Betsey Brown
Betsey Brown is as privileged as any thirteen-year-old black child can be, growing up in the 1950’s. Her father, Greer, is a respected physician. Her mother, Jane, is a psychiatric social worker. The Browns live in a mansion in the best black neighborhood in St. Louis. Greer rears his children to be proud of their race. Their mornings begin to the beat of the conga drum with a quiz on black culture, and the house echoes the sounds of jazz, soul, and the poetry of the great black poets.
When the Brown children are among the first to integrate the public schools, Betsey is catapulted out of her secure world and into one where she is a pariah. At the same time, she is beginning to realize that not all blacks are as fortunate as she. Yet this novel is much more than the story of one family’s experience with integration. It is rather the portrait of a loving family in transition: Betsey, growing up, involved in her first love as well as more sobering events; Jane, torn between her desire for equality and her desire to protect her children from the ugliness of the world; Greer, willing to die if it means a better life for his children; Grandmother Vida, trying to make sense of it all.
As in her previous novel SASSAFRASS, CYPRESS, AND INDIGO, Shange displays a remarkable facility for telling her story from various points of view, making each character come alive. The author is also a gifted playwright and is currently adapting BETSEY BROWN for the musical theater, where no doubt, it will be as joyous a celebration of the strengths of family life and love as is this wonderful novel.
Bibliography
Lester, Neal A. “Shange’s Men: for colored girls Revisited, and Movement Beyond.” African American Review 26, no. 2 (Summer, 1992): 319-328. Although this article deals specifically with Shange’s play, it offers useful insights that refute charges frequently made against Shange that her black male characters are stereotypical and negative.
Martin, Reginald. Ntozake Shange’s First Novel: In the Beginning Was the Word. Fredericksburg, Va.: Mary Washington College, 1984. Discusses Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo and introduces Shange’s use of active voice, inverted word order, and metaphorical language as a way of showing stylistic techniques she uses in her first novel.
Schindehette, Susan. Review of Betsey Brown, by Ntozake Shange. Saturday Review 11 (May, 1985): 74. Finds much to praise in the novel—the characters, the dialogue, the rendering of context—but sees the novel as a failure, suggesting it is not a novel but a play.
Shange, Ntozake. “At the Heart of Shange’s Feminism: An Interview.” Interview by Neal A. Lester. Black American Literature Forum 24, no. 4. (Winter, 1990): 717-730. Describes the dynamics of Shange’s feminism, and her desire to write books for black adolescent girls. Also offers insights on pornography, sexuality, and the role men would play in Shange’s ideal world of gender equality.
Shange, Ntozake. “Interview with Ntozake Shange.” Interview by Brenda Lyons. Massachusetts Review 28, no. 4 (Winter, 1987): 687-696. Of available commentary by Shange about Betsey Brown, this is the most extensive in print. Discusses Shange’s intended audience—adolescents of color—and describes Shange’s own youth.
Shange, Ntozake. “An Interview with Ntozake Shange.” Interview by Neal A. Lester. Studies in American Drama, 1945-Present 5 (1990): 42-66. This interview covers Shange’s writing process and political intentions. Readers of Betsey Brown will be particularly interested in the discussion of the functions of language in her work and of how language reveals character. Includes a photograph of Shange.
Shange, Ntozake. See No Evil: Prefaces,...
(This entire section contains 818 words.)
Unlock this Study Guide Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
Reviews, and Essays, 1974-1983. San Francisco: Momo’s Press, 1984. Although this book was published before Betsey Brown, it gives useful insights into Shange’s artistic vision and the racial and gender politics that inform her writing. Illustrated.
Splawn, Jane P. “Rites of Passage in the Writing of Ntozake Shange: The Poetry, Drama, and Novels.” Dissertation Abstracts International 50 (September, 1989): 687A. Looks at the transitions that Shange’s characters experience on their way to adulthood or some other version of self. Argues that these rites of passage are tied to black cultural traditions.
Tate, Claudia, ed. Black Women Writers at Work. New York: Continuum, 1983. A collection of interviews conducted by Tate with several writers. The chapter on Shange includes an important discussion of Shange’s inability to find suitable reading material as an adolescent girl and her wish to provide for future girls like her. This desire directly leads, a few years after this interview, to Betsey Brown. The chapter begins with a brief biography.
Willard, Nancy. Review of Betsey Brown, by Ntozake Shange. The New York Times Book Review, May 12, 1985, 12. Argues that Betsey Brown is more straightforward than Shange’s first novel. Suggests that Shange’s artistic strengths are in her ability to delineate character and place. Considers the exploration of the black upper class as palatable for black and white readers.