Betsey Brown
It was absolutely refreshing to read a book that I did not need to skip over sentences or paragraphs to avoid language I have long sense out grown. After reading The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager and Hairstyles of the Damned I did not have a desire to read another novel about adolescence. Ntozake Shange took me by surprise with Betsey Brown. The novel contains some profanity, sexual content, and very little violence, but it displayed tastefully. I think we can all agree that these themes take place in our lives, but my concern is with the way it is conveyed.
Mark Twain, in Huckleberry Finn painted a negative unsavory picture of black people that did not portray the reality of what it is like to grow up black at any age. Shange, however, writes about a middle class black family who struggle through the difficulties of integration, growing pains, and racism tastefully. It is great to read about blacks who are not uneducated, slaves, or poor. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that this is one family who seem to have made it while certain other black characters were not as successful. Still I remain intrigued because I could not help but think that the bottom would fall out of their prosperity. I am impressed that nobody went to jail or was beat to death.
Integration brought a great turmoil in the Brown family home as it did in most black homes. The tension and stress of children going off to school in a white racist environment is frightening, “All right. They can go, but the first sign of trouble of any kind, they go to the Catholic school….” Jane explains (p 91). I can remember when school busing began for my sons. We did not really have a choice because I could not afford to send my sons to private schools. The Brown family’s decision to allow their children to be pioneers for integration in the school system is admirable. Never the less Betsey was like most youths who could not understand why no one ever asks what they want to do. I am quite sure my sons had similar thoughts.
I found a sense of joy in reading this book. The functional family life the Browns have is typical of middle class blacks who adapt to success in a white world. It seems that Jane acknowledges the family is black, but they don’t have to act like it. Betsey’s running away shows that all teens go through a period of confusion, doubt, and rebellion before they find their way, no matter what walk of life they come from. Betsey focus is on who she is while her mother concentrate on what she wants for her family. I can remember my mother becoming upset because I announced I wanted to be a Black Nationalist. “I ‘m black and I’m proud” is what I chanted only I really did not agree with most of the things they stood for.
Red 2.0
16 years ago
I agree this novel was interesting to read. You get the sense that you were a part of the family when you read it; that is when you've memorized all the different names of the Brown family. The second half of the novel was interesting, especially when Betsey runs away. As I read, about her experience in the beauty salon, I expected something bad to happen to her. I don't know what sort of operation Mrs. Maureen was running, but it seemed like prostitution based on the way Regina was dresses and the mention of her having heavy perfume. However, I could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteBut Betsey's time at the salon showed her a brief glimpse of the world outside of "Betsey." The bad of the world; the struggle of life; the mentalities of people categorizing themselves into types of "negroes." For example, Regina said “there’s all different kinds of colored folks” (Shange 136). Also, Regina’s state of being, left alone and pregnant by a man whom she thought was an honorable and who loved her. Betsey needed this experience in the salon in order to grown. Also, Carrie's presence in the home after Jane left was needed for not only Betsey but the children as a growing process.