Brother Literary Elements

Realism; bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel)

The novel is set in the early 2000s and 1990s in the Park, a low-income neighborhood with many immigrant families located in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.

Michael narrates the novel in the first person; the point of view stays with him.

The tone is conversational and poignant; the mood is heartrending and sentimental.

The protagonist is Michael; antagonists include Francis, Ruth, Aisha, and Jelly.

The major conflict is Michael and his mother's resistance to grieving the death of his brother Francis, ten years after Francis was shot and killed by police.

The novel reaches its climax when Michael reveals that Francis was shot and killed by police in front of him because Francis sought to protect his friend Jelly.

The scene in which Francis grips the bare blade of a knife someone uses to threaten Michael foreshadows Francis's attempt to "still" the arm of a police officer reaching for his gun in a way that appears to threaten Jelly.

When describing the extreme heat that occurs during the summer Francis is killed, Michael personifies the physical atmosphere, referring to it as a "menacing red haze."