"Brownies" - Wu

Hi, Allison Wu here. “Brownies” spoke to two parts of my identity – my race and my child self. This story managed to intertwine these two aspects of myself through its masterful use of simplicity in theme;  particularly the power of words. Throughout the story, Packer makes clear that words (specifically labels to identify self) are important to the narrative’s emphasis upon human nature and emotion. Some words and phrases that struck me in both their use and implications were: “Caucasian”; “Chihuahuas”; “poverty”; and (of course) “Brownies”. This theme that Packer develops throughout the story made me think about how interrelated my race and child self are because of how each word represents the simultaneity of these aforementioned pieces of identity. Words’ duality of simplicity and complicated nature is gestured toward in the story and remind me of the same duality that is found in both my racial and child identity. Both pieces of identity hold the same countering duality that words hold in Packer’s story. It is the combination of and inability to ride of words’ dual nature (simple vs. complication) that reminded me of how inseparable my racial and child self-identities are. The raw nature of words’ that imply both meaning which is innate as a child and something learned as an adult, reminds me how my race was something implied at the beginning of my life but not something I had the words to truly express. Although I have grown to understand my race with the meaning of words and the words themselves to express that meaning, I am still the child bearing the weight of social differentiation – with little words to express this burden.