Jimoh,, A Yemisi, PhD

English

ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst

University of Massachusetts AmherstScholarWorks@UMass AmherstAfro-American Studies Faculty Publication Series Afro-American Studies2002Ann Petry: The NarrowsA Yemisi Jimoh, PhDUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst, jimoh@afroam.umass.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/afroam_faculty_pubsPart of the African American Studies Commons, American Literature Commons, and the OtherAmerican Studies CommonsThis is brought to you for free and open access by the Afro-American Studies at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion inAfro-American Studies Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, pleasecontact scholarworks@library.umass.edu.Recommended CitationJimoh,, A Yemisi PhD, "Ann Petry: The Narrows" (2002). Ann Petry: The Narrows. 71.Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/afroam_faculty_pubs/714/14/12 Literary Encyclopedia: Printer Format1/9www.litencyc.com/php/printer_format_works.php?UID=57The NarrowsSend to printerPetry, Ann(1953)A Yemisi Jimoh (University of Massachusetts Amherst)Genre: Novel. Country: United States.In 1953, when Houghton Mifflin published AnnLane Petry's third and last novel, The Narrows,the United States was well into the Cold War,stalled in the Korean conflict, and movingtoward the early events in the organized CivilRights Movement. The uneasy domestic calmof the early 1950s, following the turbulent1940s, would not last long. For Petry, this tenseand uncertain social and political environmentseemed apt for her story of love across culturallines in Monmouth, a medium-sized town onthe River Wye in Connecticut.In this novel, which includes vividly drawncharacters, a number of sub-plots as well as4/14/12 Literary Encyclopedia: Printer Format2/9www.litencyc.com/php/printer_format_works.php?UID=57several interesting motifs, Petry focuses on thevarying classes found among AfricanAmericans in segregated neighborhoods suchas the Narrows and on the dynamics that existbetween the dominant society and thesemarginalized neighborhoods. Additionally, oneof Petry's understated motifs in this novel, andthroughout her oeuvre, is gender ambiguity.In The Narrows, as in Petry's two earliernovels and in her short stories, she presentscharacters, especially female characters, thattransgress the boundaries of their sociallyconstructed gender roles, thus questioning theefficacy of such categories.It is 1952 in Monmouth, and the “horriblecolor” of the red neon sign announcing BillHod's The Last Chance bar is an obviousindicator of the changes that have occurred inthis town. Its beautiful rivers and trees seem tobe at odds with the hard, uninviting brickbuildings, the neon sign, and the modernlifestyle that are now found in Monmouth.Through Abbie Crunch, Petry presents a typicalAfrican American Race Woman – a strivingmiddle-class black woman with genteelaspirations. Abbie, who is seventy in 1952, andher son Link, who is twenty-six, live at NumberSix Dumble Street in a “fine old house” with a4/14/12 Literary Encyclopedia: Printer Format3/9www.litencyc.com/php/printer_format_works.php?UID=57brass knocker at the front door. There is a largemaple tree – inexplicably referred to as TheHangman – in her front yard; and herbackyard is neatly trimmed. Abbie lives in apart of Monmouth that residents of the townrefer to as “The Narrows”, “Eye of the Needle”,“The Bottom”, “Little Harlem”, “Dark Town”,or any variety of names that might have cometo a person's mind in the 1950s to describesegregated northern and southernneighborhoods where black people lived.Abbie rents an upstairs apartment in her houseto Malcolm Powther, a well-dressed man withprecise speech. Mrs. Crunch is impressed whenshe learns that he is the butler at TreadwayHouse. The wealthy and influential Treadwaysown the Treadway Munitions Company.Malcolm's wife, Mamie, and their threechildren, however, do not impress Abbie at all,and she cannot understand why MalcolmPowther, with his refined appearance, wouldhave married this woman. Mamie sings Bluestunes, which Abbie believes are rough-sounding and monotonous. Malcolm's wifealso is having an affair with Bill Hod, the ownerof The Last Chance bar, and Mrs. Powtheroften leaves her youngest child, J.C.unattended.4/14/12 Literary Encyclopedia: Printer Format4/9www.litencyc.com/php/printer_format_works.php?UID=57Abbie Crunch soon decides that Mamie SmithPowther—this character’s name being Petry’splayful allusion to an actual blues singer—“simply did not belong” in the Crunch home.Yet, Abbie also realizes that in all honesty“Mamie Powther was Dumble Street”. As aRace Woman, Abbie Crunch has a steadfastinterest in uplifting the image of black people.She takes the view that black people “had to becleaner, smarter, thriftier, more ambitiousthan white people.” Through her illustration ofAbbie Crunch's over-reaching attitude, Petrylocates this character firmly within the conceptof double-consciousness, as Abbie clearlyaccepts the dominant society's construction ofwhat constitutes a proper lifestyle as well as itsviews on how to position black people withinthat lifestyle. Abbie takes seriously her role asthe social and moral barometer in TheNarrows. She is a President and only blackmember of the local Women's ChurchTemperance Union (WCTU). She is also awidow, as her husband Theodore Crunch “TheMajor” died of a stroke after she refused to callfor help because she thought he was drunk.Before her husband's death, Abbie and TheMajor found that they were unable to havechildren, so they adopted Lincoln Williams.4/14/12 Literary Encyclopedia: Printer Format5/9www.litencyc.com/php/printer_format_works.php?UID=57Link's