A set of short stories by
Langston Hughes. It is a
collection of short stories based on what life was like for the
black person in the 1920s.
The most
notable story in the novel is probably a
bittersweet tale "Cora Unashamed," which was recently made into a
TV movie. It's about a black girl named Cora and her struggles through her life in Melton, a small
midwestern town.
She plays
servant to a fairly
prosperous white family. She bears a baby to a white
lover she could never be with, and at the same time, the family she works for, the Studevants, have a baby girl as well. Cora's child
dies of whooping cough and she ends up raising the Studevants child, Jessie, pretty much as her own. Jessie is
ostracized because she isn't too smart and pretty much her only close
relationship is with Cora. When she turns nineteen, she becomes
pregnant to a
disreputable boy she has fallen in love with. Just as it looks like things are about to end well, Jessie's mother takes her to
Kansas City, where she has an
abortion. A month later Jessie too, dies. A cover-up by her family
ensues. In the story's
climax, Cora
exposes the horrific truth to everyone at Jessie's funeral, in a heartwrenching speech about the clandestine abortion. In the end, Cora leaves to live with her somewhat
disfunctional family. There she lives out her days.