Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks

First published: 1953

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Autobiographical and bildungsroman

Time of plot: c. 1924-1945

Locale: Chicago

Principal characters

• Maud Martha Brown, an African American girl who comes of age
• Belva Brown, her mother
• Helen, her sister
• Harry, her brother
• Paul Phillips, her husband
• Paulette Brown, her daughter
• Ernestine Brown, her grandmother
• Russell, her first boyfriend
• David McKemster, her second boyfriend
• Sonia Johnson, the owner of a beauty shop
• Miss Ingram, a white woman who sells cosmetics
• The hat woman, a salesperson in a hat store
• Mrs. Burns-Cooper, a woman who hires Maud as a domestic worker
• Santa Claus, an employee at a department store

The Story:

Sensitive, intelligent, and discerning, Maud Martha Brown is a member of a solid family, but she competes with her sister Helen, who is prettier and more attractive than Maud, according to the standards of their family and of society. Maud is African American, and in Chicago she discovers the complexities and cruelties of racism in not only her relationships with whites but also her connections with other blacks.

Maud has dark skin, and African Americans who are lighter-skinned receive preferential treatment from others, even though Maud’s loyalty and intelligence deserve recognition as well. Maud’s central philosophy is that the common and ordinary features of daily life are beautiful, too, and should be cherished. The dandelion, for example, is common and simple, but it is also radiant and beautiful.

For the young and observant Maud, death and the responses of people to illness and death are impressive. Maud and her siblings visit their grandmother, Ernestine Brown, in the hospital, and to Maud, Grandmother Brown, whose bed is equipped with sideboards to prevent her from falling out of bed, seems to be lying in a coffin. People who visit her ask foolish and predictable questions, and she can only gasp in response. The children return home. Their father receives a phone call, informing him of grandmother’s death.

Later, Maud’s uncle Tim dies, leading Maud to recall his daily personal habits and some memorable moments. Seeing her uncle in the coffin, Maud vainly thinks of her own death and how she wants to be laid in her coffin to reveal her most favorable profile. This silly vanity is counterbalanced by Maud’s observation that life is like a book in the hands of Jesus, but before death, people fail to see that the answers to life’s questions are all listed at the back of the book.

As Maud matures, courtship becomes an important part of her life. Her first boyfriend, Russell, is attractive but insubstantial. David McKemster, her second boyfriend, is dedicated to the styles of the university. Though he is from a modest home and does menial jobs to make his way, he longs for refinement, education, and tasteful possessions.

Maud’s third boyfriend is Paul Phillips. She is thoroughly attracted to him and aims to marry him, but she has some doubts about his full attraction to her—perhaps he would prefer a woman of lighter complexion. Their courtship becomes serious, and they make plans for an apartment and decide on furnishings. Though both would like to have a fine apartment, their limited resources permit them to get only a kitchenette apartment, one with roaches, thin walls that allow the sounds of neighbors to be heard, and prevailing odors of sweat and the result of bodily functions. Despite these shortcomings, the apartment becomes their home.

Like all young couples, Maud and Paul have their moments of pleasure and frustration. One night, they go to the World Playhouse and enjoy a film, feeling conspicuous as the only African Americans in the theater. Paul later accepts an invitation from the Foxy Cats Club to attend a ball, and Paul and Maud attend in high dress. Maud enjoys the gala event, but when Paul dances with another woman, Maud becomes decidedly jealous.

Despite these difficulties, Paul and Maud conceive a child, and Maud gives birth in the apartment. Paul frantically tries to get a doctor, but events proceed too quickly, and Maud, with the help of her neighbors, gives birth. When the doctor arrives and affirms that the newborn girl is in good health, Maud’s mother and Paul are bewildered. Maud feels fine and is thankful for her kind neighbors.

Maud’s neighbors at Gappington Arms, the apartment building, reveal all the strengths and weaknesses of humans in general. Oberto, a grocer, loves Marie, his sensuous but not always dutiful wife. Eugena Banks, a white woman married to a black man, seeks advice from Maud on pleasing a black man because Eugena fears her judgment in marrying a black man might have been faulty. Particularly inspiring among Maud’s neighbors is Clement Lewy, the second grader who maintains a high spirit and responsible behavior even as his mother works twelve hours as a housemaid. When she comes home, Clement greets her with enthusiasm. In contrast to Clement’s mother, Richard, a truck driver, finally decides to stop coming home. With his wages declining and his tiny apartment offering more disorder than satisfaction, Richard leaves his wife and three children to fend for themselves.

