The Women of Brewster Place

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1982

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Interlude 1-Chapter 1

Chapters 2-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapter 7-Interlude 2

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Interlude 1-Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Interlude 1 Summary: “Dawn”

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of physical abuse and domestic violence.

The Women of Brewster Place begins with a short vignette that details how the housing block comes about through a series of “clandestine meetings” between an alderman and the director of a real estate company. The alderman wants the director’s company to build a shopping center, and the director wants the alderman to fire the district’s chief of police, who is “too honest to take bribes” (1). The two men reach an agreement, and as “an afterthought,” they also decide to construct Brewster Place, “four double-housing units on some worthless land in the badly crowded district” (1). Two years later, the alderman christens the block with a bottle of champagne while the community cheers. In the complex’s “youth,” the city is optimistic and filled with “a sense of promise” (2).

As the city grows, the boulevard alongside Brewster Place becomes a bustling thoroughfare, and the city decides to wall off some of the smaller streets to reduce traffic. The communities that inhabit these streets understand that losing access to the main boulevard will drain “the lifeblood of their community” (2), and they fight to keep the wall out of their neighborhood. However, Brewster Place has become filled with “dark haired and mellow-skinned” Mediterranean people who have “no political influence” (2) to fight with. The end of the street is walled off, and the area is cut off from the rest of the city.

As Brewster Place enters its “middle years,” its “children” begin to move away, looking for a more comfortable place to call home. Ben is the first Black man to move into Brewster Place. He is hired as a janitor and a handyman and begins living in one of the basement apartments. The Mediterranean residents are not bothered by his presence and are glad to have someone to fix things up. Some days, Ben begins drinking in the morning. He is always alone, and no one knows what happened to his family. In its “old age,” Brewster Place welcomes a new generation of “multi-colored ‘Afric’ children” (4). These residents, especially the “colored daughters,” are passionate, hard-working, and committed to making a life in Brewster Place. The women are described as being like “ebony phoenix[es],” and each one has her own story.

Chapter 1 Summary: “Mattie Michael”

When Mattie Michael moves to Brewster Place, snow is falling. She looks up at her new home and imagines that she catches a whiff of sugar cane, which makes her remember a summer in Tennessee 31 years ago.

The narrative shifts to an earlier time frame. During this earlier time, Butch Fuller, a “cinnamon-red” man, calls to Mattie from over the top of her family’s fence. Mattie’s father has warned her many times that Butch “is a no-’count ditch hound” (9), but Mattie is drawn in by the man’s “translucent” and “mystifying” laughter, and she finds herself admiring his looks. Butch invites Mattie with him to pick some sugar cane and wild herbs. She hesitates, worried about what her father might think, but she can’t resist the thought of fresh boiled cane molasses. They arrive at the cane field, and Butch cuts the stalks while Mattie watches; then, they head into the woods to find the patch of wild herbs. In the cool shade of the trees, Mattie is afraid of the strange feelings in her body, so she tries to express anger toward Butch. She accuses him of chasing women, but he tells her that he just doesn’t stay long enough for things to go bad in a relationship and always leaves his women with happy memories. Butch cuts off a piece of sugar cane, telling her that “eating cane is like living life” (18); she must chew on it but spit it out when there is still a bit of sweetness left; otherwise, she will be left with a mouthful of stringy pulp. He offers her the slice of cane, and she takes it in her mouth.

When Mattie’s father learns that she is pregnant, he doesn’t speak for two days. Her mother tells her that having a baby is “nothing to be shamed of” (20) and that her father will “come round” (20). Finally, after dinner, he calls Mattie to him, and she obeys “instinctually.” He asks what he could have done to cause her mistake, but she insists that it was not his fault. He assumes that the baby is Fred Watson’s, a man whom Mattie has been spending time with, and tells Mattie that he will go see Fred in the morning to take care of everything. Mattie confesses that the baby isn’t Fred’s, but she won’t admit to having slept with Butch, knowing her father’s feelings toward the man. Furious, her father begins to beat her, demanding the man’s name. When he doesn’t stop, Mattie’s mother pulls out the shotgun and threatens to shoot him.

