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Mackensie Jackson

Professor Trevitte

Short Fiction Eng-314-01

3 December 2018

The Impact of Men on the Women of Brewster Place and Women’s Lack of Power Within The

Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

“Brewster Place became especially fond of its colored daughters as they milled like

determined spirits among its decay, trying to make it a home” (Naylor 4). The lines within the

first short story of Gloria Naylor’s book The Women of Brewster Place depict the streets of

Brewster Place and its female inhabitants, but the short stories about the specific women living in

Brewster Place is what drives the book to its excellency. The women of Brewster Place include

Mattie Michael (a mother forced to move into Brewster Place because of her son), Etta Mae

Johnson (a woman who has a one-night stand with a preacher), Kiswana Browne (a woman with

a determination to help Brewster Place revitalize itself), Lucielia Louise Turner (a wife who

loses her child in an unfortunate manner), Cora Lee (a woman with an obsession with babies),

and Lorraine and Theresa (a lesbian couple living in Brewster Place). All these women have a

similar experience of being forced to submit to men in a society where men dominate. In these

stories, it is important to show how men use their power over women to get what they want from

them and how the women of Brewster Place are harmed by these actions of men. Also, it is

important to take note of the lack of power women have over the men, but to also recognize the

power women can have when coming together as a community such as can be seen in Naylor’s

stories.
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First, Naylor’s book does not represent any one woman, but her second short story

“Mattie Michael” represents one of the strongest women portrayed in the book, but who is also

subjected to men’s dominance over women. S. Mohanasundari understands the struggles the

women face in Brewster Place shown by Naylor in her stories:

She depicts the female experience of oppression and exploitation in a male dominated

Black society. She provides women with new directions to overcome the constraints of

the personal and the political and evolve their own modes of resistance. Women are not

able to exercise autonomy either over their lives or their bodies since they are controlled

and determined for them by men (45).

Mattie Michael serves as an illicit example of this oppression of women and has her body

controlled by more than one man within that story, that being a man in town she is familiar with

as being a player named Butch Fuller and Mattie’s father, Sam Michael. From the beginning of

the story, Butch Fuller flirts with Mattie and eventually convinces her to have intercourse with

him, leading to her pregnancy. When Mattie’s father ask her who the father is, Mattie refuses to

answer because she knows her father is likely to kill Butch if he finds out, more importantly, her

father would not understand how she could not seem to refuse to have sex in that moment

because it seemed all too consuming and also she does not believe that the baby belongs to Butch

and so he really does not deserve the title of a father. That’s why, instead of telling the truth,

Mattie does not say anything and her father viciously beats her for not telling him. The scene is

descriptive and does not hold back in the brutality the father shows towards his toward when it

says that, “Mattie’s body contracted in a painful spasm each time the stick smashed down on her

legs and back and she curled into a tight knot, trying to protect her stomach. He would repeat

this question with each blow from the stick, and her continued silence caused the blows to come
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faster and harder” (Naylor 23). Mattie’s father is a blatant oppressor here in the story as can be

seen in his physically abusive actions towards his towards even when she is caring a child in her

stomach. The other male character, Butch, is not any better because he uses Mattie for his sexual

pleasure and then basically ignores her afterwards. It’s truthful that Mattie did want to have

intercourse with Butch, but now that she’s pregnant, all the responsibility is falling on here and

that shows how Butch’s action or lack thereof is creating a more difficult life for Mattie in the

story by her having to go away to raise her child by herself.

Second, is the short story “Etta Mae Johnson” depicts a woman who’s body is also

controlled by men and has to deal with men’s dominance over her.

“Etta Mae Johnson, an old friend of Mattie's southern childhood, comes to Brewster Place and

Mattie to make a final attempt at finding a man who will stay with and support her. She is fearful

that the charms which have stood her in good stead, allowing her to seduce men when she

needed them, will now fail her” (Branzburg 117).

