Marked by Fire (Masterplots II: African American Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Joyce Carol Thomas
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: September, 1951, through February, 1971
- Setting: Ponca City, Oklahoma
- Principal Characters: Abyssinia (Abby) Jackson, Patience Jackson, Strong Jackson, Mother Barker, Trembling Sally, Lily Norene Washington, Brother Jacobs
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: 1950’s, African Americans, Maturation or coming of age, 1960’s, 1970’s, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Blacks, Nature, Religion, Midwest, West, U.S., Child abuse, Rape, Oklahoma, Women, Singing or singers, Good and evil, Youth, Tornadoes
- Locales: Ponca City, OK
The Novel
A heavily pregnant woman named Patience looks up from picking cotton and sees a tornado bearing down on the cotton field. Mother Barker, one row over, begins to pray. The tornado picks up speed, destroys cotton in a circle around the workers, and then lifts harmlessly into the sky. That night, Mother Barker brings food to the exhausted Patience, who is alone in her cabin. Her husband, Strong, has not accompanied her to the cotton fields because he can make more money in his Ponca City barbershop.
On the following day, Patience has a baby girl, Abyssinia, while...
[The entire page is 3090 words long]
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