Alice Childress Criticism
Alice Childress (1920-1994) stands as a significant yet often underacknowledged figure in American literature, renowned for her profound contributions to African-American drama and literature. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, and raised in Harlem, her early experiences in the American Negro Theatre and the influence of her grandmother instilled in her a commitment to address pressing societal issues through her work. Childress's debut play, Florence (1949), confronted racial segregation, setting the precedent for her later works that frequently tackled themes of racism, miscegenation, and societal injustices.
Childress's exploration of these themes is evident in her critically acclaimed play Trouble in Mind (1955), which scrutinizes racism within the theater industry. Despite winning an Obie Award, its journey to Broadway was stymied due to thematic disputes, as Sally R. Sommer notes. Her subsequent plays, such as Wedding Band (1966) and Wine in the Wilderness (1969), delve into the complexities of interracial relationships and intra-racial dynamics, as explored by critics like Alma Jean Billingslea-Brown and Elizabeth Brown-Guillory. These works reflect Childress's enduring commitment to confronting uncomfortable truths, despite facing resistance from producers and critics alike.
Beyond the stage, Childress made impactful contributions to children's literature, most notably with her novel A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich (1973). The novel's candid portrayal of heroin addiction in Harlem, told from multiple perspectives, led to both acclaim and controversy, including involvement in a Supreme Court censorship case. Elbert R. Hill and Ed Bullins discuss its realistic depiction of societal issues, while Sandra Y. Govan appreciates her exploration of the Black Aesthetic in her later novel, Rainbow Jordan (1981).
Despite the challenges and obstacles she faced, including the refusal to air Wine in the Wilderness in Alabama, Childress's influence on the theatrical landscape is undeniable. Her legacy in American theater is marked by her pioneering role in developing African-American drama and her dedication to portraying the "ordinary" complexities of marginalized individuals. Critics such as Patricia R. Schroeder emphasize the need for a reassessment of her oeuvre, while others, like Zita Dresner and Beth Turner, continue to explore the nuances of her work, highlighting her humor and authentic narratives.
Childress's novel A Short Walk balances historical insights with character depth, though it faced critiques from figures such as Alice Walker for its forced dialogue. Nonetheless, Childress remains a revered figure, celebrated for her sharp observational skills and unsentimental tone, as noted by Gerladine L. Wilson and Donald T. Evans. Her works, from theater to literature, continue to inspire scholarly discourse, affirming her enduring impact on American cultural narratives.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Childress, Alice (Vol. 12)
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Arthur Gelb
(summary)
In the following essay, Arthur Gelb argues that Alice Childress's play "Trouble in Mind" offers a witty and incisive commentary on the limited opportunities and stereotypical roles available to African American actors, while also reflecting on the pressures within the entertainment industry, all delivered with humor and minimal sermonizing.
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Loften Mitchell
(summary)
In the following essay, Loften Mitchell analyzes Alice Childress's play Wedding Band, highlighting her incisive characterizations and moral examination of the American race problem through the lens of an interracial couple facing legal and societal obstacles in the South.
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Clive Barnes
(summary)
In the following essay, Clive Barnes critiques Alice Childress's adaptation of Maupassant's story "The Piece of String" in her play "String," arguing that while the play creates a vividly authentic scene at a black block party, it falls short because it becomes overly extended compared to the concise impact of the original story.
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Negro Playwrights in the American Theatre: 1925–1959
(summary)
In the following essay, Doris E. Abramson critiques Alice Childress's play Trouble in Mind, arguing that while it effectively addresses racial issues in theater, its characters and dialogue occasionally suffer from overt sermonizing, thus limiting the depth and complexity of its portrayal of racial dynamics.
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Donald T. Evans
(summary)
In the following essay, Donald T. Evans discusses how Alice Childress's play Trouble in Mind highlights the challenges Black artists face in maintaining integrity within a predominantly white theater industry, thus underscoring the necessity of the Black Arts Movement to create an authentic Black theater.
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Clive Barnes
(summary)
In the following essay, Clive Barnes argues that Alice Childress's play "Wedding Band" effectively conveys the romantic struggles between a black woman and a white man against the backdrop of early 20th-century racial tensions, highlighting emerging black consciousness and the entrenched bigotry of the period.
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Edith Oliver
(summary)
In the following essay, Edith Oliver critiques Alice Childress's play "Wedding Band" for its rich portrayal of a 1918 South Carolina community, though she notes moments where characters seem to speak directly to a modern audience, disrupting the period authenticity but not diminishing the overall impact.