The next week, Mattie takes a Greyhound bus north to meet her friend Etta Mae. Her son is born five months later, and Mattie names him Basil. After Basil’s birth, Etta announces that Harlem is “the place to be” (26), and she moves to New York. Lonely without her friend, Mattie contemplates going home, but her baby looks more like Butch every day, and she cannot bear the thought of facing her father. Instead, she gets a job and pays a neighbor to watch the baby while she works. Although she works six days a week, she cannot save enough money to move to a better apartment, and she barely has any time with Basil. One night, a rat climbs onto their bed and bites the baby’s cheek while they are sleeping. Basil’s screams wake Mattie, and she spends the rest of the night wide awake, soothing the terrified child.

The next day, she sets out, determined to find another place to live. No one is willing to rent to a single Black mother, and Mattie becomes discouraged. She again contemplates going home to Tennessee and wonders where the bus depot is. As she wanders down the sidewalk, Mattie walks by an old woman she assumes to be white and is surprised to hear a “[B]lack voice” calling out to her. When Mattie explains her plight, the woman invites Mattie in. The old woman’s name is Eva Turner, and she makes dinner for Mattie as Basil plays with her granddaughter’s toys. Eva tells the other woman she can stay but is elusive when Mattie asks about the cost of rent.

Mattie spends 30 years in Eva’s house. Time passes, and Basil grows up with Eva’s granddaughter Lucielia. Eva chides Mattie for her lack of suitors, but the other woman claims to be too busy with work and her son. Eventually, Eva passes away. Her children take Lucielia and Eva’s valuables and sell the house to Mattie. As Basil becomes a man, Mattie works two jobs to pay for the mortgage. One Sunday, she leaves the house in a hurry and promises to return in time to cut the grass, but Mattie isn’t surprised when he is gone all day. She doesn’t know what he does whenever he goes out. For years, she has cared for and supported her son, but now she is aging and needs more help at home, and she is alone.

That night, she dreams of Butch and the sugar cane. In the dream, she is chewing the cane while Butch chases her. When he catches her, he tries to pull the wad of pulpy cane out of her mouth, and she screams. Suddenly, the sharp ring of the telephone wakes Mattie. Basil is on the other line. At first, she cannot understand what he is saying to her, but her head clears when her son begins to cry, telling her that “they beat [him] up” (45). At the police station, Mattie learns that Basil was in a bar fight and has been arrested for involuntary manslaughter and assaulting a police officer. She cannot see him because visiting hours are over, and the officer on duty suggests that she find a lawyer and return in the morning. Mattie’s lawyer insists that it is an easy case and she has nothing to worry about. Secretly, he thinks that the public defender could have handled it and that Mattie is wasting her money, but he doesn’t complain. Mattie visits Basil in jail and reassures him. He complains about the “hellhole” of the jail, telling his mother that he has to get out as soon as possible. He is upset that Mattie has to wait for the hearing to post his bail, but Mattie insists there’s nothing else she can do. Angry, he ends their visit early, leaving Mattie hurt.

The next day, the judge sets Basil’s bail and assigns him a trial date in two weeks. Because the date is so soon, the lawyer advises Mattie not to put up the bail; Basil will be out before she knows it, and she risks losing the bond if he doesn’t show up for trial. However, Mattie insists on using her house to secure the bond and get her son out of jail. For two weeks, Basil is more affectionate than usual with his mother. He helps her around the house and drives her to work. However, as the trial nears, he grows sullen and worries about what will happen if the trial goes poorly. He takes her to work one day but isn’t there when Mattie finishes her shift. She takes the bus home and prepares dinner, trying to ignore his absence for as long as possible. Basil never returns, and Mattie loses the house and moves to an apartment in Brewster Place.

Interlude 1-Chapter 1 Analysis

The novel opens with an epigraph quoting the poem “Harlem,” by African American poet Langston Hughes. It reads:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore —

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode? (vi).

