735066/packer_brownies.pdf