The suburb is designed much like Dante's Inferno , with the least successful at the top and the most successful at the bottom, according to the circles of hell. The main character, Luther Nedeed Lucifer , is somewhat like a tyrant. He delights in doing destructive and harmful things to this neighborhood. Nedeed symbolizes Lucifer, seeing as he marries a wife only to get a son. Willie Mason and Lester Tilson are also some of the main characters of this book Dante and Virgil in Inferno, respectively.
Tags Add tags for "Linden Hills". African Americans -- Fiction. Middle class -- Fiction. African American families. African Americans. Middle class. All rights reserved. Please sign in to WorldCat Don't have an account? Remember me on this computer. Cancel Forgot your password? Gloria Naylor. Print book : Fiction : English View all editions and formats.
African American families -- Fiction. View all subjects. User lists Similar Items. Online version: Naylor, Gloria. There is much that is unnatural about Linden Hills. Family relationships are stilted and forced. Neighborliness isborne out of obligation, not altruism.
And marital relationships are founded on assets, not love or passion. Serving textually as the best example of this dilemma is Maxwell Smyth, the personification of the unnatural.
That Maxwell could seem to make the elements natural entities disappear would suggest his doing the impossible, the unnatural. And if he can make his blackness the most natural trait he possesses seem to disappear, he has indeed risen to the height of abnormality, or the unnatural.
It is also important to note that Maxwell is presented as the epitome of Linden Hills success. But as Daniel Braithwaite has noted, this success in corporate America has cost Maxwell to strip himself of all that makes him a unique individual, including his blackness. The selfimposed stress under which Maxwell functions destroys Laurel Dumont, and given the meticulousness with which executives like these two must conduct their lives, it is no surprise.
For example, Maxwell gave as much consideration to the decision when and if to smile as he did to the purchase of a new car. In addition, he has regulated his food and liquid intake such that disposal of bodily solids is odor-free and inconsequential; in short, any act that would suggest he is human has been eliminated. This search for success, with the attendant results of fragmentation and the pursuit of the unnatural, also engenders domestic abuse of women, a theme addressed in The Women of Brewster Place.
Here Naylor grapples with the notion that black women ultimately become sacrificial lambs when black men battle the demons of white racism outside the home; they receive the brunt of the anger that black men, for various reasons, cannot vent on white men and a larger racist society.
In Linden Hills , even when the black man has achieved a level of success, sustaining that success renders him, in his own estimation, more vulnerable to the punishments of racism, and his concern becomes obsession that expresses itself negatively in a decided detachment from, or even anger toward an internal anger projected on , the black woman. Every generation chooses a light-complexioned woman, yet each man wants her to produce a dark-skinned male like him. To be sure, the Nedeed men want to prove the potency of blackness over any complexion less than black, but at the same time, they are placing the women in the position for blame if this potency is not proven.
The woman finds herself in an impossible situation, harkening back to slavery days. When Willa Prescott Nedeed produces a light-skinned son, her husband accuses her of adultery and perhaps with a white man , but if she, like the other Nedeed brides, is of light hue, then a lighter strain is coursing through her veins and could easily reveal itself.
That such has not occurred in previous generations is no guarantee that it cannot happen in the present day. But the present-day Luther will not consider that fact. It is this history of black female victimization that Naylor addresses here, a history that always has at its core white male machinations or the machinations of the larger white patriarchal society.
Linden Hills focuses, to some degree, on the historical migratory practices of blacks from the antebellum days and beyond. Even before the Great Migration of the post—World War I period blacks looked to the North as a haven from the harsh realities of physical and emotional abuse they suffered in slavery. In other towns blacks established businesses that thrived, ironically because blacks had no alternative but to support them since segregation often prevented them from patronizing white businesses.
Unfortunately, this thriving area was bombed in the s because it offered too much competition with the white establishment. Even today, economic historians ponder what might have been, in the annals of black economic history, had the Oklahoma project lasted. This novel traces, from to the early s, the development of a carefully planned black community that would prove not only to white America but also to black America itself the potential of black people to succeed despite historical impediments.
And though the community flourishes for several generations, it ultimately suffers once its inhabitants must leave the community in order to earn a living. In this way, the novel records the fate of typical black communities, ironically on the heels of the perceived success of integration. Once blacks could enter and then patronize previously all-white establishments, black businesses suffered.
