Baked with Tolerance
The short story “Brownies” by ZZ Packer is about a troop of girl scouts who are away at Camp Crescendo summer camp. The story tells of an all black Girl Scout troop of brownies who form this rivalry with all of the white girl scouts, who are known as Troop 909. As soon as the brownies arrive, some of the girls begin to question why they are at camp with white girls. Snot, one of the brownie troop members, finds out that the girls in Troop 909 are special needs children. When she discovers this, she then starts to think that Camp Crescendo is just a place where rejects and outcasts are sent. During their time at the camp, Brownie Troop members Snot and Daphne get the opportunity to grow and discover that they are their own person, and not just followers of Arnetta.

Many themes are touched upon in “Brownies”. The story mainly revolves around the themes of tolerance, jealousy, and bullying. Tolerance is something that every human being should have for everyone. People who practice intolerance by being jealous and bringing down others don’t realize that it’s not only harmful to the victim, but it’s harmful to them as well. The trip to Camp Crescendo for Arnetta and Octavia was just something they were required to do. It also became an opportunity for them to harass other troop members who were less fortunate than they were. They examined and commented on everything about Troop 909. They also made fun of them at every opportunity they recieved. For example, when they were on the bus, Arnetta and the other girls constantly made fun of the white girls. She would always twist the words of her own troop to make Troop 909 look bad. She made it seem that she was above everyone, and would punish anyone who didn’t listen to her. Instead of treating everyone so harshly, Arnetta could have been tolerant of everyone’s unique individuality and just looked for the things that she had in common with them, but instead she chose to separate herself from the general populous and isolate herself and her brownie troop. The reason that the other brownie troop members hung around Arnetta was because she was very intimidating, like a bully. The other troop members were scared of her so they just abided by her orders.

They were intolerant of Troop 909 because of their physical attributes, and intolerant of themselves because of their lack of Troop 909’s physical attributes. The girls in the brownie troop were jealous of the fact that the girls in Troop 909 had such beautiful features such as their long beautiful hair and white rosy cheeks. Because of that, they envied the white girls and lashed out at them with accusations of them being racially slurred by the white troop. They are wishing that they could be like the girls from Troop 909 because in their eyes, everything in their troop was so much better. Author ZZ Packer stated, “The leader of Troop 909 appeared like a T.V cooking show host, one that can talk, chop onions, and smile at the same time.” (Page 515).

Everyone in this story is a victim to intolerance. In the story, it is mentioned by Snot that they’re being sent there because they are outcasts. However, it’s never mentioned in the story if they are. The reason why the Brownie Troop bullies Troop 909 is because they are white, not because they are mentally challenged. The Brownie Troop also believes that Troop 909 has offended them by saying the “N” word. In the story, Arnetta plays a big role in everyone else’s grief. As the story concludes, the girls learn the very important lesson of accepting people for who they are, and that being jealous and having intolerance for other people is immoral. All the Brownie Troop members are on the bus and Snot tells a story her father told her of a Mennonite family and how it was their religion to do anything anyone asked them to do. Snot’s father asked them to paint their porch for them, which they did. However, She asked her dad why he wanted the Mennonites to paint their porch and he responded in saying, “It was the only time he’d have a white man on his knees doing something for a black man for free.”(Page 518) She then realizes that there is hatred everywhere that she simply just cannot stop.
I can relate to the whole idea of tolerance and intolerance back to a story my mother told me when I was in high school. She told me that when she was my age, she went to an all girls high school where about 50 percent of the girls were white and the other 50 percent were black. Almost all of the girls hung out with other girls who were the same race as them. One day my mother came to school with a relaxer in her hair, which is a type of chemical used on a black woman’s hair to mimic a white woman’s hair, and make it look really nice and straight. After my mom got her relaxer, she went to school with it IN and she told me that when she walked down those hallways, all of the white girls stared her down with hate in their hearts because of how she wore her hair. One girl in particular decided to get together with her friends and call my mom out about her hair. After school the girl and her friends ended up buying long fake hair extensions from the Sally’s, the beauty mart, a couple blocks down from the high school and putting it all over the hood of my mothers car as a practical joke. It was a very horrible thing to do but there was no evidence of who did it so no one could be punished. The story “Brownies” reminded me of this story my mother told me because of the jealously and intolerance that was expressed. The white girls who harassed my mom were intolerant of the fact that a black woman could have such nice hair, just like the black girls in brownies were so intolerant of the fact Troop 909 had such good features about themselves such as their long hair, and rosy cheeks, and T.V star smiles. Everyone is different and special in their own unique way and as we get older, we learn to respect the decisions and choices people make, good or bad.

Works Cited

Packer, Z Z, and Michael Martone. "Brownies." The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: 50 North American Short Stories since 1970. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. Print.