Family (Masterplots II: African American Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Joan California Cooper
- First Published: 1991
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Historical realism
- Time of Work: The 1840’s through the early twentieth century
- Setting: The rural South
- Principal Characters: Clora, Always, Sun, Peach, Doak Butler, Sue Butler, Loretta Butler, Doak
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Freedom, Child rearing or parenting, Family or family life, Racism, Love or romance, Suicide, South or Southerners, Twentieth century, Escapes, Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Rape, Plantations or plantation life, Civil War, Greed
- Locales: South (U.S.)
The Novel
Family is a story of the slave Clora’s children and how her blood flows from its African roots around the world, thus intermingling with that of other races, nationalities, and classes. In the years before the Civil War, Clora gives her master six children, three of whom survive to adulthood. Clora herself commits suicide but “lives” as the narrator of her family’s tale. She glides through time to watch over her favorite child, Always.
Always, sold to Doak Butler, learns misery and hatred from her first day as his slave. In short order, he rapes...
[The entire page is 2789 words long]
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