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Walter Kerr
(summary)
In the following essay, Walter Kerr critiques Alice Childress's play "Wedding Band" as an honest depiction of interracial relationships in early 20th-century America, but notes its dramatic shortcomings and its failure to move beyond illustrating the well-known societal opposition to intermarriage.
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Harold Clurman
(summary)
In the following essay, Harold Clurman examines Childress's play Wedding Band, highlighting its authentic portrayal of racial tensions and love, and argues that despite changes since 1918, the play remains relevant by illustrating persistent divisions in society.
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Ed Bullins
(summary)
In the following essay, Ed Bullins extols Alice Childress's novel "A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich" for its compelling depiction of heroin addiction and the disintegration of a black family, highlighting Childress's dramatic prowess in addressing urban social issues and suggesting a glimmer of hope amidst raw truths.
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To Destroy Life
(summary)
In the following essay, Norma Rogers discusses how Alice Childress's novel "A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich" poignantly captures the struggles of the Afro-American working class in Harlem, highlighting the bleak prospects for the community's youth without significant societal changes.
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James V. Hatch
(summary)
In the following essay, James V. Hatch argues that Alice Childress's play Wine in the Wilderness critiques the superficiality of middle-class black values and contrasts them with the authentic dignity and warmth of the character Tommy, whom Childress positions as a refreshing new black heroine offering a transformative vision of black identity.
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Ray Anthony Shepard
(summary)
In the following essay, Ray Anthony Shepard discusses Alice Childress's A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich, highlighting the novel's exploration of heroism through the character Benjie Johnson, a young black junkie, who learns that heroism is not found in celebrities but in ordinary people like Butler Craig who believe in him.
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Zena Sutherland
(summary)
In the following essay, Zena Sutherland commends Alice Childress for her skillful character and background development in the one-act play When the Rattlesnake Sounds, emphasizing its emotional impact and poignant dialogue despite minimal action.
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Mary M. Burns
(summary)
In the following essay, Mary M. Burns praises Alice Childress's play "When the Rattlesnake Sounds" for its poignant depiction of Harriet Tubman's courage, commending its focus, literary craftsmanship, and educational value in providing young audiences with an aesthetic experience and insight into human emotions.
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More Juniorplots: A Guide for Teachers and Librarians
(summary)
In the following essay, John T. Gillespie analyzes Alice Childress' Hero, highlighting the play's compelling dialogue and characterization while exploring universal themes such as family, love, and discrimination, as well as the devastating impact of heroin addiction on a young boy's life in Harlem.
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Miguel Ortiz
(summary)
In the following essay, Miguel Ortiz argues that Alice Childress effectively uses monologues in A Hero Ain't Nothin but a Sandwich to explore the complex interplay of race, class, and personal conflict, illustrating the nuanced humanity of her characters and the social forces shaping their lives.
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Black Figures, White Shadows
(summary)
In the following essay, Sally R. Sommer evaluates Alice Childress's play Trouble in Mind, highlighting its critique of racial stereotyping and the dynamics of black actors in white-dominated theater, while noting its prescient reflection of social change and the evolution of black dramaturgy, despite structural challenges in its play-within-a-play format.
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Arthur Gelb
(summary)
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Childress, Alice (Vol. 96)
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An Unfashionable Tragedy of American Racism: Alice Childress's Wedding Band
(summary)
In the following essay, Curb explores Childress's portrayal of women in her dramas, particularly Wedding Band.
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A Novel to Enjoy and Remember
(summary)
In the following review, Wilson praises Childress's rich characterization and dialogue in A Short Walk. Alice Childress has written a remarkable book that takes its title from the answer given by protagonist Cora James' father to the question 'What is life?'—which she asks him at age five while watching a minstrel show. Life, he responds, is 'a short walk from the cradle to the grave … and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way.'
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A Hero for the Movies
(summary)
In the following essay, Hill compares the strengths and weaknesses of Childress's book A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich with those of the film version of the novel.
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Images of Blacks in Plays by Black Women
(summary)
In the following essay, Brown-Guillory discusses the stages of Tommy's development in Wine in the Wilderness. The aim of this essay is twofold: (a) to demonstrate that Alice Childress, a black woman who has struggled against powerful odds to survive in the theatre, has made monumental contributions to black women's playwriting in America, and (b) to illustrate that Childress' heroine in Wine in the Wilderness survives whole, just as Childress has, regardless of seemingly impenetrable barriers.
