Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ntozake Shange
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Mothers, Vietnam War, Sisters, South Carolina, Dancing or dancers, Violins or violinists, Weaving or weavers
- Locales: New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, San Francisco, CA, Charleston, SC
Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo incorporates Shange's earlier novella Sassafras (1976). Apparently set during the Vietnam War era, it tells the story of Hilda Effania and her three daughters, African American natives of Charleston, South Carolina, descendants of a family of weavers who did piecework for a wealthy white family. Hilda Effania has conventional aspirations for her daughters, hoping that each will marry well and happily, preferably to a doctor's son. She gives them the means to follow an upwardly mobile path: She sends Sassafrass to an exclusive northern prep...
[The entire page is 1133 words long]
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