Betsey Brown
by Ntozake Shange
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At a glance:
- Author: Ntozake Shange
- First Published: 1985
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: 1959
- Setting: St. Louis, Missouri
- Characters: Betsey Brown, Jane Brown, Greer Brown, Vida Murray
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman, Domestic realism, Family literature, Novel
- Subjects: 1950's, African Americans, Civil rights, Girls, Maturation or coming of age, Family or family life, Self-discovery, Racism, Adolescence, Race, Self, Midwest, Class consciousness, Doctors, Schools or school life, Social work
- Locales: United States, Missouri, North America, St. Louis, Missouri
The Novel
Betsey Brown explores the interior workings of an upper-middle-class African American family in 1959 St. Louis. The family’s dynamic structure is juxtaposed against a changing social climate, particularly desegregation of the schools, and the changing and growth of Betsey. Betsey and her siblings are reared in a household of privilege. Shange pays especial attention to the rendering of upper-middle-class African American family life as she presents the unfolding of the title character.
The novel, as a bildungsroman, traces Betsey’s progressive...
(The entire page is 3036 words.)
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