Plum Bun (Masterplots II: African American Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Jessie Redmon Fauset
- First Published: 1928
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: 1900 to the 1920’s
- Setting: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City
- Principal Characters: Angela Murray, Virginia, Roger Fielding, Anthony Cross, Junius Murray, Rachel Powell, Ralph Ashley
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: African Americans, Discrimination, Maturation or coming of age, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Racism, Sexism, Race, Sex or sexuality, New York City, Interracial relationships, Art or artists, Marriage, Mistaken or secret identity, Prejudices or antipathies, Harlem Renaissance, Sisters, Philadelphia
- Locales: New York, NY, Philadelphia, PA
The Novel
Plum Bun is a Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, about Angela Murray, whose romantic illusions about the advantages of “passing” as white are shattered by a succession of cruel experiences. The format of the novel is based on the old nursery rhyme “To Market, to Market/ To buy a Plum Bun;/ Home again, Home again,/ Market is done.” The “plum bun” represents all the advantages Angela hopes to obtain by using her charm and talent to enter the upper-class white world.
In the first section, entitled “Home,” sixteen-year-old Angela...
[The entire page is 2957 words long]
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