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Alice Childress: A Pioneering Spirit
(summary)
In the following interview, Alice Childress with Elizabeth Brown-Guillory discusses Childress's influences, such as her grandmother and early teachers, her writing process, and her career in theatre and literature, emphasizing the importance of craftsmanship and the challenges she faced as a pioneering Black female playwright.
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Black Women Playwrights: Exorcising Myths
(summary)
In the following essay, Brown-Guillory discusses the depiction of black characters in the plays of Childress, Lorraine Hansberry, and Ntozake Shange. Alice Childress, Lorraine Hansberry, and Ntozake Shange, three outstanding contemporary black women playwrights, are crucial links in the development of black women play-writing in America. These three playwrights, whose perspectives and portraits are decidedly different from those of black males and white playwrights, have created images of blacks which dispel the myths of 'the contented slave,' 'the tragic mulatto,' 'the comic Negro,' 'the exotic primitive,' and 'the spiritual singing, toe-tapping, faithful servant.'
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Alice Childress's Rainbow Jordan: The Black Aesthetic Returns Dressed in Adolescent Fiction
(summary)
In the following review, Govan explores the role of the Black Aesthetic in Childress's novel Rainbow Jordan.
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An Unfashionable Tragedy of American Racism: Alice Childress's Wedding Band
(summary)
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Interview
(summary)
The critic presents an interview with Alice Childress, where she reflects on her creative process, the inspiration behind her play "Wedding Band," the challenges of interracial themes, her approach to writing, and the impact of theater on her novels, highlighting her belief in truthful characterization over audience expectations.
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Childress, Alice (Vol. 15)
- James Park Sloan
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A Walk through 20th-Century Black America—Alice Childress's 'A Short Walk'
(summary)
In the following essay, Alice Walker critiques Alice Childress's novel A Short Walk for its historical insight and balanced portrayal of characters, while noting that its forced dialogue and lack of passion detract from the overall impact of the work.
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Obituaries
(summary)
In the following essay, the critic offers a comprehensive overview of Alice Childress's multifaceted career as an actress and writer, highlighting her notable works including the acclaimed novel A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich, and her plays such as Wedding Band, while also addressing the controversies and challenges she faced.
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Childress, Alice
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Whose Name, Whose Protection: Reading Alice Childress's Wedding Band
(summary)
In the following essay, Wiley examines feminist and racial perspectives on Childress's Wedding Band. The essay discusses a scene in the first act where Mattie, a black woman, needs a translator for a letter from her husband, and highlights the themes of love, name, and protection in the context of Jim Crow society, emphasizing the self-reliance of the women in the play.
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Alice Childress
(summary)
In the following interview, Alice Childress with Roberta Maguire discusses Childress's early influences, her experiences in the American Negro Theatre, and the feminist and racial themes in her plays, highlighting the challenges she faced with alterations imposed by producers and directors on her works like Trouble in Mind and Wedding Band.
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Alice Childress's Like One of the Family: Domestic and Undomesticated Domestic Humor
(summary)
In the following essay, Dresner identifies rebellion as the link between the humor of the white suburban housewife and the African-American domestic worker.
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Re-Reading Alice Childress
(summary)
In the following essay, Schroeder surveys the reasons for the critical neglect of Childress's work—especially on the part of feminist critics—and urges a reassessment of her oeuvre.
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The ‘Blight of Legalized Limitation’ in Alice Childress's Wedding Band
(summary)
In the following essay, Billingslea-Brown considers the impact of anti-miscegenation laws on the lives of the characters in Childress's Wedding Band.
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Simplifyin': Langston Hughes and Alice Childress Re/member Jesse B. Semple
(summary)
In the following essay, Turner compares the history and nature of Langston Hughes's Simply Heavenly and Childress's Just a Little Simple in order to gain insight into the “complex nature of Black comedic representation.”
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Whose Name, Whose Protection: Reading Alice Childress's Wedding Band
(summary)
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Overviews
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Images of Black Women in Plays by Black Playwrights
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Miller discusses Childress's depiction of black women in her best-known plays.
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The Literary Genius of Alice Childress
(summary)
In the following essay, Killens discusses various aspects of Childress's career, lauding her numerous accomplishments.
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Alice Childress, Lorraine Hansberry, Ntozake Shange: Carving a Place for Themselves on the American Stage
(summary)
An American educator and playwright, Brown-Guillory is the author of several works on contemporary drama. In the following excerpt, she offers an overview of Childress's principal plays, acknowledging her contributions to African-American drama.
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Images of Black Women in Plays by Black Playwrights
(summary)
- Further Reading