The Dollmaker (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Harriette Arnow
- First Published: 1954
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social criticism
- Time of Work: The 1940’s, during World War II
- Setting: The Appalachian area of Kentucky and Detroit, Michigan
- Principal Characters: Gertie Nevels, Clovis Nevels, Reuben, Cassie
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Social realism, Family literature
- Subjects: Factories, Family or family life, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Mothers, Parents and children, South or Southerners, Gender roles, 1940’s, Midwest, Dreams, Poverty or poor people, Women’s issues, City life, Carpentry or carpenters, Tragedy, Appalachia, Dolls or dollhouses, Kentucky, Unions or unionism
- Locales: Detroit, MI, Kentucky
Form and Content
Harriette Simpson Arnow’s The Dollmaker is a story of the displacement of a Kentucky hill family by the promise of a better life in the industrial, World War II North. Upon learning that he will not be called up for immediate military service, Clovis Nevels decides, without consulting his wife, Gertie, to seek employment in Detroit. When he finds a job, Clovis sends for his family and settles them in Merrie Hill Alley, a ghetto of transplanted industrial workers and their families.
Arnow opens The Dollmaker by introducing the reader to...
[The entire page is 2263 words long]
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