Female Perspective on Communities and Relationships Between the Women of Brewster Place and Paradise
Communities in “The Women of Brewster Place” and “Paradise”
It is true when it is said that, "All paradises, all utopias are designed by who is not there, by the people who are not allowed in” (Online Newshour 1998). There is no perfect utopia, no place where pain doesn’t exist. The idea of paradise is just an idea because it is not reachable. No one lives in paradise and no one ever can because if they did, it wouldn’t be paradise anymore; just another world where ideas of how to make it perfect arise. The world moves forward and its inhabitants evolve; all people have their likes and their dislikes and that has somehow integrated with our feelings and preferences towards other people, even other races and genders. Surprisingly, though humanity has largely grown past the point of outwardly expressing it (most of the time), prejudice remains at the forefront of what is hidden in our minds. There were times however, when prejudice wasn’t hidden and intolerance was shared with as many as would hear. “Paradise” by Toni Morrison and “The Women of Brewster Place” are two such examples of the types of prejudice people faced. In “Paradise,” Toni Morrison writes about a town called Ruby that consisted of mainly African Americans. These folk believed that they were a strong community, but when things begin to become dire, the men turned their frustrations to a female community called, “The Convent” (Morrison 3). Another community having its own problems can be seen in “The Women of Brewster Place,” by Gloria Naylor; but these problems are somewhat diverse. Fundamentally, the perspectives on the feminine communities found in “Paradise” and “The Women of Brewster Place” show how prejudice toward gender and race affect the characters in the two novels. This paper is a comparison of these two novels and how they show similarities and differences in how prejudice affects the main characters.
All African American communities were a part of life before the Civil
It is true when it is said that, "All paradises, all utopias are designed by who is not there, by the people who are not allowed in” (Online Newshour 1998). There is no perfect utopia, no place where pain doesn’t exist. The idea of paradise is just an idea because it is not reachable. No one lives in paradise and no one ever can because if they did, it wouldn’t be paradise anymore; just another world where ideas of how to make it perfect arise. The world moves forward and its inhabitants evolve; all people have their likes and their dislikes and that has somehow integrated with our feelings and preferences towards other people, even other races and genders. Surprisingly, though humanity has largely grown past the point of outwardly expressing it (most of the time), prejudice remains at the forefront of what is hidden in our minds. There were times however, when prejudice wasn’t hidden and intolerance was shared with as many as would hear. “Paradise” by Toni Morrison and “The Women of Brewster Place” are two such examples of the types of prejudice people faced. In “Paradise,” Toni Morrison writes about a town called Ruby that consisted of mainly African Americans. These folk believed that they were a strong community, but when things begin to become dire, the men turned their frustrations to a female community called, “The Convent” (Morrison 3). Another community having its own problems can be seen in “The Women of Brewster Place,” by Gloria Naylor; but these problems are somewhat diverse. Fundamentally, the perspectives on the feminine communities found in “Paradise” and “The Women of Brewster Place” show how prejudice toward gender and race affect the characters in the two novels. This paper is a comparison of these two novels and how they show similarities and differences in how prejudice affects the main characters.
All African American communities were a part of life before the Civil
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