Brooklyn
This book is the story of a young girl, gifted and full of promise, but hampered by environmental and social issues. But it also a story a famous New York City borough. The young girl becomes a metaphor for the borough:
“Brooklyn was a land of promise.”
Miss Hester
Miss Hester is one of Dasani’s teachers - one of the first to recognize the full breadth and depth of the girl’s beautiful mind. Dasani notices things about Miss Hester as well. One of which is put into funny metaphorical imagery:
“She has the longest eyelashes Dasani has ever seen. They protrude like delicate fans, charting the teacher’s moods. They flutter when she is being funny. They drop to half-mast when she is annoyed.”
The Parentified Child
The term “parentified child” is one that invented to describe the child who is taking on the roles traditionally taken on only by adults such as parents or legal guardians. It is a two-edged sword of metaphor, of course: on the one hand a compliment for a kid behaving above and beyond the call of responsibility, but on the other, sad allusion to the tragic struggles serving to create the need for that responsibility:
“Dasani is the typical `parentified child,’ though her penchant for self-sacrifice runs especially deep. She is the kind of girl, Miss Hester says, who `will put the mask on everyone else and the oxygen runs out.’”
Sad Laughter
The social conditions in which Dasani must live is capable of producing contradictions. Some of these contradictions are emotional in nature. Such as laughter when things aren’t funny:
“Dasani becomes defensive. Avianna starts to laugh. Dasani piles on, laughing louder. The laughter comes in spurts, as if they are watching a stand-up comic that no one else can hear. Melodramatic laughter, in the principal’s experience, is `camouflage for tears, for neglect.’”
The Triumvirate
The Dept. of Homeless Services, the Human Resources Administration, and the Administration for Children’s Services are the three government agencies described as forming the triumvirate of the life of the poor child in NYC. The full metaphorical description is more expansive than merely describing the trifold nature of the beast, however:
“Each agency represents a separate pillar of power, with its own offices, workers, and labyrinthine lines, its own shade of fluorescent lighting. But to Dasani’s mother, they are one and the same. They are limbs of a monolithic body called `the government’—a system that profits off the poor, says Chanel, while punishing them for that very condition.”