The epigraph is important because it introduces the first key theme of the novel, “Deferred” Dreams and the Search for Belonging, and it speaks to the many challenges that the women will face as the novel details their varied responses to life’s hardships. Every character has dreams for their lives that are “deferred” by a variety of circumstances, including oppression, bad luck, violence, and abuse. They all deal with these deferred dreams in different ways; some of them “fester,” some “dry up,” and some “explode.” In many respects, The Women of Brewster Place is a novel that examines the ways in which women persevere in the face of broken dreams, and it also explores the consequences of experiencing repeated defeats that simply become too much to bear.

The novel’s interlude, aptly called “Dawn,” is a crucial segment to the overall story, for it provides the foundation for the women’s experiences by outlining the problematic and disadvantaged nature of its very inception, as well as its evolution. This detailed backdrop creates a nuanced setting for the lives of the women who will find themselves tenants of Brewster Place. Covering approximately 50 years of American history, the interlude examines demographic changes that take place between the end of World War I and the mid-1970s, when the narrative present of the novel is set. Born of a disastrous mix of corruption and opportunism, Brewster Place was always intended to be occupied by the poorest members of society, and as such, it was neglected and marginalized after a brief period of hopeful “promise.” When the block is unceremoniously walled off from the rest of the city, its fate is sealed, and from then on, it functions only as a poor, forgotten corner of a larger metropolis. The wall itself becomes an important symbol of the female characters’ place in society, and it introduces the systemic nature of the oppression that the residents of Brewster Place must navigate. Additionally, Naylor intensifies the importance of the setting by personifying the ill-fated block of apartments, for she refers to Brewster Place’s “birth,” its “baptism,” and its “middle age,” suggesting that every place, no matter how shabby, has its own vibrant life to pursue and strives for opportunity just like its tenants. The residents are therefore cast as Brewster Place’s “children,” and this family imagery is designed to illustrate the love that ties the Brewster Place community together no matter how shabby the building might appear from the outside.

The Women of Brewster Place reflects Naylor’s strategic use of a uniquely non-linear narrative structure. After the first vignette about the block’s overall history, the novel is constructed of seven separate yet interconnected stories detailing the lives of the women who live in Brewster Place over the years. These stories often move between past and present with little warning, using flashbacks to tell of the women’s lives before Brewster Place. This technique creates a narrative that is more character-driven than plot-driven, putting the women themselves at the center of the story.

The first chapter tells the story of Mattie Michael and “her long, winding journey to Brewster” (8). While the narrative begins at the end by showing the moment in which she moves into the apartment block, most of the chapter is told as a flashback that illustrates the sometimes elastic nature of time in the narrative. This first story also introduces many of the novel’s key themes, including the shared struggles of racism, sexism, poverty, and violence that unite the women’s experiences throughout the text. Most importantly, the chapter establishes the theme of Community and Sisterhood Amidst Adversity by illustrating how Mattie is always supported by the women in her life. While Mattie is abused and taken advantage of by a series men, including Butch, her father, and finally, even her own son, she is always protected and sustained by supportive women such as her mother, Etta, and Eva Turner. This pattern of sisterly friendship will become a recurring theme in the novel as the women featured in each chapter rely on one another for support and solutions when the world conspires against them. In this first installment, the power of such bonds is demonstrated when Eva Turner takes Mattie in, for as the women talk, they almost become one, “blending their lives so that what lay behind one and ahead of the other became indistinguishable” (34). Like many of the women in the novel, they can relate to one another’s experiences on a fundamental level, which illustrates the importance of Black female friendship.

Ultimately, Mattie proves to be an important character throughout the interwoven stories of the novel, and her chapter is therefore the longest. As the years pass, she assumes a matriarchal role in Brewster Place and forges crucial connections to many of the other women living there. While she wastes much time and energy pouring herself into mothering her son, she is rewarded for her efforts with a spoiled and self-centered son who grows to abandon her and ruin her financially. In the absence of her son, Mattie therefore turns her mothering instincts toward aiding her friends and community, playing the maternal role that Miss Eva once played for her and making it a point to heal and support other women.