Gwendolyn Brooks: An Analysis of the Author and Two of Her Works
...sas. Her family moved to their permanent residence on Champlin Avenue in Chicago when Brooks was four. Despite her extensive travels and periods in some of the major universities of the country, she has remained associated with the city’s South Side. Shortly after move (at the age of seven), Gwendolyn began rhyming and by age thirteen she had her first poem published. A powerful voice of black consciousness and social protest in America, Brooks is among the most distinguished black poets of the twentieth century. Since the beginning, it was known that Gwendolyn would turn heads. She won her first major award in 1943 at the Midwestern Writers’ Conference. In addition to winning two Guggenhein Awards, the National Endowment for the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award, and being appointed as Poet Laureate of Illinois, Brooks was the first African-American to both with the Pulitzer Prize (1949) and to be appointed to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1976). Also, she has received more than fifty honorary doctorates form colleges and universities. Gwendolyn changed her style as well as her viewpoint in mid career. When she first published in 1945, she held the position of a literary integrationists. In her last two poetical collections, however, she abandoned that attitude and went “black” (Wright 1). This turning point came after attending a writers’ conference at Fisk University. She decided to become more involved in the Black Arts movement. After a lifetime of proficient verse writing, Gwendolyn Brooks died of cancer in December 2000. She was 83 years old. Brooks’ writings were influenced by life experiences and personal influences. The themes she uses in her works are the basis for this analysis. The first of the tow themes to be analyzed is family. Brooks was not born into a world of luxury. What her strong family unit lacked in material wealth was made bearable by the wealth of warm interpersonal relationships. When she writes ...