Like One of the Family | Like One of the Family

At a glance:

Author: Alice Childress
First Published: 1956
Type of Work: Novel
Type of Plot: Social realism
Time of Work: The early 1950’s
Setting: New York City
Principal Characters: Mildred Johnson, Marge, Mrs. M, Mrs. C, Mrs. L
Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
Subjects: 1950’s, African Americans, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, New York City, Communication, Friendship, Harlem, Honesty, Domestic work or workers, Listening
Locales: New York, NY

Although it is classified as a novel, Like One of the Family does not have either the movement of plot or the change in character usually associated with that genre. Instead, Alice Childress’ work is a series of monologues, each of which is independent, even though all involve the same speaker and the same listener. This format can be explained by the fact that these monologues originally appeared separately, some of them in the newspaper Freedom, where they were called “Conversations from Life,” and others in the Baltimore Afro-American,...

Like One of the Family | Like One of the Family

At a glance:

The Novel

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