1. Kiswana BrowneKiswana Browne
By Gloria NaylorBy Gloria Naylor

2. BIOGRAPHY
Naylor, Gloria (b. 1950) is a , novelist, essayist,
screenplay writer, columnist, and educator. Gloria
Naylor was born in New York City on 25 January to
Roosevelt and Alberta McAlpin Naylor, who had
recently migrated northward from their native
Robinsonville, Mississippi. Having worked as cotton
sharecroppers in Mississippi, her father became a
transit worker for the New York City subway system
and her mother a telephone operator. Naylor, who
was a very shy child, grew up in New York City,
where she lived until she graduated from high school
in 1968.

3. From shortly after her graduation until 1975, Naylor worked
as a missionary for the Jehovah's Witnesses in New York,
North Carolina, and Florida. Eventually deciding that
missionary life and the Jehovah's Witnesses were not for her,
Naylor returned to New York City and attended college while
working as a telephone operator in several different hotels.
Although she studied nursing for a short time at Medgar
Evers College, she soon decided to pursue a BA in English at
Brooklyn College, from which she graduated in 1981. Next
Naylor entered Yale University on a fellowship and received
an MA in Afro-American studies there in 1983. Having
published her first novel, The Women of Brewster Place, in
1982, she wrote for her master's thesis at Yale what would
become her second novel, Linden Hills (published 1985).

4. In 1983 Naylor's literary career took off mainly because of the
attention she received for her first book. The Women of
Brewster Place was granted the American Book Award for
Best First Novel that year, and Naylor received the annual
Distinguished Writer Award from the Mid-Atlantic Writers
Association. In 1983 she also served as writer in residence at
Cummington Community of the Arts and as a visiting lecturer
at George Washington University. During the 1980s Naylor
had jobs at numerous other institutions, including working as a
cultural exchange lecturer in India for the United States
Information Agency, and teaching at Yale, the University of
Pennsylvania, New York University, Princeton, Boston,
Brandeis, and Cornell. Naylor also received several
prestigious awards, such as a National Endowment for the
Arts Fellowship in 1985, the 1986 Candace Award from the
National Coalition of One Hundred Black Women, a
Guggenheim Fellowship in 1988, and the 1989 Lillian Smith
Award.

5. Since Naylor began publishing in the early 1980s,
she has produced five novels: The Women of
Brewster Place (1982), Linden Hills (1985), Mama
Day (1988) Bailey's Cafe (1992), and The Men of
Brewster Place (1998). In addition to these primary
works, she has also published essays—including a
column in the New York Times in 1986 and a
scholarly piece, “Love and Sex in the Afro-American
Novel,”which was published in the Yale Review in
1988—and has written several unproduced
screenplays. Another important publication is “A
Conversation”between Naylor and Toni Morrison,
which appeared in the Southern Review in 1985. She
edited Children of the Night: The Best Short Stories
by Black Writers 1967 to the Present in 1995.

6. Summary
The story opens from the window of the apartment of
Brewster Place where Kiswana lives. Kiswana who is
representative of young population of women in
America. Kiswana moves from a well-to-do black
family living in a middle class neighborhood, Linden
Hills. Kiswana is young, and sometimes naive social
activist who is in search of her identity. She wishes to
find her roots and to be supportive to the immense
pains and struggles of the women of Brewster Place.
Despite her philanthropic nature and racial pride, she
is also a fantasist.

7. The story takes new course when Mrs. Browne
(Mother of Kiswana) appears. She is an ideal mother
and a realistic women where all the fantasies of
Kiswana disappears. The mother appreciates the
work of Kiswana but fears that she might fall back to
the familiarity of perpetual poverty living at Brewster
Place.
But Kiswana is stubborn. She had lacquered
her hair in the past to look like “Afro”. She had also
participated in demonstration for their rights. So, she
is not yet ready to accept that she might be wrong.
Angrily, she calls her mother a “niger of white man”
for living in Linden Hills.

8. Mrs. Browne persuades Melanie that revolution
can be carried out from within the system.
Melanie’s dreams are not rooted in reality; they
are as empty as air. She tells Melanie about her
ancestors how they came from other parts of the
world; struggled and survived in the unknown
land. When Melanie and Wilson were born she
had promised that she would prepare them to
face the world on its own terms-whatever they
were or however they looked.

9. they quarrel over Kiswana's choice of
neighborhood and
over her decision to leave school. Kiswana
thinks that she is nothing like her mother,
but when her mother's temper flares
Kiswana has to admit that she admires her
mother and that they are more alike that
she had realized. Before leaving,
she secretly gives Kiswana enough money to
have a phone line installed.

10. INTERPRETATION
Kiswana Browne has intentionally sacrificed her
birth given middle class status wishing to connect
to the inner city black community she has
overlooked as class barrier, in fact she has gone
beyond that, and has actually removed
the barrier. Instead of simply accepting what
common ground she already had with the
community, she has created even more
commanility with Brewster place. This is
commendable feature, but the downside of this is
the barrier which now divides Kiswana and the
rest of her family

11. Before the meeting with her mother which is
discribed in the book,Kiswana is actually
rather annoyed by her mother presence,
and believes Mrs Browne to be another
unknowing victim of the white government.By
taking such an active stance against the
upper and middle class Kiswana denies
herself the ability to make a difference for her
beloved lower class people until ,of course,
Mrs Browne shows her what kind of power
she can have as a middle class citizen

12. It should of course be recognized that
kiswana struggle is not only class related
but race related. she believes that true
black people have been forced into lower
class lives by moving into Brewster place,
then she can connect with her race. One
should note that the term race in the
sense, is reffering to the cultural construct
supposedly believed to exist

13. by the general public, However even if
a race is a false concept, African-
Americans do have a shared history
and heritage, and Kiswana wishes to
embrace such roots. Judging from the
way kiswana seems to have
little conflict with the her neighbours ,it
seems as though she fits in with
them. she has made it so that she
belongs with what she considers to be
her people.