34 pages • 1 hour read
Gwendolyn BrooksMaud Martha
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1953A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “description of Maud Martha”
Maud Martha Brown is seven years old at the start of the novel. She likes candy, books, music, sunsets from her porch, and dandelions. Unlike other flowers, dandelions are demure in their prettiness and everydayness, and Maud is comforted by the beauty of such a common flower. Above all else, Maud desires to be cherished like her sister Helen.
Chapter 2 Summary: “spring landscape: detail”
The novel jumps to a scene of children rushing to school as the morning bell is about to ring. The children are described in colorful detail as “bits of blue, white, yellow, green, purple, brown, black” running through a setting of gray, decaying buildings and “little plots of dirt and scanty grass” (5). The streets and playground quickly empty as the students rush to class before the morning bell.
Chapter 3 Summary: “love and gorillas”
Time and setting shift again, as this chapter opens with Maud waking from a dream. She reflects on the details of the dream, the vivid colors, and the question of whether the gorilla in the dream escapes. She gets out of bed to visit the bathroom and catches a glimpse of her parents snuggled close together. The scene is comforting in its contrast to the fight her parents had the evening before. Mama is “terribly sweet and good to her” when there’s a fight between parents, and Maud enjoys when her mother takes the children for walks through the neighborhood to relieve tension during fights, but ultimately Maud is “very very happy that their quarrel was over and that they would once again be nice” (10).
Chapter 4 Summary: “death of Grandmother”
Maud visits her dying Gramma Ernestine with her mother Belva and brother Harry. Maud realizes that she’s never seen anyone die and notes, “I’m seeing somebody die now” (13). She takes in the death scene around her, observing the stench in the room and turning her attention to other patients to avoid looking at her grandmother. Maud struggles to articulate the horror of the scene as she leaves the hospital with her mother; Harry has been completely silent throughout the visit. When they arrive home, they learn that Gramma Ernestine has passed away.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
The novel’s early chapters introduce Maud Martha. The opening chapter offers details about the simple things seven-year-old Maud likes, but Maud’s self-comparison to a dandelion reveals a deeply reflective and romantic young girl. Maud admires dandelions not only for their demure prettiness but for their ordinariness, “for in that latter quality she thought she saw a picture of herself” (2). The theme of everydayness is established early in the novel and directly associated with Maud’s character. The use of lowercase type for chapter titles further emphasizes the commonness of each vignette.
The style of the novel quickly takes readers from one vignette to the next. There are no transitions between chapters, creating a sense of disorientation as the reader reestablishes a sense of time and setting with each chapter. When Maud wakes from a dream in Chapter 3, the reader is just as disoriented as Maud. The novel’s structure contributes to this effect as the reader encounters the sudden introduction of a gorilla and has to piece together that Maud is reflecting on an interrupted dream.
The death of Maud’s grandmother is significant in the novel’s plot progression because it parallels the end of Maud’s childhood. Until this point, Maud is a young girl with simple cares. Following this chapter of death and grief, Maud faces heavier life topics such as race and romance.
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By Gwendolyn Brooks
