Like One of the Family by Alice Childress

First published: 1956

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of work: Early 1950’s

Locale: New York, New York

Principal Characters:

• Mildred Johnson, a thirty-two-year-old domestic worker
• Marge, Mildred’s best friend
• Mrs. M., a well-meaning but obtuse employer
• Mrs. C., an employer who tells her guests that Mildred is “like one of the family”
• Mrs. L., Mildred’s favorite employer

The Novel

Although it is classified as a novel, Like One of the Family does not have either the movement of plot or the change in character usually associated with that genre. Instead, Alice Childress’s work is a series of monologues, each of which is independent, even though all involve the same speaker and the same listener. This format can be explained by the fact that these monologues originally appeared separately, some of them in the newspaper Freedom, where they were called “Conversations from Life,” and others in the Baltimore Afro-American, under the heading “Here’s Mildred.” Sixty-two of the monologues were assembled for publication in book form, but there seems to have been no principle governing the order in which they were printed, other than an effort to vary the subject of discussion from one chapter to the next.

While it is not structured conventionally, Like One of the Family has its own kind of unity, achieved primarily through the use of a single voice. In each chapter, Mildred Johnson relates her experiences to Marge, her downstairs neighbor in a Harlem apartment building. Almost all these conversations take place either in Mildred’s three-room apartment or in Marge’s. Whatever the location, the pattern is almost always the same. One of the women stops in at the end of the workday or in the evening, and the two sit down, usually in the kitchen, make a pot of coffee, and visit.

In the chapter “All About My Job,” Mildred explains why this friendship is so important to her. She is black and she is a domestic worker. These two facts alone, Mildred says, “ought to be enough reason for anybody to need a friend.” She continues, “I do believe I’d lose my mind if I had to come home after a day of hard work, rasslin’ ’round in other folks’ kitchens if I did not have a friend to talk to when I got here.” Because the two friends are the same age and do the same job, and because both were reared in the South, Marge can understand what Mildred is talking about.

With Marge, Mildred can be her own person, as she can never be with her white employers. Even when she rebukes them, Mildred maintains a logical, restrained manner, in sharp contrast to the passion and anger she feels free to reveal to Marge. Although she occasionally annoys her friend and although she sometimes has to apologize for her more extravagant comments, Mildred does not feel the need to watch her words when she talks to Marge. With a white employer, Mildred must be aware of the fact that if she shows the extent of her anger, she will certainly be dismissed. Thus the action of the novel concerns not merely the incidents that Mildred describes but also the ebb and flow of Mildred’s emotional life, which follows a pattern of repression and release.

At the end of Like One of the Family, Mildred’s character and her situation are the same as they were at the beginning of the book. She is still working by the day, because in that way she can be more independent; when she investigates a weekly position with a single employer, she discovers that such a job would be little better than slavery. She still hopes that the civil rights battle will soon be won; however, she does not expect her own life to become very different as a result. The one change Mildred anticipates is a personal one. Throughout the novel, she has been analyzing the men she meets. In the final chapter, Mildred tells Marge that she has decided to marry Eddie, a salesman whose paychecks are uncertain but whose kindness and decency make him, in her eyes, a much better husband than many so-called good catches.

The Characters

Like One of the Family is dominated by the character of Mildred Johnson, not just because she is the only person whose thoughts are presented firsthand but, more important, because of the quality of her mind. It is this which produces the suspense in a book that has no real plot; one is drawn from paragraph to paragraph, page to page, simply to find out what Mildred will say next. For example, in one of the few chapters set outside of the apartment building, “Ridin’ the Bus,” Mildred surprises Marge by insisting on riding in the back of the bus, as African Americans had so often been forced to do. In the observations that follow, Mildred produces a brilliant discussion of freedom as the principle that enables both African Americans and whites to ride where they like. She then gives a definition of an ideal society as one in which people not only sit where they like but also choose their seats without even noticing the race of others. In every chapter, there are similar illustrations of Mildred’s intellectual abilities, her skill in analyzing and synthesizing, her genius at seeing the profound implications of the simplest action.

Mildred’s friend Marge is also essential to the novel. It is Marge, the accepting and trustworthy listener, who permits Mildred to speak with perfect freedom, whether she is indulging in fantasy, such as her dream of a Christmas of real peace, or exploring controversial subjects, such as the idea of a union for domestic workers, complete with demands, strikes, and pickets. Moreover, although she is never quoted, Marge does come to life through Mildred’s comments and reactions. For example, readers learn that Marge is plump but has beautiful hands, that she gets depressed after an exhausting day of domestic work, that she throws herself enthusiastically into cooking meals and planning outings, and that she frequently dissolves in laughter, especially when Mildred is acting out one of her adventures.

The other characters in Like One of the Family are all presented in a straightforward fashion, with Mildred serving as omniscient author, reporting their words and their gestures, while delivering her own perceptive analyses of their underlying motives. In “More Blessed to Give . . .,” for example, she describes how a child attending a party was reluctant to accept a box of candy and then, when it was pressed upon her, insisted on presenting it to one of the hostesses. Mildred explains the child’s conduct to the other adult visitors, and later to Marge, by stating that everyone has a need to give, as well as to receive. Because Childress has established Mildred as a reliable authority, such character analyses are clearly meant to be taken at face value. Throughout the novel, then, it is Mildred who functions as the authorial voice, defining and evaluating character.

