The importance of heritage, culture and tradition, and identity in Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow
Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow is an acclaimed novel, published in 1983, that takes place in the 1970s. Covering Avey Johnson’s life, Marshall deals with the idea of loss of cultural identity and the importance of it. Through flashbacks and dreams the author presents the source of Avey’s trauma and her past. On this essay, we will summarize Marshall’s life in brief, as well as present the most relevant characters and themes in the novel; and to continue there is an analysis on how the importance of heritage, culture and tradition is presented through the novel, as well as explain the role of dreams and memory present in the story and the analysis of Avey’s journey that will help us understand the importance of those elements. …show more content…
Her father migrated from Barbados to New York in the early 1900s This black novelist transmitted through her novels the need for black Americans to reclaim and spread their ancestral heritage. She spent a year in her parent’s home country and kept coming back through her adulthood. After graduating from Brooklyn College in 1953 she joined an African American magazine, Our World. Marshall wrote her first autobiographical novel in 1959, Brown Girl, Brownstones, and kept publishing a collection of novellas and short stories with innovative characters. She always fought for the idea that African American people needed to rediscover their heritage, as it is presented in Praisesong for the Widow, published in 1983. With this novel, she began to be recognized as a great writer. Later on, she exercised as an English teacher at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond and New York
Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow is an acclaimed novel, published in 1983, that takes place in the 1970s. Covering Avey Johnson’s life, Marshall deals with the idea of loss of cultural identity and the importance of it. Through flashbacks and dreams the author presents the source of Avey’s trauma and her past. On this essay, we will summarize Marshall’s life in brief, as well as present the most relevant characters and themes in the novel; and to continue there is an analysis on how the importance of heritage, culture and tradition is presented through the novel, as well as explain the role of dreams and memory present in the story and the analysis of Avey’s journey that will help us understand the importance of those elements. …show more content…
Her father migrated from Barbados to New York in the early 1900s This black novelist transmitted through her novels the need for black Americans to reclaim and spread their ancestral heritage. She spent a year in her parent’s home country and kept coming back through her adulthood. After graduating from Brooklyn College in 1953 she joined an African American magazine, Our World. Marshall wrote her first autobiographical novel in 1959, Brown Girl, Brownstones, and kept publishing a collection of novellas and short stories with innovative characters. She always fought for the idea that African American people needed to rediscover their heritage, as it is presented in Praisesong for the Widow, published in 1983. With this novel, she began to be recognized as a great writer. Later on, she exercised as an English teacher at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond and New York