Define Books In Favor Of Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral
| Original Title: | Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral |
| ISBN: | 0807009199 (ISBN13: 9780807009192) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Jessie Redmon Fauset
Paperback | Pages: 408 pages Rating: 3.88 | 969 Users | 85 Reviews
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Written in 1929 at the height of the Harlem Renaissance by one of the movement's most important and prolific authors, Plum Bun is the story of Angela Murray, a young black girl who discovers she can pass for white. After the death of her parents, Angela moves to New York to escape the racism she believes is her only obstacle to opportunity. What she soon discovers is that being a woman has its own burdens that don't fade with the color of one's skin, and that love and marriage might not offer her salvation.
Mention Out Of Books Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral
| Title | : | Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral |
| Author | : | Jessie Redmon Fauset |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 408 pages |
| Published | : | December 15th 1999 by Beacon Press (first published 1928) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Cultural. African American. Historical. Historical Fiction. Race. Feminism |
Rating Out Of Books Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral
Ratings: 3.88 From 969 Users | 85 ReviewsCommentary Out Of Books Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral
Worth a read. I enjoyed Nella Larson's telling of the same story better in Passing and Quicksand.4 out of 5
Published in 1928 and set a few years earlier, Plum Bun follows protagonist Angela Morris, a very light-skinned colored woman (the term used in the novel -- today we would say African American) who decides to move from her hometown of Philadelphia to New York, where she will study painting and pass as white. A well-developed and carefully-drawn picture of her childhood and youth and her family life provides the motivation for her choice, as she is often shunned and belittled when people discover
The moral of Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral is that passing privilege is only a privilege if you're willing to turn your back on friends, family, and heritage and live a lie. But it is seductive nevertheless. The American dreams of freedom and individuality are for white people only, and white men in particular, and Angela longs to escape the bonds of race and history and be her own person with her own merits. Her situation is absurdly Kafkaesque: she is white yet not white; she is accepted
Plum Bun, by Jessie Redmon Faust is an exquisitely painful story that details the travails of African Americans who try to make their way in America by literally "crossing the line", and becoming someone else. Angela Murray, older fair skinned daughter of Junius and Mattie Murray does not want to be shut out of the opportunities that white people are able to benefit from with no effort. Her mother is also very fair and the two of them regularly go about their community in Philadelphia and "pass"
Uneven at times but nonetheless an immensely illuminating novel on race, color, and gender by a major writer of the Harlem Renaissance.
This book was frustrating, heartbreaking, triumphant, and dazzling at different points.I'll leave a more thought-out review after my ENG460G class meeting on Tuesday, which I think will help organize my feelings. But what an unknown gem of the Harlem Renaissance this novel is.
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