Maud Martha (Masterplots II: African American Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Gwendolyn Brooks
- First Published: 1953
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The early 1920’s to the 1940’s
- Setting: The South Side of Chicago
- Principal Characters: Maud Martha Brown, Helen, Papa, Mama, Paul Phillips
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: African Americans
- Locales: Chicago, IL
The Novel
Maud Martha does not have a conventional plot; the thirty-four brief chapters relate a series of fragmentary incidents in Maud Martha’s life. Brooks, using the third-person-limited point of view, constructs an episodic story of an ordinary African American woman’s life, beginning with Maud Martha at the age of seven and ending with her second pregnancy. Historical events (the Great Depression of the 1930’s and World War II) affect Maud Martha’s life but are not a major theme.
The novel focuses on the title character’s domestic life, first as a...
[The entire page is 3373 words long]
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