Brother: A Novel

Francis is Michael’s brother and is one year older than Michael. Francis is characterized through his toughness and passion, as well as his ability to read people and situations as well as he does books. Francis loves deeply, as is highlighted through his caring for Michael and his mother as well as his intimate relationship with Jelly. While Chariandy establishes that Francis is dead early in the novel, the circumstances surrounding his murder aren’t clear until later.

Francis develops an early understanding that society sees him as a threat because he is Black. After Francis is removed from an academically focused program in school and into basic education, he loses interest in education and becomes more apathetic about his future, spending time with kids who dropped out of school. Francis’s proximity to gang-related violence worries his mother. For Francis, who has figured out how to be a man without the benefit of having a father figure to emulate, his mother’s concern feels like control. Francis’s formation of identity is different from his mother’s because he is discovering himself in a country that can be resentful of his status as a Black man and first-generation Canadian. The distance between him and his mother becomes untenable, leading at first to tension in the family and later to Francis’s premature exit from their home. In leaving the family, Francis replicates the cycle of abandonment his father established.

Francis is his most authentic self with his friends, especially Jelly, whom Michael suspects is more than a friend to Francis. However, Francis’s conflict with society hinders his development. When Jelly’s audition doesn’t go well, Francis internalizes this as society shutting the gates of opportunity to people like Jelly and Francis. The same night, his safe space—Desirea’s barbershop—is yet again raided by police officers for no justifiable reason, and his emotional demand for such a reason and intolerance of the police putting their hands on Jelly lead to his death. Francis lives on in the novel through Michael’s and Ruth’s memories, particularly as they wrestle with the grief of his death and learn to move forward without his presence.

Michael’s mother, Ruth, is characterized through her complicated grief, resilience, and selflessness. She moves to Canada from Trinidad with dreams and aspirations that are quickly curtailed by the reality of poverty, racism, and xenophobia in majority-white Canada. She is a single mother who is protective over her children, ceaseless in her manual labor as a cleaner, and focused on her children’s future.

Francis’s murder crumples her mental well-being. Her grief over her son’s loss is compounded by her grief for the dreams she once had in her difficult journey as an immigrant. After Francis’s death, Michael’s mother becomes stuck in her devastation, experiencing symptoms of complicated grief that sadden Michael but also give him a reason to continue his isolation. Signs that she is ready to start moving ahead with her life appear when Jelly comes back into her life. She seems excited to share pictures of Francis and therefore reengage with the world around her to honor his memory. In some ways, Michael prevents her growth because he is overprotective, projecting his own inability to move through his grief onto Ruth. This role reversal keeps her in her complicated grief. When she gets hit with a car and is forced to seek medical attention, her psychological trauma is worse than her physical injury. This is a crucial moment in her character arc; when she is released from the hospital, she welcomes Aisha and Jelly into her home yet again. This time, she insists on Jelly playing the music she once loved. Her desire to listen to the music of her happier past signals her character growth and foreshadows that she will move through her grief and into a more hopeful future.

Aisha is a secondary character in Brother who, while static herself, plays an influential role in Michael’s youth and his coming-of-age arc. In Michael’s childhood and adolescence, Aisha is a model student and young person who stays on a responsible path. Michael admires Aisha for her beauty and her intelligence. In the summer after high school, they begin a friendship that turns into a sexual relationship. With Aisha, Michael can be himself. Aisha is supportive of Michael and makes him feel more worthy of love, attention, and potential. However, Aisha and Michael lose touch after Francis’s death, which contributes to Michael receding into himself. Aisha moves away on a scholarship for university, making her a rarity in Scarborough and a bit of a local hero for getting out. Aisha begins a lucrative career and travels the world. In many ways, Aisha has freed herself of the traumas and stressors of growing up in the Park.

Her return to the Park for her father’s funeral puts her back in touch with Michael. Aisha, who is characterized by the value she places in Black culture, community, and compassion, convinces Michael that he and his mother should rekindle their ties to their community. Aisha both forces Michael to have difficult conversations about his mother’s mental health crisis and reintroduces Jelly back into Michael’s and his mother’s lives. Aisha is therefore the symbolic bridge between Michael and the outside world. Without Aisha, Michael wouldn’t have come to terms with Jelly’s presence and what he represents or revisited his memories of Francis, which ultimately helps him learn how to move through his grief.