Brother: A Novel

In Chapters 3 and 4, Michael’s and Francis’s characterizations are further developed by the impact of their absent father, establishing The Impact of Immigration and Racial Identity on Family Dynamics. Ruth implies to Francis that discrimination and marginalization took a toll on their father: “[P]eople wouldn’t rent their places to people like him […] hire men like him, or fairly pay or promote them. There were countless indignities […] there had been tolls” (82). One of these tolls is the impact of his absence on his family. What’s more, the brothers’ father is not just absent but actively so. He refuses to see them when they find him—“disconnect[ing] with a click” (86)—thus repeating his abandonment when they were toddlers. Their father’s refusal to see them or be a part of their lives is a blow to the boys’ self-esteem and well-being. Without a male role model, Michael and Francis are forced to contend with the influences of street life alone. The absence of their father is thus not only painful but also a symbolic vacuum of growth for Michael and Francis.

Thematically, these chapters also introduce The Aspirations and Struggles of Young People in Marginalized Communities. The barbershop Desirea’s is a setting in which Michael and Francis can construct and discover multicultural male culture as men of different ethnic and racial backgrounds come together to share music, stories, and style. Despite the differences that often divide the Park, “in Desirea’s, different styles and kinships [are] possible. You [find] new language, you [catch] the gestures, you [keep] the meanings close as skin” (101). Notably, it is within these chapters that Michael first notices that the intimacy between his brother and Jelly might be more than friendship, noting “a thing” that is apparent “in touched hands, in certain glances and embraces, its truth deep, undeniable, but rarely spoken or explained” (84). That Desirea’s is a safe space for both expressing and protecting this type of intimacy speaks to this setting’s crucial role in Francis’s character development and identity formation. Michael, too, finds belonging at Desirea’s. While Michael is not characterized as someone who generally fits in, in Desirea’s he inherits Black culture and is welcomed as an insider, finding a space of nurture and growth that he and Francis can’t get from their father. Desirea’s is therefore crucial both to character development and to unifying the disparate cultures in Scarborough.

Chariandy also celebrates the djeli as instrumental for connection to culture. A djeli is also known as a griot, a West African storyteller, poet, and historian. Traditionally, a griot was a highly influential and indispensable person in West African societies because their ability to keep oral storytelling alive gave them access to a history, wisdom, and knowledge of heritage that could inform the decisions of those societies in which they lived. Francis and Michael lack a connection to their heritage; they know they are descended from Trinidadians but have little access to that culture. Jelly’s barbershop music, inspired by the djeli spirit, allows them to hear “as if with new ears, the music of [their] parents, the lost arts of funk especially, but also ska and soul, blues and jazz” (102). In this way, Jelly serves as a source of cultural wisdom in the community.

In addition to struggling with the formation of identity in his past, Michael also struggles to deal with his present. Michael doesn’t know how to help his mother other than to protect her from the outside world, as evident in his discomfort with Jelly’s arrival. Chariandy uses a role reversal to emphasize that one cannot ignore their past or forsake their future: Just as Michael’s mother was unable to protect her sons from the influences and pressures of the outside world, Michael can’t protect his mother from exposure to the outside world, either. For both Michael and his mother, trying to avoid the reality of the world outside their home only leads to more problems. Michael and his mother are stuck, and their characters can’t develop until they confront the past and embrace the world around them. Jelly, as a close friend of Francis, is a painful reminder of the past who also symbolizes an opportunity to reckon with this past to create a better future.