The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor.

The Women of Brewster Place

The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor presents seven short stories of seven amazing and intriguing African American women, whose lives intertwine with each other. They are all different in many ways. They are young and old, two are lesbians, some are mothers and have children, and some have an occasional man running in and out of their lives. However, they are the same in one aspect. They are all brought together in this community, Brewster place, in search of the meaning of life and the knowledge to get through the struggles of being a Black or African American woman living in today's American white society.

The first short story is about Mattie Michael. Her strongest character point was her motherly ways. These traits came from her growing up with an extremely strict father who had expected her to be the "good girl" all her life.

1921 BREWSTER

Brewster, Massachusetts

Brewster Kahle

When she got pregnant, by Butch, a man her father disapproved greatly of, her father almost beat her to death. She thought of only protecting her unborn child and this made her very resilient to the pain inflicted on her by men. Her soon to be born son will be named Basil and she moves into Brewster Place trying to find a better place for him to grow up. She is the most influential character in the book and is almost like the "mother of Brewster place".

The second character is Etta Mae Johnson. She is an outgoing person always on the move and always doing things to the extreme. She is the first person Mattie meets in Brewster Place and becomes friends with her immediately. She leaves soon after their meeting in search of a better life and to find a suitable man. She returns, a while...