Purlie Victorious (Masterplots II: African American Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Ossie Davis
- First Published: 1961
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Comedy
- Time of Work: The 1950’s
- Setting: A Georgia cotton plantation
- Principal Characters: Purlie Victorious Judson, Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, Missy Judson (Aunt Missy), Gitlow Judson, Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee, Charlie Cotchipee, Idella Landy
- Genres: Satire, Drama, Farce, Comedy
- Subjects: 1950’s, Freedom, Racism, South or Southerners, Religion, Violence, Georgia, Inheritance or succession, Truthfulness and falsehood, Preaching
- Locales: South (U.S.), Georgia
The Play
Purlie Victorious relates Purlie’s dream of becoming a preacher to the African American community in southern Georgia, where he and his family live and where little has changed over the generations. It is the 1950’s, and change has begun. Reference is made to the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycotts, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Purlie is influenced by all of these, but his motives come primarily from within himself and his own experiences as an African American in the traditional South.
...[The entire page is 2360 words long]
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