Likewise, when Linden Hills residents enter the white world to work, to trade, and subsequently to define themselves, they lose their original purpose for sustaining their own community: to maintain a comfortable way of life without immediate white intrusion and with the peace of mind and pride of having achieved the goal despite the former and continued opposition of racism.
The ultimate horror is that the community of Linden Hills may perish as a result of such neglect. To the outside world everything black i. Also, the route to social and economic prominence in Linden Hills is not upward, but downward; the most influential in the community, including Luther Nedeed, live at the bottom of the hill.
And Luther, who ostensibly epitomizes civility and gentility, has, in an act of unprecedented barbarity, incarcerated his wife in a downstairs dungeon. With these examples, Naylor seems to suggest that merely supplanting white with black is not sufficient when neither the rules nor the game has truly changed; the paradigm of oppressed versus oppressor is still active.
Besides the African-American tradition of inversion Naylor also uses well-established European traditions. Traces of the Gothic novel are evident in Linden Hills.
And like her American predecessor Edgar Allan Poe, Naylor combines physical Gothic horror with psychological horror as she explores the impact of frustration, or thwarted desires, on the psyche. No origin is given for the mental illness, nor is any remedy offered. The inexplicable ailment simply exists. Naylor also borrows from the picaresque tradition. In this novel, however, Naylor modifies the picaro, using two characters, Lester and Willie, to serve in this role.
Each of the menembodies different aspects of a low-life character. Neither Willie nor Lester is gainfully employed; instead they are poets who spend much of their time honing their craft and reciting their creative wares in coffeehouses.
Lester lives off the kindnesses begrudgingly of his mother and sister, while Willie periodically assumes menial jobs whenever he requires money. As they sojourn throughout Linden Hills, they encounter persons from different walks of life but who each have a stake in the maintenance of the community; their very lifelines are connected to the survival of this neighborhood. With Willie and Lester serving as careful observers, Naylor makes commentary on the foibles of an otherwise unsuspecting community.
To a lesser degree Naylor applies concepts from the epistolary novel, while also using the photograph and the ledger as narrative models. Each genre is used as a kind of substitute diary from the lives of the Nedeed women.
In the Willa Nedeed sections of the novel, Willa plods through the writings of the Nedeed wives and mothers who preceded her. Luwana Packerville Nedeed wrote letters to herself as she tried to retain her sanity once she realized that she had no power in the Nedeed house.
Evelyn Creton Nedeed recorded every food purchase needed for the many recipes she perfected in order to add structure to her otherwise empty life. Priscilla McGuire Nedeed kept a photograph album to record, and extract some meaning from, her life with the Nedeeds. With each of these characters, Naylor explores how history is recorded what methods are used , who is recording it and why , and most importantly, who is interpreting it and with what agenda.
Clearly, the person who has the opportunity to leave a written record enjoys a level of power unavailable to someone who is denied the chance. It is obvious that Naylor challenges the reader with these concepts, especially given the descriptions of Lester and Willie, the main characters.
While both are poets, Lester writes his creations, but Willie only commits his to memory. His devotion to the oral tradition seems to be key to his retaining a sense of himself. Though to write is to assume some power, to write is also to relinquish power when one exposes the creative product for the interpretation of others. So while Naylor acknowledges the significance of the written word, she also pays homage to the primacy of the spoken word.
While the narrative is propelled by the daily encounters of Willie Mason and Lester Tilson, neither of these main characters narrates. Instead, Naylor relies, in her typical fashion, on the omniscient third-person narrator an omniscient narrator has insight into the thoughts and feelings of characters. This perspective allows the reader to penetrate the thoughts of the many characters who people the novel. Naylor opens the novel with an extended prologue that foregrounds the history not only of Linden Hills but also, at least tangentially, of America.
In its totality the novel encompasses over years, from roughly to the very early s. The novel is then divided into six chapters, the headings of which are the six days of December just prior to Christmas, from December 19 the first chapter to December 24 the last chapter. On each day self-fashioned handymen Willie and Lester set out to earn money while also observing the behaviors, critiquing the mores, and exposing the foibles of an otherwise unsuspecting Linden Hills.
Unlike The Women of Brewster Place , in which Naylor focused on a particular character per chapter, the Linden Hills chapters detail the stories of a host of characters. Important Quotes. Essay Topics. Unlock this Study Guide! Join SuperSummary to gain instant access to all 39 pages of this Study Guide and thousands of other learning resources.
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