Maud Martha (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Gwendolyn Brooks
- First Published: 1953
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The 1930’s and the 1940’s
- Setting: The South Side of Chicago
- Principal Characters: Maud Martha Brown Phillips, Paul Phillips, Belva Brown, Helen, Abraham, David McKemster, Paulette
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: African Americans
- Locales: Chicago, IL
Form and Content
Maud Martha is a collection of thirty-four short episodes from a young woman’s life. Beginning when she is seven years old, the loosely structured novel traces her childhood, youthful aspirations, dating, and eventual marriage and motherhood. With each chapter, Gwendolyn Brooks creates a poetic description of Maud’s interior and exterior worlds, weaving the details of her South Side Chicago neighborhood skillfully into each vignette. Maud’s youth is spent feeling second rate, thanks to her sister’s self-absorption and the obvious favoritism her...
[The entire page is 2897 words long]
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