ZZ Packer The Alternative Master Narrative “By our second day at Camp Crescendo, the girls in my Brownie troop had decided to kick the asses of each and every girl in Brownie Troop 909†(Packer p. 1). Not exactly how one would think a brownie girl would act, but that’s the trope, author ZZ Packer sets in every one of her stories, in Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Like most authors, ZZ Packer has her own style of writing. She uses similar patterns and techniques throughout her collection of short stories.I will look at two of her stories and how they relate to her style of writing. “Brownies†is a story that many people of cultural value can relate too. This short story has many moral values in it. Brownies takes place at Camp Crescendo, a summer camp for fourth graders near the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. The story is told in first person by an African American girl named Laurel, also known as Snot. On the second day of camp Laurel announces to all the girls in her Brownie Troop that they were going to “kick the asses†of every girl in the troop, who were all white girls.