Maud and Paul live in an apartment slightly larger than that of Richard. One day, Maud receives a visit from Binnie, an unpredictable young man who roams the halls. Binnie enters Maud’s apartment and puts his hands on everything, creating a tense mood. Maud is thankful when he leaves. Much more delightful than Binnie are the Whitestripes, whose simple one-room apartment does not limit their affection and concern for each other. Rounding out the list of Maud’s neighbors are Maryginia Washington, a white-haired woman who claims she is a descendant of George Washington, and Josephine Alberta Snow, a graduate of Fisk University, who takes pride in her refinement and has little patience with people who do not share her ideas. In all, the people at Gappington Arms reveal hardships and difficulties in the community, but they also demonstrate resilience, resourcefulness, and intelligence.

Social situations test Maud and reveal her attitudes. In one encounter, Maud meets David, her old boyfriend, and David, though obliged to be courteous, seems to look for a way to make their contact brief. David has two white friends, and he engages them in a conversation loaded with academic references and name dropping. Maud notices every nuance of their adopted style.

Maud visits Sonia Johnson’s beauty shop, where Miss Ingram, a white cosmetics salesperson, utters a racial epithet that startles Maud but draws no reaction from Sonia. After Miss Ingram leaves, Sonia explains to Maud that the racial epithet is taken too seriously by blacks, but Maud, still stunned, cannot comprehend her point.

Paul feels that the people at the club have an authentic style—an appropriate sense of taste—but Maud observes Paul and knowingly thinks to herself that dreams of sophistication are fulfilled for few. The real rule of life, she believes, is that most lives come to nothing at all.

Maud visits a hat shop, where a salesperson tries to conceal her racist attitudes about blacks to make a sale. The woman presumes that blacks have oily, greasy hair, and that they might damage merchandise if they tried on the hats; still, she is ready to offer a discount to complete a sale. Maud, however, senses the undertones of racism and walks out of the shop.

Down to her last scraps of food, Maud accepts a job as a maid for Mrs. Burns-Cooper, but the woman proves to be a harsh taskmaster with an air of arrogant superiority. The woman’s mother-in-law intensifies the supervision of Maud. At the end of the day, Maud walks out, confident that she will not return. Maud’s life is humble, but she is a human being with a husband and child. She does not have to bow down to anyone.

Maud’s own mother, Belva Brown, comes for a visit. At her own apartment, Maud must endure her mother’s inspection. Maud serves gingerbread, and her mother likes it, despite a need for additional cinnamon. Belva chides Maud, reminding her that Paul should do better and provide more than a kitchenette apartment. When Maud learns that Helen, her sister, might marry the family doctor, who is much older than Helen, Maud hears no disapproval from her mother. The conversation is a trial for Maud, but she endures.

Maud soon experiences sharper humiliation. At a department store at Christmastime, Maud urges her shy daughter Paulette to talk to Santa Claus, but Santa, apparently a racist, refuses to show enthusiasm. Maud tries to soothe her child’s feelings and avoid an experience of racial hatred, but Maud, on the inside, is furious about Santa’s failure to embrace her child.

The war is over, and Maud’s brother, Harry, is safely home. Maud is pregnant again. The world seems to renew itself despite the forces of destruction.

Bibliography

Bryant, Jacqueline K., ed. Gwendolyn Brooks’ “Maud Martha”: A Critical Collection. Chicago: Third World Press, 2002. Bryant’s collection of critical essays on Maud Martha offers diverse views of the novel.

Frazier, Valerie. “Domestic Epic Warfare in Maud Martha.” African American Review 39, nos. 1-3 (Spring/Summer, 2005): 133-141. Frazier sees Maud as a woman who is judicious about battling for what she deserves.

Lattin, Patricia H., and Vernon Lattin. “Dual Vision in Gwendolyn Brooks’s Maud Martha.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 25, no. 4 (Summer, 1984): 180-188. Compares Maud Martha to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Richard Wright’s Native Son and finds that Brooks’s account is more delicate and restrained, but still forceful.

Shaw, Harry B. “The War with Beauty.” In A Life Distilled: Gwendolyn Brooks, Her Poetry and Fiction, edited by Maria Mootry and Gary Smith. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987. Shaw analyzes Maud’s examinations of conventional standards of beauty, as detailed in her novels and poetry.

Washington, Mary Helen. “Taming All That Anger Down: Rage and Silence in Gwendolyn Brooks’s Maud Martha.” Massachusetts Review 24, no. 2 (1983): 453-466. Washington unfolds the underlying rage in the seemingly serene personality of Maud Martha.