43 pages • 1 hour read
David ChariandyBrother: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
Michael recalls the police raiding Desirea’s. They harass the guests but find no evidence of drugs and make no arrests. Michael worries about Francis’s temper, which has become notorious after he challenged a knife-wielding neighborhood kid by holding the blade of the knife in his bare hand.
Francis brings Michael along to watch Jelly audition as a DJ. Jelly incorporates balwo, a Somalian style of singing, into his compositions. The neighborhood friends are all stunned by Jelly’s audition, but the promoter judges seem unfazed. Frustrated that Jelly didn’t get his due, Francis returns to the venue and gets in a fist fight with the bouncers. One of the judges calls Jelly and Francis “thugs” and threatens to call the police. Jelly helps Francis to the car, intending to take him to Desirea’s to clean up, but first they go to Ruth’s apartment at Michael’s insistence. Ruth wipes Francis’s blood with her nightgown as he tearfully apologizes to her.
In the present, Michael’s mother is walking with Jelly when she is struck by a car and injured. Michael accompanies her to the hospital, where she refuses to answer questions from the medical staff.
Chapter 6 Summary
Michael recalls visiting Trinidad with his mother and Francis as a child. At first, Michael and Francis are frightened by the new sights and sounds of the island, but they are soon enveloped in the warmth of their extended families. They are awed by the vastness of the night sky full of stars and the absence of city lights. At a church service, Michael and Francis are moved by the exuberant energy of the people: “I felt amazement […] at the loud spectacle that I’d never seen before of adults, and when I looked to Francis for an explanation, I saw him looking on, listening to that strange language and music and noise with a wet face” (145). Michael’s mother doesn’t reveal the truth of their poverty in America to her family in Trinidad. Michael is aware that his mother has many layers, some of which she keeps hidden because she works so hard.
Back in Canada, Michael and Francis watch Black men rob and loot stores on television. They begin to develop an understanding that their society sees them, as Black boys, as dangerous criminals. This is confirmed when they go to the movie theater with their mother and three white boys harass them.
Michael returns to the night of Jelly’s audition. When his friends at Desirea’s try to calm him down, Francis says that he’s figured out that they’re all losers and that Jelly never had a real shot at getting through his audition. Police officers arrive, and Francis, frustrated that the police continue to raid Desirea’s without a real reason, stands up for himself and Jelly, with whom the police are becoming more aggressive. A police officer shoots Francis.
Chapters 5-6 Analysis
Francis’s characterization deepens as Chariandy emphasizes the ways in which Francis’s temper is a manifestation of his passion. Francis’s edginess comes from love and a desire to protect the ones he loves. This passion is mistaken for aggression, especially by racists who perceive a strong, Black male voice as violent, such as the police who misconstrue Francis’s protective nature. Francis’s deep friendship with Jelly and his love for Michael add further dimension to Francis’s character development. Francis balances the necessary toughness required of living in the Park with the double-edged sword of his anger: “Francis proved that with one gesture, you could forever confirm a reputation. Not only that he could stand his ground but that he could, when pushed, go mad” (123). Francis is misinterpreted by a society that labels a rightfully angry Black man as violent, which prevents Francis from being a fully humanized person within his society.
In Chapter 6, Michael recalls his childhood trip to Trinidad, a formative moment in his character development that furthers the theme of The Impact of Immigration and Racial Identity on Family Dynamics. In Trinidad, Michael meets his extended family and therefore gleans a portrait of the personalities that raised his mother and indirectly led to his own personality. While his mother is in her home country, among her family, Michael gains nuance about her character: “Our mother, like others, wasn’t just bare endurance and sacrifice. There was always more to her” (147). Experiencing the love she has left behind in Trinidad enables Michael to see his mother as a human being who has sacrificed her own family and comfort for his sake. Life for Michael in Scarborough isn’t easy, but the trip to Trinidad teaches him that it’s likely even more difficult for his mother, whose dreams and plans have not come to fruition.
Both Michael and Francis find a version of themselves in Trinidad. At a church service, Francis becomes visibly moved because he is finally connecting with a culture he relates to. In Canada, the boys struggle to develop an identity in the face of racist stereotypes. In contrast, in Trinidad, they are free to build an authentic Black identity free from judgment and oppressive social structures. Furthermore, the environment of Trinidad contrasts with the chaotic city life of Scarborough. Michael and Francis admire “billions of stars, a universe [they] had never even imagined” (142). This “universe” is both literal and metaphorical. The starry night sky is not only a pure glimpse of the natural world that Michael and Francis can’t find in Scarborough but also a nation of Black people informed by the celebration of Black culture that is also very different from home.
The juxtaposition between Trinidad and Scarborough is crucial to understanding Michael’s character development. Popular media and news coverage in Canada portray Black people as violent, stoking society’s already racist fear of the Black community. Michael and Francis don’t see themselves in that perception, but they become increasingly aware that society has put them in a stereotypical box. Michael and Francis therefore experience the dehumanization of their personhood at a young age. While Canada may provide their mother with financial opportunities she couldn’t find in Trinidad, the absence of an appreciation for Black culture and history in Canada means that Francis and Michael grow up in a vacuum of identity development. Jelly’s failed audition and Francis’s belief that he and his friends are seen as losers emphasize that Francis has internalized society’s judgment of his socioeconomic and racial status as indicative of his worth and value. Chariandy criticizes Canadian society at large for creating a situation in which there is little hope for the future for boys like Jelly and Francis.
This reality culminates in Francis’s death. He is killed because he is perceived as a threat due to his race and his passion, emphasizing the racism and injustice behind police abuse. Francis dies trying to protect Jelly, with whom he has a deep and loving friendship. In the face of police guns, “Jelly still ha[s]n’t listened, he ha[s]n’t left Francis’s side, but Francis [is] pushing ahead with him” (158). Despite the stereotype of Francis’s violence, the bigger truth about Francis is his capacity for love. This flashback to the shooting is important in helping the reader understand Michael’s current caution with Jelly. Jelly’s return into his and his mother’s life represents a painful connection to Francis’s death, but this also suggests that Jelly is key to coming to terms with Francis’s death. Francis cared so deeply about Jelly that if Michael can learn to accept Jelly, then he can honor his brother’s life and death.
