A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Alice Childress
- First Published: 1973
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The 1960’s
- Setting: New York City
- Principal Characters: Benjie Johnson, Rose Johnson (Craig), Butler Craig, Jimmy-Lee Powell, Mrs. Ransom Bell, Nigeria Greene, Bernard Cohen
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: African Americans, 1960’s, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Parents and children, Teenagers, Race, New York City, Friendship, Substance abuse, Inner cities or inner-city life, Fathers, Single parents or single-parent families, Dropouts, Drug addiction or addicts, Drug education or counseling, Drugs, Heroin
- Locales: Harlem, NY
The Novel
Providing a realistic portrait of a young boy becoming a drug addict in the inner city of New York, A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich suggests that there are no simple answers to the problems of addiction, poverty, and crime. A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich is told as a series of brief monologues. Presented in a “documentary” style, the novel depicts each of the main characters telling his or her story in turn. This approach serves both to reinforce the novel’s graphic realism and to illustrate the complexity of the problems that it...
[The entire page is 2870 words long]
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