In fact, Etta Mae’s charms do not fail her as she gets the Reverend riled up about her. Etta Mae

is looking to settle down with somebody like Reverend Woods who can make her look good in

the public because of his money and his occupation. Unfortunately, Reverend Woods is not

looking for anything serious with Etta Mae as is seen by their one-night stand that Etta Mae only

figures out after she gets into his car with him. Yet another character of Naylor’s is used for a

man’s sexual gratification and is thus disposed of when that gratification is met. Naylor does not

leave it in this saddening way and provides hope and strength for the character of Etta Mae when

she realizes her friend Mattie, the same Mattie from the previous story, is seen waiting for Etta

Mae to get back home. It shows the strength women can have in numbers even with men’s

domination over them.

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Third, the short story entitled “Kiswana Browne” details the story of a black woman who

goes from living in the upper-class society of Linden Hills to the ghetto of Brewster Place and

shows, even though small in size, the struggle for domination she has with her boyfriend. This

story is very different in his depiction of male domination. Honestly, Kiswana seems to be the

dominate one within the relationship based off of her activist work for the community of

Brewster Place and her strong beliefs about society. The issue of domination is only brought up

when Kiswana’s mother comes to visit her unexpectedly and rushes to hide and trace of evidence

that she has a man living with her. In this way, Kiswana is made to feel ashamed of her sexual

desires as a woman and can be seen in her hiding any traces of a man in her house from her

mother’s view. This is one small, yet significant detail within one of Naylor’s because it still

shows how women are made to feel ashamed about their womanhood and sexuality and are seen

as women who are just “giving in” to men instead of caring the belief that women are making

men “give in” to their wants and desires.

Fourth, one of the more tragic stories within The Women of Brewster Place can be seen in

the short story “Lucielia Louise Turner” that portrays a character who suffers the loss of two

children as a result of catering to her husband, Eugene. Judith Branzberg takes note of Naylor’s

way of depicting mother’s in her stories:

She makes it clear that the socio-economic reality of black lives creates black men's

tendency to leave their lovers and children. She knows that black children need special

training to survive in a society which holds blacks in disdain. But Naylor is also certain

that black men are capable of taking more responsibility than they do, and that mothers of

any color will try to do their best for their children (116).
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Here, Branzburg is stating that because black men find trouble getting decent jobs because of the

color of their skin, they tend to run away from their relationships and children of whom they can

not create a better life for. Furthermore, she examines Naylor’s need to create female character’s

with a devout love for their children. This can be seen in the character of Lucielia who almost

never leaves her child out of her sight because she fears something will happen to her. This need

comes from the abortion she has because she does not want to be left behind or hated by her

husband, Eugene. Unfortunately, that does not stop Eugene from trying to leave Lucielia and

while Lucielia is pleading with Eugene not to leave her, her daughter, Serena, puts her hand in a

socket and dies. Lucielia’s husband forcing her to get an abortion and then trying to leave her

anyways shows that commonality between black men in the past to want to leave their families if

they can not provide for them, but also shows Eugene’s lack of care for his Lucielia, who will

not be able to support her child without him. In this way, Eugene has power not only in Lucielia

getting an abortion, but in her livelihood and thus forces her to beg him to stay in order to

provide for her child who undoubtedly ends up dying while she tries to get him to stay with her.

To add on to this, Lucielia has a complex yet loving relationship with her friend Mattie

Michael who also lives on Brewster Place and helps Lucielia heal after the loss of her unborn

child. Lucielia seems to be lost over the death of her child and is nothing but skin and bones, but

Mattie comes into the room after the funeral and not only metaphorically brings Lucielia

between the sun and time, but baths Lucielia in what Naylor describes as a “baptism” in order to

heal Lucielia’s wounds over the loss of her child and to help Lucielia be able to create a new life

for herself (Naylor 102-103). Puhr comments on Mattie’s actions by stating, “Mattie the healer

extracts the splinter, rooted in slavery and sexual oppression, helping Lucielia to enter a new”

(520). Through Mattie’s actions towards Lucielia, Mattie is able to save Lucielia from her pain,
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but Mattie also helps Lucielia forgive Eugene for the pain he has inflicted upon Lucielia for

partially causing the death of her child. In this way, Lucielia is able to enter a new life where she

is not being repressed by any man, such as Eugene, and she can start her life completely over and

one day possibly have a child again.

