"Brownies" - ZZ Packer

This is Cathy Lee.

What struck me about this story was the pack mentality of the main characters that were featured, characteristic of elementary school students. The protagonist is repeatedly silenced and called “Snot” throughout the story whenever she speaks up, despite not having committed any misdeed, except sneezing on a girl in first grade (p. 418), which was infamously memorable. The weight and influence of this nickname on the protagonist’s elementary school years is highlighted by the fact that the protagonist is only named once in the entire story (which is considered an anomaly). She is largely labelled “Snot”, and is hence defined by one incident that was deemed socially unacceptable. The trivial nature of nicknames is also shown when Arnetta’s solution to the situation the Brownie troop is in is to call the girl a “tattletale”, effectively labelling her socially unacceptable and discouraging her from reporting the incident (p. 426). Arnetta’s name-calling is thought to be “cunning”, while the girl is looked at as a “genius” when she reinvents the petty nickname as her own, emphasising how preoccupied the elementary school students are with petty name-calling. Furthermore, the element of peer pressure is evident throughout this story. When the Brownie troop decides that they are going to teach Troop 909 a lesson, they pressure the protagonist into agreeing with their decision, by looking at the protagonist and implying that she is the “impediment” to their plan (p. 418).