Cruelty (Magill’s Choice: American Ethnic Writers)
At a glance:
- Author: Florence Anthony
- First Published: 1973
- Genres: Short fiction, Poetry
- Subjects: Murder or homicide, Prostitution or prostitutes, Poverty or poor people, Abortion, Childbirth, Cruelty, Bereavement or grief, Life and death
The Work
Ai is more concerned with social class than with racial identity or gender in Cruelty. The book is a series of poetic dramatic monologues spoken by members of the underclass in America. It is a searing indictment of societies that permit the existence of poverty.
Life, itself, is cruel for the speakers in Cruelty. The speaker in “Tenant Farmer” has no crops. The couple in “Starvation” have no food. In “Abortion,” a man finds the fetus of his son wrapped in wax paper and thinks: “the poor have no children, just small people/ and there...
[The entire page is 509 words long]
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