Essay: The Women of Brewster Street

The Women of Brewster street falls under the different type of stereotypes such as the men are always irresponsible and dominant, the women fall under weakness and vulnerability. The women of Brewster Place each tell of their experience while living in Brewster Place. Each character falls into women stereotypes such as submissive, dependent, emotional, etc.
Mattie portrays as the mother figure in the apartment building. Mattie grew up in shelter lifestyle with her supporting mother and overprotective father. One day Mattie and Butch Fuller went to pick sugar cane. Butch seduces Mattie to the point they had sexual intercourse in the sugar cane field. Later on, Mattie becomes pregnant with Butch’s child., Basil. She left for New York to get away from her frustrated father and started a new life there. She met a woman name Ms. Eva and lived under her roof for 30 years even after Ms. Eva death. Her son became a trouble person and murder someone in a bar. Exchange for bail, Mattie sold her home for collector. After the hearing, Basil left his mother with nothing and disappeared. After moving to Brewster street, she became a mother figure to the women of Brewster Street.
All through Etta life, she searches to find a perfect man that has a mixture of love, stability, and someone with whom to share her life, but unfortunately, all she could find is men that just want a good time for the night. After decades of disappointments, Etta settles into Brewster Place, hoping to find the man that could give her the love she wants. Instead, she finds more disappointment and failure. Eventually, Etta realizes that she has already found the one she was looking for and that is Mattie at least some of what she’s searching for.
At a very young age, Cora Lee was obsessed with baby dolls, and every year she will ask a new one from her family for Christmas. Cora’s amusement with baby dolls became a strange addiction as she grew older which her family tried to stop, but Cora Lee couldn’t help with the addiction and end up with babies of her own. Cora is the mother of several children, which she neglects when they are no longer infants. Cora’s obsession with babies symbolizes a deeper meaning. She craves for someone to need her as much as she needs them, but once they start growing and be more independent in their lives. She can’t control how they feel so she keeps producing to have the same feeling again.
Each character of “The Women of Brewster Street” falls under stereotypes that people inherently believe about African American women. Most of the women have in common in the novel: men can easily seduce the women and use their charm to undress them, men leave them and the women end up taking care of the baby without any child support. Naturally, when a reader reads the novel, they automatically think that commonly happens for African American women to be a sexual pleasure for men and to be lock inside the house and feed the children.
Each character falls under stereotypes that add flair to the novel. If the novel did not have any stereotypical reference in them, it would not be considered noteworthy in my opinion. Why is that? It’s because readers know what kind of stereotypes that the women of Brewster street falls under of and it makes the story more interesting when each character has a similar storyline.