Manchild in the Promised Land (Masterplots II: Juvenile and Young Adult Biography Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Claude Brown
- First Published: 1965
- Time of Work: The 1940’s to the 1950’s
- Setting: New York
- Principal Characters: Claude Brown, Pimp, Turk, Danny, Mama, Dad, Ernst Papanek, Reverend William James, Sugar
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography, Social issues
- Subjects: 1950’s, African Americans, Family or family life, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Adolescence, Blacks, Teenagers, Music or musicians, New York City, 1940’s, Prostitution or prostitutes, Gangs, youth, Harlem, Alcoholism or alcoholics, Child abuse, Substance abuse, Inner cities or inner-city life, Robbery or robbers, Jazz music, Drug addiction or addicts, Drugs, Boxing, Reformatories
- Locales: Harlem, NY
Form and Content
Claude Brown begins Manchild in the Promised Land with himself (Sonny) at the age of thirteen, shot on the streets of Harlem for stealing sheets from a clothesline. The autobiography then retraces Brown’s life from the age of eight up to the shooting and goes on to chronicle his stays in the Warwick Reform School and his eventual escape from the street life of Harlem. A gang member at the age of nine, Brown was sent at eleven to the Wiltwyck School for Boys, returned to the streets, was shot, was sent to the reformatory and then gradually moved from...
[The entire page is 1640 words long]
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