Point of View

Brown Girl, Brownstones is told by a third-person narrator, who has access to the inner thoughts of a few characters. Most of the book is seen through Selina's eyes, but sometimes the view shifts to someone like Miss Thompson, or Suggie. Once in a while, the narrator foreshadows something that is going to happen by using symbolic imagery, such as emphasizing the end of spring and the end of the day, to show that Selina and Clive's relationship is nearing its end, but for the most part, the future is a mystery. Often Selina's point of view takes a fanciful turn, and she imagines herself as other people. For example, she identifies with Suggie after they drink rum together, as the narrator says, "On her way downstairs, the rum coiling hot in her stomach, she felt that she, like Suggie, carried the sun inside her" (Book...