Gloria Naylor was born on January 25, 1960 in New York after her mother Albert McAlpin had decided months before that her first child would not be born in a southern place. “Conceived in one region and one decade, yet born in others, Naylor entered life in transcendence” (Wilson Jr. 2). She has confessed that conception in the South has played a more important role in shaping her life as a writer than growing up in the North. Her southern roots and northern perspective and to a certain degree her position in the family as the eldest child and her enrolment as a Jehovah’s Witnesses at the age of 12 endowed Naylor with an ability to view life with a unique perception.
In school, Naylor was a brilliant child and an avid reader with a penchant for writing. She graduated from Brooklyn College with a B.A, in English in 1981 and while she was still in college, she turned a professional writer (Wilson Jr. 3).
She faced difficulties both as a woman and as a black person and this made her admire black women who were strong achievers. She felt that this was a world where African American women were discriminated on the basis of their gender and race and that their lives could be best studied in the context of the south. This philosophy is reflected in her novels where the majority of characters are portrayed to have southern roots. Her major works include Linden Hills (1985), Mama Day (1988), Bailey’s Cafe (1992), The Men of Brewster Place (1998), and 1996 (2004) (Ashford 73). She has received many awards and honors both as a student and as a writer and her book “The Women of Brewster Place” won the National Book Award for first fiction in 1983.
“The Women of Brewster Place” is described on its cover as “a novel in seven stories” and it traces the lives of seven black women struggling to survive in a difficult neighborhood. Most of the women have been forced to arrive at Brewster Place and face different kinds of barriers in their lives that they are sometimes unable to understand. Mattie Michael who appears many times in the novel serves to unify the text.
She is both a surrogate mother and spiritual guide in the stories of Etta, Ciel and Cora Lee. Through Mattie, Naylor explores controversial issues in a rational method of thinking. This is especially evident in the scene where Mattie and Etta discuss lesbianism. This book also provides an excellent framework for exploring feminism and sexuality and how sexuality affects the identity of women. Mattie Michael, by snuffing out her sexuality is defined by sexual denial, whereas Etta Mae who equates sex with love is defined by sexual pursuit.
Etta Mae has lived a vibrant sexually active life before coming to Brewster Place and Ciel is a young woman who loses a child while trying to hold on to a worthless man. Theresa and Lorraine are lesbians who have been treated badly by the world and whose lives are further destroyed at Brewster Place. Naylor has taken seven characters to depict her view of the problems faced by African American women. “Out of the multiplicity, though, arises a common identity, an intensive definition of woman as sufferer, comforter, and finally revolutionary, joining with her peers to tear down Brewster Place and the oppressive values it stands for” (Bercovitch and Patell 507).
Naylor uses seven different female characters, coming from different circumstances to showcase the complexity and the richness of diversity in the lives of the Black African American women. She protests against the discrimination and exploitation of women who are deliberately and systematically excluded from society and celebrates those who are rebelling against the oppression against them. According to Naylor, in “The Women of Brewster Place”, women find ways to survive by sharing love, intimacy and friendship among themselves as mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, and lovers (Fisher and Silber 305).
Naylor in this novel shows that black women’s lives, no matter what their circumstances in life are, are fraught with struggle and pain. However, these women sometimes, in a moment of revelation, may be directed to new paths and taste minor victories – giving them some meaning to their lives. Naylor suggests that women through bonding with other women can “successfully dismantle political and social impediments to their success”(Wilson Jr. 60). Moreover, through the story of Lorraine, Naylor makes the statement that men are defined by their sexuality and all social and political maneuvers are an outcome of his effort to appear masculine.
I agree with the author’s views that a black American woman on the path to success often faces discrimination and struggle. In fact, according to the ‘Catalyst survey Advancing African American Women in the Workplace: What Managers Need to Know’, African American women find it difficult to progress in corporate circles because of “negative, race-based stereotypes; more frequent questioning of their credibility and authority; and a lack of institutional support” (Brown 46).
Another observation made by Naylor in this book is that the black women may overcome their hurdles through bonding with other women. I find this a weak suggestion. Bonding with other women may offer temporary comfort and strength, but to succeed and overcome the obstacles, the black American woman needs to be educated. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said in an interview that her parents taught her that “education was the best armor against segregation and prejudice” (BBC 1). Oprah Winfrey is another successful African American woman who has achieved successful mainly through her intellectual capabilities, honed by education and practice.
Lucy Diggs Slowe in an article written in 1933 has stated, “whether or not Negro college women will be able to take their places as leaders in their communities depends, to a large extent, upon the opportunities offered them for exercising initiative, independence, and self-direction while in college.”(Diggs 335). Thus Diggs believes that the quality of education offered to the African American women will empower them like nothing else can (Perkins 89)..
The book is written in a though provoking manner. It indicates clearly that to know what a black African American woman is, one must see her in the context of the environment in which she lives and the influences that shape her. Through seven different characters, with different backgrounds, Naylor brings the focus of her readers on social issues such as gender, race, class and sexuality, faced by Black women in America.
I would recommend this book to any person with an interest in understanding human nature and in particular the spirit of the African American woman. It would help them understand the levels of discrimination faced by women, black people, black women, middle class people and lesbians among African Americans. The book would also be of interest to students of sociology and psychology as the various stories can be studied as case studies dealing with African American women. Overall, this book has universal appeal by providing a social commentary on the problems faced by African American women in the colorful guise of a novel – and hence any adult reader with a sensitive heart and passion for reading will enjoy this book.
Works Cited
Ashford, R. Tomeiko (2005). Gloria Naylor on Black Spirituality: An Interview. MELUS, Volume 30, Issue 4, p. 73+.
BBC (2006). Profile: Condoleeza Rice. Web.
Bercovitch, Sacvan and Patell, R. K. Cyrus (1994). The Cambridge History of American Literature: Prose Writing, 1940-1990. Cambridge University Press.
Brown, N. Carolyn (2004). Advancing African American Women in the Workplace: New Study Finds Challenges Remain despite Push for Diversity. Black Enterprise, Volume 34, Issue 11, p. 46.
Fisher, Jerilyn and Silber, S. Ellen (2003). Women in Literature: Reading through the Lens of Gender. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT. Publication.
Perkins, M. Linda (1996). Lucy Diggs Slowe: Champion of the Self-Determination of African-American Women in Higher Education. The Journal of Negro History, Volume 81, Issue 1-4, 89+.
Slow, Diggs Lucy (1933). The Higher Education of Negro Women. Journal of Negro Education, Volume 2, p. 335.
Wilson Jr. E. Charles (2001). A Critical Companion. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT.