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Caroline, or Change (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

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Quasi-autobiographical, rife with symbolism, and redolent of an era pregnant with change in American history, Caroline, or Change harks back to Kushner's childhood. To this story of change and loss, he adds fanciful, nonrealistic touches such as the singing washing machine, dryer, bus, and moon.

Eight-year-old Noah Gellman, who recently lost his mother to cancer, has a new stepmother (Rose) whom he loathes and a surrogate mother, the family's black maid, Caroline Thibodeaux, whom he idolizes.

Stuffing her anger deep inside, Caroline, staunch, exhausted, and poor,...

[The entire page is 647 words long]

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