Critical Context

Until recently, Alice Childress’s reputation depended primarily on her achievements in the theater. With Gold Through the Trees (pr. 1952) and Trouble in Mind (pr. 1955), Childress became the first black woman to be recognized as a major American playwright. Therefore, critical discussions concentrated on those plays and on later works such as Moms: A Praise Play for a Black Comedienne (pr. 1987). Comments about her fiction often were limited to discussion of A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich (1973), which has even been mistakenly referred to as Childress’s first novel; by the 1970’s, Like One of the Family had long been out of print and was difficult to obtain. It was not until the reissue of Like One of the Family in 1986 that this novel, originally published thirty years before, began to receive the attention it deserved.

Like One of the Family is now seen by critics as a work of inherent value and of historical importance. In Mildred, critics have noted, Childress created a kind of independent, assertive African American woman who in the 1950’s was new to fiction. Moreover, by drawing upon her own experiences as a domestic worker, in Like One of the Family Childress presented the first accurate description of the lives of a large group of women who had long been ignored.

Admittedly, Like One of the Family has flaws, such as the sermon-like quality of the less dramatic chapters and the lack of a structural plan for the book as a whole. It has also been argued that Mildred’s high success rate in converting her employers is implausible and that the novel is thus somewhat less realistic than it might have been.

Despite such minor shortcomings, however, Like One of the Family is now considered an outstanding work. Despite the book’s often comic tone, Childress’s opinions, delivered through Mildred, have a solid philosophical foundation. Furthermore, Mildred herself is more than merely an interesting and sympathetic character; she represents the “many others,” the heroic black women, unnamed in history books, who have for centuries transmitted a sense of self-worth to later generations.

Bibliography

Austin, Gayle. “Alice Childress: Black Woman Playwright as Feminist Critic.” Southern Quarterly 25 (Spring, 1987): 52-62. Sees elements of feminist criticism in Childress’ dramatic work—for example, in her refusal to accept traditional polarities, her insistence on the need for social justice, and her refutation of the stereotypical images of black women in literature written by men.

Childress, Alice. “Alice Childress: A Pioneering Spirit.” Interview by Elizabeth Brown-Guillory. SAGE: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women 4 (Spring, 1987): 66-68. Childress discusses the childhood influences that directed her toward a literary career, particularly those of her grandmother and one of her teachers. Also traces her theatrical career.

Childress, Alice. “Knowing the Human Condition.” In Black American Literature and Humanism, edited by R. Baxter Miller. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1981. A paper delivered by Childress at a 1978 conference. Argues that much criticism of film, drama, and fiction is deficient because the critics themselves do not understand “the human condition.” For African American writers, Childress argues, this problem is particularly troubling, since white critics typically look not for realism but for what they consider appropriate images.

Gibbs, Sandra E. “Black Novels Reissued.” New Directions for Women 16 (July, 1987): 17. A review written after Like One of the Family was reissued, expressing delight that the work would once again be available. Finds Mildred’s comments as applicable in the 1980’s as they were in the 1950’s. States that Mildred represents those real people in the black community who are “common-sense” advisers and who transmit “a strong sense of self and Black American history.”

Harris, Trudier. From Mammies to Militants: Domestics in Black American Literature. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982. A thorough, well-written book that places Like One of the Family and other novels in a sociological and literary context. Two introductory chapters provide an excellent background for later discussions of specific works. In “Beyond the Uniform,” Mildred is seen as rejecting the limitations generally placed on black domestic workers and, similarly, as challenging the assumptions inherent in stereotypical language. Concludes that Mildred represents a bridge between maids “who espouse freedom of mind” and “the revolutionary maids who exhibit freedom of action.”

Harris, Trudier. “I Wish I Was a Poet’: The Character as Artist in Alice Childress’s Like One of the Family.” Black American Literature Forum 14 (Spring, 1980): 24-30. Argues that Childress combines traditional literary devices with “audience attention, participation, and response” from the black oral tradition. Notes that Mildred is a skilled artist, always conscious not only of Marge but also of the black domestic servants who are responding to her words.

Killens, John O. “The Literary Genius of Alice Childress.” In Black Women Writers, 1950-1980: A Critical Evaluation, edited by Mari Evans. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1983. Observes that throughout her works, Childress uses humor and satire to expose hypocrisy and notes that she is dedicated to the causes of African Americans. Killens admires Childress for maintaining her artistic integrity despite pressures from “the white racist publishing establishment.”

Troutman-Robinson, Denise. “The Elements of Call and Response in Alice Childress’ Like One of the Family.” MAWA Review 4 (June, 1989): 18-21. Discusses parallels between Childress’ book and the collaborative relationship between preacher and congregation in black evangelical churches. Concludes that, like so many other African American writers, Childress has been strongly influenced by the oral tradition.