Brown Glass Windows Discussion Guide

TOPICS TO CONSIDER
1. Sketch sees tagging, putting one’s tag on a surface, and creating pieces, completing a more complex graffiti statement, as a valid and important form of expression. Why? He does not seem to see it as a criminal act. Why not?
2. Why do the police stop Sketch for running?
3. Victoria, Dawa, and the Ghost are all of African descent. Are they all Black? (If you could see or hear each of them in real life, would you consider any or all of them black.) If so, in what ways? If not, why not?
4. Some of the novels characters see Victoria all the time, some never, some only once in a while. Why do you think there are those differences?
5. Why do you think Sketch can hear the ghost, but not Dawa?
6. Ranger faced a number of difficulties after returning home from the Viet Nam War. What were they?
7. Lucille accuses the community of murdering her son? Is she right or wrong? Why? Are there other perpetrators she did not name who share all or most of the blame for his death? Who?
8. Was Ranger going to the store to score some crack, and then changed his mind, or was he just going out to buy beer and come straight home, just as he told his son?
9. Was Ruben correct in not waking Dawa up to tell her about her brother? Why or why not?
10. The Fillmore that Dawa and Ranger grew up in was significantly altered by the time they were adults. What were some of the changes? How and why did these changes occur? How did it affect each of them as adults? Does Dawa see a place for herself and her family in the “new” Fillmore?
11. Is the ghost ever going to leave San Francisco? If yes, when and where would she go? If no, what holds her to the place?

Curbstone Press is supported in part by: