Family
by Joan California Cooper
- 6 Members Following
Follow a topic to see new activity, such as homework help questions and answers, in your personal feed on the homepage.
Navigate
At a glance:
- Author: Joan California Cooper
- First Published: 1991
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Historical realism
- Time of Work: 1840’s through the early twentieth century
- Setting: The rural South
- Characters: Clora, Always, Sun, Peach, Doak Butler, Sue Butler, Loretta Butler, Doak, Jr.
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction, Novel
- 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.), United States, North America
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 2801 words.)
Want to read the whole thing?
Subscribe now to read the rest of this article. Plus, get access to:
- 30,000+ literature study guides
- Critical essays on more than 30,000 works of literature from Salem on Literature (exclusive to eNotes)
- An unparalleled literary criticism section. 40,000 full-length or excerpted essays.
- Content from leading academic publishers, all easily citable with our "Cite this page" button.
- 100% satisfaction guarantee READ MORE