relationship with Abbie, however, istenuous because she made him “feel as thoughhe were carrying The Race around with him allthe time” and because for three monthsfollowing her husband's death, when her sonwas eight years of age, she completely forgotabout him. During this fragile point in his life,having essentially lost both parents again,Link's only means of survival was Abbie'snemesis Bill Hod, owner of The Last Chancebar directly across the street from the Crunch'shouse. Link lives with Bill Hod until Abbieremembers that the child exists. Then Abbieand her friend F. K. Jackson, owner of F. K.Jackson's Funeral Home, retrieve Link fromBill Hod.Ann Lane Petry's main theme in The Narrows,prohibited love, centers on Link Williams andCamilla, a wealthy white heiress. Petry's closeattention to Links upbringing and to therelationships he had with the parental figuresin his life demonstrates how the complex, andrealistically flawed, nurturing he received inThe Narrows has helped shape his character.Yet some of the peculiar moments of hischildhood in Monmouth, especially those thatdemonstrate the deep chasm between him andthe white residents in the town, add to his4/14/12 Literary Encyclopedia: Printer Format6/9www.litencyc.com/php/printer_format_works.php?UID=57character as well.Petry provides a telling incident in whichLink's primary school teacher could notunderstand why he, then ten years of age,would not want to play Sambo in the minstrelshow she had planned as a fundraiser. Thisevent along with the subsequent treatment thathe receives from his resentful teacherprecipitates Link's staying away from schoolfor one week until Abbie inadvertently finds outthat he has been absent. Two years after thistroubling incident at school, Abbie allows Linkto return to The Last Chance to live with BillHod and his cook, Weak Knees. With Bill as his“uncle”, Link finds that his situation at schoolimproves. Bill Hod and Weak Knees transformLink. They “re-educate him on the subject ofrace. [...] After a month of living with [them] hefelt fine. He was no longer ashamed of the colorof his skin.” Lincoln Williams earns a degree inhistory from Dartmouth before enlisting in theNavy. Link says that he wants to write a historyof slavery, but he returns to Monmouth andworks in Bill Hod's Last Chance bar.When Petry constructs a chance meeting andultimately love between the Dartmoutheducated black man Lincoln Williams and4/14/12 Literary Encyclopedia: Printer Format7/9www.litencyc.com/php/printer_format_works.php?UID=57Camilla Treadway Sheffield, a member of themost powerful family in or near Monmouth,this writer – at a time when racial separationwas at its height in the United States – exposesthe volatility that results from transgressions ofthe boundaries that were set around race, class,and privilege. She also demonstrates howunacknowledged and perhaps even unknownracialized attitudes find their way even intolove. Camilla, who disguises her identity fromLink by calling herself Camilo Williams, is aspoiled woman who is accustomed to havingwhatever she wants. When Link ends theirrelationship after finding out about herdeception and after thinking about theracialized implications that may haveinfluenced Camilla's motives, he finds that shetakes revenge on him by making use of theconvenient ruse of sexual assault, thusprovoking racial tensions in Monmouth. Shelater regrets her actions, but the damagealready is done. Camilla's spurious chargesanimate her mother, Mrs. John EdwardTreadway, who, in an attempt to revive herfamily's social standing and forestall scandalshould the truth be known, manipulates thelocal paper so that crimes in The Narrows aresensationalized. Peter Bullock, owner ofthe Monmouth Chronicle rationalizes his4/14/12 Literary Encyclopedia: Printer Format8/9www.litencyc.com/php/printer_format_works.php?UID=57succumbing to Mrs. Treadway's threat of lostadvertising by saying, “So what difference doesit make [...] whether we here in Monmouthhunt down Negroes or whether we hunt downCommunists.”Finally, through Malcolm Powther's betrayal ofLink to Mrs Treadway, she and Camilla'shusband, William P. “Bunny” Sheffield “huntdown” and kidnap Camilla's lover and thenattempt to cover-up their murder of him. It is,however, the truth of the love between Link andCamilla, rather than a false a confession torape, that finally condemns Link to death.Except for its ending, which some see ascontrived, Petry's The Narrows is arguably hermost incisive and powerful novel. Her maintheme is forbidden love across ethnic lines, yetAnn Lane Petry's resolute desire to remainfaithful to human complexity provides her leastrecognized novel with one of the most covetedliterary prizes – timelessness.A Yemisi Jimoh (University of MassachusettsAmherst)First published 25 October 2002Citation: Jimoh, A Yemisi. "The Narrows". The Literary4/14/12 Literary Encyclopedia: Printer Format9/9www.litencyc.com/php/printer_format_works.php?UID=57Encyclopedia. 25 October 2002.[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=57, accessed 14 April 2012.]This article is copyright to ©The Literary Encyclopedia.For information on making internet links to this page andelectronic or print reproduction, please read Linking andReproducing.All entries, data and software copyright © The LiteraryDictionary Company LimitedISSN 1747-678X

Ann Petry: The Narrows

Jimoh,, A Yęmisi, PhD

Jimoh,, A Yemisi

https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=afroam_faculty_pubs

Ann Petry: The Narrows

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst

ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst

ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst