Dorothy West's Views on Social Stratification of African Americans in the United States of America

Mr. Kukatlapalli Subbarayudu Research Scholar PG & Research Department of English, Presidency College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

This paper examines Dorothy West’s views on the social stratification of African Americans in the United States as portrayed in her novels and short stories, particularly The Wedding, The Living Is Easy, and her collected short stories. The paper traces how race, class, and gender serve as prominent categories affecting all aspects of African American life. Through analysis of West’s works and their historical context — including the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and the abolitionist tradition — the paper demonstrates the steady social and economic progress of African Americans while acknowledging the persistent challenges of racial discrimination and the color line.

Keywords: Dorothy West, African American literature, social stratification, Harlem Renaissance, race, class, gender, The Wedding

Introduction

African Americans settled in the United States are stratified according to their economic and social status. However, social stratification is not an isolated phenomenon; rather it is a result of a series of events, incidents, protests and struggle. According to Dorothy West, race, gender and class are prominent categories of experience that affect all aspects of human life and are even the basis for many social problems.

Racial and Social Bonds

In her novel The Wedding, the character Gram, born white and having biological relationship with black people, prays for her great-granddaughter’s marriage to a white man as an escape from “the burden of living colored.” There is racial discrimination in the United States, but one cannot separate the black from the white in building relationships among them due to the stay of the black for three centuries, interracial marriages, and biological bonds. Dorothy West projected these issues in her works.

Economic and Educational Progress

There is a steady social and economic progress in the lives of African Americans. Most have almost reached equal status with whites in all aspects. They used education as a weapon to come out of poverty and poor social living. In The Wedding, the character Hannibal became the first Negro president of his college, and his son-in-law Clark was a famous doctor.

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, focused on improved social and cultural standards of African Americans. The movement helped develop relations between black and white writers. Dorothy West met great literary persons at Harlem at an early age and departed as the last leaf of Harlem Renaissance. Her magazine The New Challenge was the first publication to bring together black art and politics. Former President John Kennedy’s wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis met Dorothy West to encourage her to finish The Wedding.

The Color Line

West focused on the concept of the color line. In The Wedding, the character Shelby Coles, born light-skinned and looking almost like a white girl, becomes lost as a child, and nobody can recognize her as a colored girl. West tried to convince whites through her writings that the color line between them and blacks is insignificant and should be eradicated.

The Role of the Church

The church gives moral support to African Americans. They have always supported their religious institutions, donating a portion of their income to the church, which remains a major social center in all Negro communities. The church helped construct biological relationships between the black and the white through interracial marriages.

Works Cited

  • West, Dorothy. The Richer, The Poorer: Stories, Sketches, and Reminiscences. London: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, 1995.
  • West, Dorothy. The Living Is Easy. New York: Arno Press, 1969.
  • West, Dorothy. The Last Leaf of Harlem. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008.
  • West, Dorothy. The Wedding. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, 1995.
  • Jones, Sharon L. Reading the Harlem Renaissance: Race, Class, and Gender in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset, Zora Neale Hurston, and Dorothy West. London: Greenwood Press, 2002.
  • Banks, Jr., William H. Beloved Harlem: A Literary Tribute to Black America’s Most Famous Neighborhood. New York: Harlem Moon, 2005.
  • Johnson, Charles and Patricia Smith. Africans in America: America’s Journey through Slavery. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1998.
  • Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks on a Road. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1942.