Assimilation and Estrangement in the works of Gwendolyn Brooks

Abstract

This Research article aims to study the themes of assimilation and estrangement in the works of Gwendolyn Brooks. She is the female poet who has been most responsive to changes in the black community, particularly in the community’s vision of itself. The first African American to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; she was considered one of America’s most distinguished poets well before the age of fifty.   

The African American identity is something simultaneously internal and presented by oneself, and external and perceived by others. Alienation, estrangement seem to be a major theme in the works of Gwendolyn Brooks as it reflects the lifestyle and culture of the then existing Afro-Americans, especially the womenfolk.