İNGİLİZ/AMERİKAN EDEBİYATI I

She was born in Old Saybrook in Connecticut just above her father’s drugstore. The place where she was born and grew up was predominantly middle class white society.

Ann Petry first faced radical prejudice when she was attending Sunday school at the age of seven. The continuous radical and racist experiences and oppressions made her upset as well as feelings of outrage.

Many black people were slaughtered through hanging or burning by the white racist groups, one of which was Ku Klux Klan. The group is a white supremacist organization and they are the supporters of white nationalism and racial segregation.

Mr. Johnson lives with his wife Mae and they both work the night shift in a labor plant. Johnson has health problems with his legs that he suffers pain.

In the beginning of the story Mae and Johnson argues about going to work because it is Friday the thirteenth.

There are three main incidents that Johnson seriously takes as a racist action and at the end he loses his control. The first test is when he is talking to his boss. The second test that Johnson goes through is the one at the restaurant where whe goes to get a hot cup of coffee. The last test is the one which he fails. He comes home mad after his day. He starts listening to Mae’s complaining about him sitting on her work pants.

the geographical setting is Harlem, New York and United States of America.

After work she comes home before Johnson and when he is in she complains about few things. Johnson cannot bear the complaints and the jokes that Mae makes.

In her work “The Narrows” she described a love affair between an African American man and white woman. Such love affairs could not be even a dream in the United States in those years.

Johnson’s being victim in his idea of racist society is the main theme of the story.