time” (Davis, 303). Other critics, however, note
that the coincidental ending, which evokes the tra-
ditional American sentimental novel, does have a
moral and that it successfully insists on the need
for self-assertion and demonstrates the inherent
value of race pride. As Deborah McDowell ob-
serves, “On its face, Plum Bunis just another novel
of racial passing” but “to read it simply as such is to
miss the irony and subtlety of its artistic technique.
The novel is a richly-textured and ingeniously-de-
signed narrative.... In this rich tapestry, the pass-
ing plot is just one thread, albeit an important one,
woven into the novel’s over-arching frame, the bil-
dungsroman,or novel of development” (McDowell,
xi). Scholar Kathleen Pfeiffer concludes that “Plum
Bunextends and complicates the analysis of iden-
tity, citizenship, and community life taking place in
the public discourse of the 1920s and therefore
represents a ‘linking up’ of the Harlem Renais-
sance’s concerns with those of American intellec-
tual culture generally” (Pfeiffer, 80).
It is useful to consider Fauset’s Plum Bunin re-
lation to other seminal Harlem Renaissance–era
works that explored passing, such as JAMESWEL-
DON JOHNSON’s AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EX-
COLOUREDMAN(1912, 1927) and NELLALARSEN’s
PASSING(1929), which appeared in the same year
as Fauset’s novel. In Plum Bun,Fauset develops a
meditative bildungsroman that sheds new light on
African-American consciousness, mobility, and self-
presentation.
Bibliography
Fauset, Jessie. Plum Bun.1929, reprint, Boston: Beacon
Press, 1987.
Davis, Thadious M. Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem
Renaissance: A Woman’s Life Unveiled.Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1994.
Jones, Sharon. Rereading the Harlem Renaissance: Race,
Class, and Gender in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset, Zora
Neale Hurston, and Dorothy West.Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 2002.
McDowell, Deborah, ed. Plum Bun: A Novel Without a
Moral.Boston: Pandora Press, 1985.
Pfeiffer, Kathleen. “The Limits of Identity in Jessie
Fauset’s Plum Bun.” Legacy18, no. 1 (2001): 79–93.
Sylvander, Cheryl. Jessie Redmon Fauset, Black American
Writer.Troy, N.Y.: Whitson Pub. Co., 1981.
Wall, Cheryl. Women of the Harlem Renaissance.Bloom-
ington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Plumes: Folk TragedyGeorgia Douglas
Johnson (1927)
A one-act play by GEORGIADOUGLASJOHNSON
that focuses on an impoverished mother’s battle to
save her child and prepare a respectable funeral.
Plumes,which won first place in the 1927 OPPORTU-
NITYliterary contest, is centered on the plight of
Charity Brown, a widow who has suffered the loss of
not only her husband but also one of her two chil-
dren. Her daughter Emmerline, who never appears
on stage, is suffering greatly from a condition that
may warrant a costly but not lifesaving operation.
The play is set in Brown’s modest two-room
cottage. Brown sits there with her friend Tildy, who
offers to help Charity, a hardworking laundress,
complete the white dress that Emmerline has always
wanted. The two women debate delicately about
the length of the hem because it may be used for a
funeral shroud rather than an outfit fit for a celebra-
tory social occasion. Charity laments the high price
of the doctor’s fees and her determination to pro-
vide a respectable service for the last of her family.
She is clearly hurt by the unceremonious arrange-
ments that she had to make for her husband and in-
fant child. The sight of an ornate funeral procession,
complete with plumed horses, ornate floral arrange-
ments, and several carriages for the grieving family
and mourners, strengthens her own resolve to have
plumed horses in her child’s funeral procession.
The conflicting nature of maternal love inten-
sifies throughout the play. Johnson’s protagonist is
a devoted mother, and it is clear that she is devas-
tated by the specter of losing her child. Yet, John-
son complicates the domestic scenario by allowing
her maternal figure to consider her own desires
and the ways in which she will finally achieve
power over her otherwise oppressive circum-
stances. When Tildy reads the coffee grounds in
her friend’s cup, she predicts a large gathering that
suggests a funeral. The doctor’s efforts to charge
Charity $50 for an operation, the very amount
needed to purchase plumes for the mortuary’s
horses, illuminate her daunting resolve to do the
best that she can for her child. The play ends with
Emmerline’s sudden death, an event that prevents
Charity from enduring challenges and harsh criti-
cism for the choice that she makes.
Critic Claudia Tate notes that the play sug-
gests Johnson’s efforts to examine “the inevitabilityPlumes: Folk Tragedy 425