Lawd Today (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Richard Wright
- First Published: 1963
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Naturalism
- Time of Work: The Great Depression of the 1930’s
- Setting: The South Side of Chicago
- Genres: Long fiction, Naturalistic literature
- Subjects: African Americans, Racism, Antiheroes, 1930’s, Chicago, Domestic violence, Inner cities or inner-city life, Drinking or drunkenness, Postal service
- Locales: Chicago, IL
Characters Discussed
Jake Jackson, a Chicago post office employee. A relatively young, round-faced, dark-skinned black man, Jake is angry, frustrated, and full of contradictions. He left Mississippi to escape the racial prejudice there, but he does not find his desired personal freedom and affirmation in Chicago. Although he is a Republican admirer of successful whites such as John D. Rockefeller and is contemptuous of the poor, he is deeply in debt and retains his job only as the result of political payoffs. At one moment, he sentimentalizes about the beneficence of whites,...
[The entire page is 1447 words long]
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