Dec 20, 2009
The Dollmaker | The Dollmaker
At a glance:
- Author: Harriette Arnow
- First Published: 1954
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: Late autumn, 1944, to late autumn, 1945
- Setting: Appalachian Kentucky, then Detroit
- Principal Characters: Gertie Nevels, Clovis Nevels, Clytie, Reuben, Enoch, Cassie, Amos, Callie Lou, Henley Kendrick, Granma Kendrick, Victor, Max, Sophronie, Whit, Mr. Daly, Mrs. Daly, Joe, Joe’s Nephew
- 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
The Novel
The Dollmaker is the story of an Appalachian family’s migration from Kentucky
to Detroit during World War II. Uprooted from the land, the Nevelses in Detroit become culturally
displaced persons and economic pawns, able to survive, if at all, only by denying their sense of
identity and adjusting to the system. Yet they are not alone: The millions of other workers, coming
from numerous ethnic backgrounds and crowded into Detroit’s industrial melting pot, suggest
that the Nevelses’ experience is a familiar one, with variations. In Detroit, human beings are...
[The entire page is 2830 words long]
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