51 pages • 1-hour read
The Men of Brewster Place
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Themes
Community and Isolation in Individual Survival and Success
Content Warning: This section discusses racism, violence, death and murder, anti-gay bias, sexual abuse, and addiction.
The Men of Brewster Place tells the story of men with shared struggles who nevertheless live in isolation. In The Women of Brewster Place, Naylor explores how Black women survive through community and bonds of sisterhood. However, the systemic racism and oppression that Naylor’s male characters face serve to isolate them from one another by painting their inability to achieve certain markers of manhood as a personal failure. However, Naylor does identify some spaces where Black men come together to create community. While these spaces highlight the men’s shared experience and the systemic nature of the oppression the men face, the characters’ focus on masculine traits of self-definition, independence, and individuality eventually undermines efforts at community building and support.
Brother Jerome’s music exemplifies of community and shared experience in The Men of Brewster Place. His songs carry “the sound of a black man’s blues” (37), and all of the men on Brewster Place can hear their story in his music. Although the men face diverse, complex problems, Jerome’s music finds a common thread among the “sadder and sadder stories” that populate Brewster Place (161), suggesting that their issues are rooted in the marginalized place they occupy in society. The men of Brewster Place also come together at church, in Abshu’s community center, and in Max’s barbershop. These spaces are framed as places where the characters can be “men.” They can reclaim their dignity with a shave and haircut or “exercise leadership and responsibility” (106).
Ultimately, however, the men failed to come together as a community and support one another, resulting in the tragic death of Greasy. They forgot that Greasy was their “brother” and that their problems shared a root cause. They were “so busy judging and feeling superior” that they failed to see their shared experience in Greasy’s painful struggle to be a man (163). Spattered with Greasy’s blood, the men were momentarily united in their pain, but their refusal to discuss the incident afterward suggests that their isolation continues. This isolation is also implied in the planned demolition of Brewster Place, indicating the definitive end of the block’s community. In the final chapter, Abshu, who has dedicated his career to supporting and building community, is left alone “against the dawning of the inevitable” (172). However, he reinforces the concept of male isolation, reflecting that “even the voices of a million men, a million soldiers, cannot hold back the dawn” (172). He is a solitary “tired warrior,” suggesting that the men will never give up but continue fighting alone.
Performative Masculinity and the Impact of Systemic Racism
In The Men of Brewster Place, the characters are primarily concerned with defining what it means to be a man. They are engaged in a constant state of negotiation with their identity and sense of self as they strive to obtain traditional markers of masculinity, as defined by a patriarchal white society. However, the hallmarks of manhood, like the accumulation of wealth, power, and respect, are often out of reach for Black men who exist in a racist society that oppresses and emasculates them. The novel speaks to the performative and socially constructed nature of gender and identity, as the men of Brewster Place feel obliged to fulfill specific social obligations before they can affirm their identity as men.
Each character has a specific idea of what it means to be a man but is often unable to fulfill these expectations because of his marginalization and disadvantage. Ben suggests that a man’s job is to “watch out for the womenfolk” (4), but neither he nor his grandfather could protect the women in their lives from predatory white men. Basil is obsessed with fatherhood as the pinnacle of masculinity, but he believed that the justice system would not treat him fairly as a Black man and violated his bond, which ultimately thwarted his efforts to give his adoptive sons a better life. C.C Baker, a man with limited opportunities, has turned to a life of crime to find “self-respect,” murders his brother, and is arrested. Eugene believes that Black men must be “big, dark, and mean” (72), but his efforts to emulate these characteristics and deny his gay identity ultimately destroy his own life and his family’s.
Throughout the novel, the female characters reiterate and enforce a strict, hegemonic definition of masculinity. Elvira, for example, blamed Ben for their poverty, suggesting that if he were “even a quarter of a man,” they could have had more children and wouldn’t have been “miserable sharecroppers” (26). Similarly, Keisha taunted Basil for not being “man enough to have any kids” when he failed to show sexual interest in her (61). These assertions position masculinity as a measurable quality that can make someone more or less of a man. With the concept of manhood hinging on these specific societal requirements, the male characters’ identity can easily become compromised. They must establish their existence despite restrictive social categories and construct an internal sense of worth.
Coping With Pain and Loss
All the men in The Men of Brewster Place have experienced extreme pain and loss, which they cope with in various ways. Often, their loss is magnified by a sense of guilt and impotence as they feel responsible for being unable to protect or provide for their loved ones. This guilt contributes to their internalized feeling of emasculation and prevents them from sharing their pain with others or seeking support. The men’s coping mechanisms are often related to how they believe men are supposed to behave, trying to embody stoicism and strength instead of succumbing to their pain.
The men’s stories are united by their loss, pain, and disappointment. As Ben describes, “There’s something about us and pain that keeps spinning out there in the universe to return again and again” (161). Ben has lost his family and suffers from the guilt of being unable to protect his daughter from abuse by her white employer. Eugene feels so much guilt over the death of his baby daughter that he blames himself for “murdering” her. Basil seeks redemption for betraying his mother, and Abshu faces the loss of Brewster Place and the community he has fought hard to support. Generally, the men look for a way to numb the pain and guilt they feel. For example, Ben turns to alcohol, and Eugene seeks physical pain to counter the loss of his daughter.
In his narration, Ben speaks repeatedly about men living “inside,” suggesting that a man’s sense of self-worth comes from internal perception rather than external validation. This tendency to live internally extends to dealing with grief and loss; Ben argues that “[m]en cry as much as women—but mostly just cry inside” (163). However, this means that the men’s grief is often hidden, and they don’t get the support they need. The sadness and pain fester “inside to bite him a little here, a little there” (163). Greasy, for example, was “bleeding inside,” and the other men failed to see his pain. Although the men are united by their shared experiences with loss, their attempts to cope with their pain mean that they remain isolated.
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