Packer's 'Brownies And Drinking Coffee Elsewhere'

Both ZZ Packer's “Brownies” and “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” explore the obstacles in life that cause reflection in the characters lives allowing them to discover the meanness in the world. “Brownies” is about young black girls who go to summer camp with white girls, where prejudice is present and they are racially segregated by choice. Their encounter with the white girls during a difficult situation allows them to better understand the complexity of meanness that exists in the world. In “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” Dina the main character is a black women struggling to find her identity and accepting that she is lesbian while isolating herself from everyone around her. Her encounter and friendship with Heidi, a Canadian white girl, develops into a relationship that allows Dina to temporarily breakaway from her shell. However Dina denies herself love by pushing Heidi aside because she doesn't want to deal with her true identity. Both stories provide insight on how self discovery helps them make sense of the world around them and opens their eyes to the meanness. ZZ Packer comments on various forms of meanness in the world which range from racial prejudice and labels. These stories allow the characters to discover how meanness in the world affects them and their ideals and morals. In “Brownies” racial segregation and prejudice causes young black girls to react to societies meanness and the reasons behind it. In this short story Brownie troops at summer camp are either all black or all white with no mixed troop present. This displays the constant presence of segregation and the influence it will have on children who only know what they are taught. The black girls have little knowledge or contact with people who are different than them, “When you lived in the south suburbs of Atlanta, it was easy to forget about whites. Whites were like those baby pigeons: real and existing, but rarely seen or thought about” (5), because of this limited exposure the back girls are extremely conscious of their differences. These differences come from the world around them and affect their opinions tremendously. Many of the differences are imaginary based on how others perceptions of whites having rubbed off on them “Man, did you smell them?" These imaginary ideas stem from racial prejudice and the hostility, history and current segregation that has impacted their mindset and actions. Furthermore, Caucasian is used as a humorous term of abuse that can be applied in any situation: “If you ate too fast you ate like a Caucasian, if you ate too slow you ate like a Caucasian” (4). The black girls are used to living in a segregated environment where they may only catch a momentary sight of white people making them out to be “invaders.” The girls depiction and treatment of white girls comes from the stereotypical images they have of white people further seen in the story. For instance, before the black troops “see” the white girls at camp the one thing they are able to depict is the long straight hair which looks …show more content…
Her father feels his resentment strongly, and that is why he asks the Mennonite family to paint his porch for free, so for once he can feel himself to be in a position of superiority over whites. This is where Laurel gets many of her ideas displaying that at such a young age she is victimized to every cruel action and thought in the world. After her experience at camp Laurel now understands her father's actions: "When you've been made to feel bad for so long, you jump at the chance to do it to others” (31). This is a realization for Laurel where she is mature enough to realize that she does not agree with her father's motivation and learns that "there is something mean in the world" that she cannot control. Laurel realizes that the kind act of the Mennonite family did nothing to heal the situation, since her father refused to thank the family for the work they had done. This situation gives Laurel the experience and depth to realize the evil that is in the world and that the only thing she can do is better herself and rise above through moving on just as Dina does in “Drinking Coffee