Fifth, the short story “Cora Lee” is a black female character obsessed with babies who

loses interest in them once they have grown out of infancy. What’s important about this short

story is the men presented who are not helpful to Cora Lee unless it be as “shadows-who come in

the night and showed her the thing that felt good in the dark, and often left before the child

awakened” (Naylor 113). Here is another example of black men leaving children for the women

to take care of. In addition to this, the men are only there to have sex with Cora Lee and Cora

Lee seems to only want them so that she can have more babies. Maybe Cora Lee is showing

some domination in her relationship with men because she chooses to have sex with them so that

she can get something back in return, but that does not justify the men leaving Cora Lee after

their sexual gratification has been met. This is just another case of a woman being used by a

man in Naylor’s story and this point of male domination is furthered in the story when Cora Lee

talks about the physical abuse she suffered from Sammy and Maybelline’s father “A pot of burnt

rice would mean a fractured jaw, or a wet bathroom floor a loose tooth” (Naylor 113). Just like

Mattie, Cora Lee suffers abuse from a man in the story and further shows men’s need to

dominate women in the society these women are living in on Brewster Place and in this time

period, in general.

Sixth, the short story “The Two” features two main characters named Lorraine and

Theresa who are in a lesbian relationship with one another, but the main scene that focuses on

male domination within this short story is the scene where Lorraine is raped by C.C. Baker and
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his gang. This entire sequence depicts male’s exerting their force over women in the form of

Lorraine’s rape. Laura Tanner takes note of Naylor’s ability be able to “pin the reader” to the

character in order for them to comprehend as much as possible the brutality felt by Lorraine

during this scene (580). Tanner also mentions the reasoning behind Lorraine’s silence except for

the continued word “Please” as a way of showing how Lorraine’s voice has been taken by force

by her violators (576). Men are constantly taking or receiving and never really giving anything

to women in the stories. True, Cora Lee receives babies, but the men run off from her because

they do not want to have to take responsibility for the children, leaving Cora Lee to pick up the

pieces from their sexual experience together. Lorraine is the prime example of men taking from

women. Lorraine is a lesbian, therefore, these men violating her so aggressively shows not only

the men’s lack of care for women’s beliefs or their souls as human beings, but also the men don’t

realize that they are taking or at least don’t care that they are pushing women into a corner that

does not allow them to have the freedoms or opportunities to rise above in the world the way that

men can as can be seen in many of the short stories presented by Naylor in The Women of

Brewster Place. The only hope that may be able to be seen within this short story is idea of

symbolism that the lesbian couple invokes “both of women’s pain and women’s unity by the end

of the novel” (Branzburg 117). This idea does not accumulate to the horrendous event depicted

in the “The Two”, but it’s an important point presented throughout the course of Naylor’s book

and serves as a way to fight that male domination seen within the book. Something important to

note within the story is the name itself and how the women are seen as so insignificant not only

because they are women, but because they are lesbian women who do no want to bring sexual

gratification to men or bear children for them means they are essentially useless in this male
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dominated society, therefore their names are not the title of the short story like in the majority of

the short stories presented in the book.

Seventh, the second to last short story presented in Naylor’s book is called “The Block

Party” and features many of the women from the previous short stories mentioned in the book.

What eclipses is a scene where the women are having a fundraiser created by Kiswana to raise

funds for Brewster Place, but is dismantled with the idea of rain. As the story continues, the

women start taking the bricks from the wall of Brewster Place out in order to get rid of. The

majority of the women presented in the story can be seen working together to get rid of the brick

wall. Branzburg compares this scene to Lorraine’s rape by stating that, “The rape is a male

response, the tearing down the wall of Mattie's dream a female one” (118). This scene is, in fact,

a dream, but still shows how strong women can be when working in the community of Brewster

Place together. In addition to this, the fact that this action by the women is all a dream by Mattie

shows that women can’t escape men or the reality of their submissive nature in society and that’s

why it’s presented as a dream (Matus 63). This shows the sad reality that women live in within

Brewster Place and within society as a whole.

