Abstract
This thesis examines male characters in five primary texts: The Women of Brewster Place, Linden Hills, Mama Day, Bailey’s Café, and The Men of Brewster Place, engaging theorists like bell hooks, James King, and Lawrence Hogue in a discussion of black masculinity. It explores Naylor’s map of how black men could theoretically go from a place of bondage to a place of freedom. Through the characters in her works, Naylor moves away from males who embrace a masculine ideal, from the essentialist roles of Western society, toward a polycentric ideal. Naylor believes a space should exist where all men, regardless of the lifestyle/gender definition they choose, are considered equal and where each man has the ability to define who he is. She presents a continuum on which her black male characters go from the confining roles of white society to a place where they can determine their own identities.
In this progression, time and place also play a critical role in the journey from imprisonment to liberation. Naylor’s male characters’ mindsets about masculinity reflect the setting they allow to influence them most, whether that is the South, the city, or a place that exists metaphysically, a place that presently does not exist. As the setting for her male characters change, and the mindsets that they are influenced by change, from those places that are historical sites of bondage for black people to those that offer liberation, Naylor’s male characters experience more freedom. Though this does not prove true for all her male characters and exceptions do occur, one can see the connection Naylor makes between setting and freedom. Through her male characters, Naylor highlights a possible road to solving what she perceives as the problem of black male identity.
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