Brett Character Analysis in Yellowface

Brett is June’s literary agent. He picked her up after she managed to get a deal for Over the Sycamore and even managed to resell the rights to a major publishing house when June’s first publisher folded. Brett sticks with June through her period of languishing anonymity and benefits from her meteoric rise to fame with The Last Front. He helps her to navigate the roiled waters of the publishing industry with patience and common sense, even when June doesn’t listen. Although like other characters representing the publishing industry in this book, Brett comes off as overly credulous (he’s willing to take June’s assurances that she didn’t steal Athena’s work at face value) and mercenary (he doesn’t mind bad publicity if it helps June sell books), he is generally supportive of June and defends her to Daniella, Todd Byrne, and others.

Brett Quotes in Yellowface

The Yellowface quotes below are all either spoken by Brett or refer to Brett . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Critique of the Publishing Industry Theme Icon

Fine. Here’s how I really felt, when things came down to it.

At Yale, I once dated a graduate student from the philosophy department who did population ethics. […] Some of his arguments were a little extreme—he didn’t think, for instance, that there is any moral obligation to follow wills of the deceased if there is an overriding interest in redistributing wealth elsewhere, or that there are strong moral objections to using cemetery grounds for, say, housing for the poor. The general theme of his research was under what circumstances someone counts as a moral agent that deserves consideration. I didn’t understand much of his work, but his central argument was quite compelling: we owe nothing to the dead.

Especially when the dead are thieves and liars, too.

And fuck it, I’ll just say it: taking Athena’s manuscript felt like reparations, payback for the things that Athena took from me.

Related Characters: June Hayward (Juniper Song) (speaker), Brett , Athena Liu

Related Symbols: The Last Front

Page Number and Citation: 9

Explanation and Analysis:

After June sends a draft of The Last Front to her agent, Brett, as her own work, he quickly sells it to Eden Press for a lot of money. June then takes an entire chapter to address the complaints of racism and plagiarism she imagines readers might make against her. As she says in this passage, she feels no regret or repentance for her actions. This passage is characteristic of the way June handles the potential harm her actions might cause. First, she deflects responsibility by pointing out that others do or think things that are far more problematic or Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta persp

Brett Character Timeline in Yellowface

The timeline below shows where the character Brett appears in Yellowface. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Ambition, Success, and Notoriety Theme Icon

...It takes three weeks to complete the revisions. Then she sends it to her agent, Brett. (full context)

Identity, Power, and Privilege Theme Icon

At first, June maintains, she meant to tell Brett the truth, but she worried that this would just create messy complications. Instead, she tells... (full context)

Brett picked up June as a client during an open pitch session, based on a Twitter-length... (full context)

Brett is impressed with the draft, and when June’s current editor, Garret McKintosh, passes on it... (full context)

...avoid accusations of “cultural appropriation” or “cultural leeching.” She only backs down after June involves Brett and Daniella removes Candice from the project. June isn’t sure if Candice has an axe... (full context)

...for telling their story. For the first time since she sent the manuscript off to Brett, June feels guilty for appropriating history that doesn’t belong to her. It should be Athena... (full context)

Then, Brett emails June to say that a production company called Greenhouse is interested in optioning The... (full context)

After she gets home, June emails Brett about the meeting. He tells her that they’ll just have to wait and see what... (full context)

June emails Brett, who quickly calls her back. He tells her that if the allegations are false—she says... (full context)

Amid the furor, a few people stick with June, like Brett, and Daniella and the rest of the team at Eden Press. A few other writers... (full context)

Social Media and Cancel Culture Theme Icon

...could have written it.” And the good news keeps coming. After the fiasco blows over, Brett emails to say that Greenhouse wants to option the book. Soon, June isn’t afraid to... (full context)

...in truth, she couldn’t stand sliding back into Internet irrelevancy. She craves the spotlight. And Brett has been hounding her about her next project. She understands that he—and Eden Press—are anxious... (full context)

...of the workshop printouts proving it. She ends her post with a direct call for Brett, Daniella, and Eden Press to deal appropriately with June. June feels strangely calm. After all,... (full context)

...not interested in reading the angry comments or death threats this time around. She ignores Brett’s insistent phone calls and reaches out to Marnie and Jen, who both ignore her. Scribblers’... (full context)

...no longer put off the inevitable, and she shows up for a Zoom call with Brett and the Eden Press team: Daniella, Jessica, Emily, and lawyer Todd Byrne. She’s surprised to... (full context)

Brett calls June afterwards. He thinks that the situation isn’t as bad as she fears. After... (full context)

About a month later, Brett and June have a phone call about a “new opportunity”—intellectual property work. June balks. She’s... (full context)

June signs a nondisclosure agreement so that Brett can tell her about the book Snowglobe wants her to write. Based loosely on the... (full context)

...pepper spray, and a Swiss Army knife—to take with her. She considers letting Rory or Brett know where she’s going, but in the end decides it’s safer not to leave any... (full context)

June starts drafting a proposal for Brett. It will be juicy enough to lure him back in even if he’s decided to... (full context)

Brett Character Analysis

Brett Quotes in Yellowface

Chapter 3 Quotes

Brett Character Timeline in Yellowface