29 pages • 58 minutes read
How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)
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Character Analysis
The Narrator
The narrator is the story’s protagonist. He exhibits analytical skills, quick thinking, and social awareness. He is a student, likely a teenager, and lives with his parents in a home with signs of government aid and slight disrepair. He spends most of the story going through extensive steps to date girls that live in or around his area. He is a dynamic character, and this dynamism as a character appears during every single encounter where the possibility of social faux pas or barriers between him and his romantic interests are present. He is the one example of a round character in the story because of how multifaced he is and because he possesses the ability to adapt under many of the scenarios that he encounters in the narrative. When he utters the phrase, “You have choices” (Paragraph 12), it encapsulates this idea.
The other origin of his character’s adaptability comes from the fact that he and his immediate family immigrated from the Dominican Republic. In terms of appearance, the story seems to suggest that he is likely of a light skinned complexion, not fair enough to be considered white. The narrator at one point mentions this in relation to the white girl he is trying to court, stating “you love her hair, her skin, her lips, because in truth you love them more than you love your own” (Paragraph 21).
The narrator apparently possesses a lighter complexion in comparison to the African American characters alluded to in the story. At one point, one date mentions that only “you and the [B]lack boys” (Paragraph 24) show romantic interest in her. This is an important distinction since race and the apprehension that the character has whenever he is presented with his own ethnicity are central to the plot. The narrator spends much of time hiding his lineage and allusions to more exotic or ethnically unique aspects to his appearance, (e.g., when he hides a picture of his afro at the beginning of the story).
The narrator is at the center of a multicultural reality that his experience within New Jersey represents. While he does have roots in another country, they don’t fit into his current situation. Moreover, the possibility of seeming like an outsider in relation to the social norms present with people in his neighborhood is a root cause of tension within the plot. Every choice of a new tactic to garner the attention of any of his romantic prospects is symbolic of the linguistic, economic, and social barriers he may have had to overcome to understand the world around him. While he does want to successfully date, it is just as valuable to see the metaphorical value courtship and the presentation of the ideal person must creating an identity that is not merely determined by external factors.
Howie
Howie is the narrator’s proclaimed nemesis, the story’s antagonist, and the clearest foil for the narrator on a symbolic level. He appears later in the text in relation to one of the dates. He is characterized by his imposing size, “two killer mutts,” and surly demeanor (Paragraph 13). He is a static character, distinctive in his physical prowess and antisocial demeanor, and he maintains this disposition throughout the text. He is also flat in this respect, as he is presented as a straightforward counterpoint to the protagonist’s characterization. Whereas the narrator can think or act fluidly in social situations, is comfortable enough with the opposite sex, and is likely more attuned to language, Howie is blunt, openly violent (the narrator alludes to him killing stray cats), and judges the narrator for his ability to talk with women.
Howie’s characterization is the antithesis of the narrator: While the speaker is mainly heard throughout the story, Howie is characterized exclusively physically, but without many distinguishing features outside of his Puerto Rican heritage and trendy outfits. However, this helps explain his role in the story. He represents the limitations of social integration that the narrator can easily navigate. He seems to possess none of the social skills necessary to appear as anything other than a menacing figure. It also seems to some extent that certain female characters of different socioeconomic backgrounds will not take him as seriously as the narrator: “A homegirl would have been yelling back at him the whole time. Unless she was shy” (Paragraph 10). This suggests that if the narrator is emblematic of more successful characteristics of social-integration, then Howie is a stand-in for many of the anxieties toward social stagnation.
The Girls
The girls (a collective entity rather than a single individual) are high-school age and are characters whom the narrator tries to court throughout the story. They are too static in personality and flat in characterization to be introduced separately. This effect is relatively metaphorical, as it reflects the equally ambiguous outward personality traits of the narrator. In plain terms, much in the same way that certain personality traits of the narrator are performative and contextual, the girls he talks to seem to be just as interchangeable. Their descriptions only seem to be related to their appearance or ethnic/socioeconomic backgrounds. In some cases when the narrator refers to them it is in terms of race, like the title: “brown,” “white,” “black” or “halfie”—terms that are racial stereotypes.
The girls are referred to in terms of the pluralized group to which they belong. The narrator characterizes white girls as promiscuous, attractive, and desirable. Black girls are connected most with wealth and culture. The narrator describes local “brown” [Latinx] girls in terms of the characteristics of their body and more direct language (Paragraph 20). Those of multiracial heritage, presumably one girl, are the most defined in terms of outside characteristics. One exchange of note is her parents’ connection in the mention of the Movement (the social movements of the 1960s) (Paragraph 16). This encounter serves to lend the characteristics of the outsider to her, and she seems to be the most apprehensive about physical contact. Overall, Diaz only introduces these girls in terms of their looks, bodily features, or what they have to offer the narrator.
The Families
The families of both the narrator and the girls can be thought of as a symbolic group. Their inclusion creates the basis of what can be thought of symbolically as the outside world. Families are where the realities of external factors like race, class, and gender are all connected to each other since the narrator is very much centered on the internal world, insular desires, and smaller ideas of personality contrary to them this is important.
The narrator’s family immigrated to New Jersey from the Dominican Republic and speaks Spanish-inflected English. It consists of his mother, aunt, brother, and sisters. Only his mother and aunt have lines: the former appeals to the unease when dealing with leaving to go to Union City, and the latter is expected to grope him and comment on his growth. In some ways they represent the difference between comfort and danger of the familiar (Paragraph 1). The parents of the girls are presented in a similar way. The narrator imagines them as authoritative, or a parent who judges the narrator based on his place of residence, background, or ethnicity. Both sets of families represent the threat of the outside world and the perceived interior one.
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