On the other hand, this short story is able to present a counterargument to all of the male

domination presented in the short stories of Naylor’s book. In the block party, Mattie’s dream

can not only serve as showing the submissive nature of women, but can also represent a way of

liberalizing the women displayed in the story (S. Mohanasundari 46). This liberation is

essentially not real, but can still provide hope to the reader for the women and their future. The

women’s strength can also be, in Branzburg’s opinion, “In each case, the women accept

responsibility for their parts in their relationships with men, and can then continue their lives. By

taking responsibility for mistakes, pain, and love, and in choosing each other, the women accept
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that they can, at least to some extent, control their live” (118). This idea that the women take

responsibility for their actions and roles in their relationships is true for the women, especially in

the case with Mattie and Cora Lee, who both take responsibility when they become pregnant.

Mohanasundari, depicts these women as being both a “struggler and survivor” because these

women face many obstacles brought to them because of men and because of society’s opinions

on women, but they are able to negate this through their sense of community with one another

(Mohanasundari 47). Kathleen Puhr goes as far as to believe that these women serve as

“healers” for one another, Mattie being an example of this when she helps Lucielia get over the

loss of her child (Puhr 519-520). The idea of these women, especially Mattie, as “healers” for

one another represents the positive aspect of the book and helps to push away and fight back on

some of that male domination shown within the short stories.

In conclusion, The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor is a book filled with short

stories that listlessly shows the ways in which men dominate women in the stories and how this

effects the women’s lives. The second short story presented in the book that is the first short

story to take not of a specific woman’s experiences is that of Mattie Michael who has to deal

with the lack of control she feels over her father’s physical abuse of her and Butch’s advances

towards her. “Etta Mae Johnson” is the third short story and readers witness another example of

a male character, as soon through Reverend Woods, who uses Etta Mae for his sexual

gratification, and even though Etta Mae wants a future with Reverend Woods, the Reverend only

wants to have sex with her and nothing more. This is a prime example of a man taking from a

woman and a woman not receiving anything in turn and is another way of showing how men

take control over women in the book. The fourth short story, “Kiswana Browne” was a weaker

point of Naylor in her depiction of male domination over women as seen when Kiswana is meant
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to feel ashamed for having a man who lives with her because she is woman and stereotypically

should not be seen as so “promiscuous”, but is not something that would be questioned if a man

were to live with a woman. In the fifth short story, “Lucielia Louise Turner” is taken control of

by her husband, Eugene who forces her to get an abortion and who plays a part in her losing her

child. The sixth short story is “Cora Lee” in which men get sexual gratification from Cora Lee,

but leave her when she becomes pregnant with their children. This is another example of men

taking from women, but not giving anything back except for Cora Lee wanting the baby. “The

Two” is the seventh short story is a brutally honest depiction of rape experienced by the

character Lorraine that shows how men physically try to dominate women, as depicted in the

short story. The eight short story presented in the book is “The Block Party” and does a decent

job of showing how women can not run away from the submissive ideals society places upon

them, but does allow for the creation of a counterargument and a hope for the women’s futures.

Although it can be seen that the women of Brewster Place are continually stepped on by men,

there is also room for women to rise above that male dominated opinion through the women’s

strength in numbers by serving as ‘healer’s’ for one another in order to take down the walls of

Brewster Place and the walls that keep the belief that the world is and should be a male

dominated place.
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Works Cited

Branzburg, Judith V. “Seven Women and a Wall.” Callaloo, no. 21, 1984, pp. 116–119. JSTOR.

Web. Accessed 3 Dec 2018.

Matus, Jill L. “Dream, Deferral, and Closure in The Women of Brewster Place.” Black American

Literature Forum, vol. 24, no. 1, 1990, pp. 49–64. JSTOR. Web. Accessed 3 Dec 2018.

Mohanasundari, S. "Gender Issues in Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place." Journal

of Humanities and Social Sciences, pp. 45-47. Iosrjournals.org. Web. Accessed 3 Dec

2018.

Naylor, Gloria. The Women of Brewster Place. New York, Penguin Books, 1983.

Puhr, Kathleen M. “Healers in Gloria Naylor's Fiction.” Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 40,

no. 4, 1994, pp. 518–527. JSTOR. Web. 1994. Accessed 3 Dec 2018.

Tanner, Laura E. “Reading Rape: Sanctuary and The Women of Brewster Place.” American

Literature, vol. 62, no. 4, 1990, pp. 559–582. JSTOR. Web. 1990. Accessed 3 Dec 2018.