SOURCE: “The Triumph of Naturalism,” in The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition, Bernard W. Bell, University of Massachusetts Press, 1987, pp. 178–183.

In the following excerpt from a chapter entitled “Richard Wright and the Triumph of Naturalism” in his full-length study of the history of the African-American novel, Bell claims that Petry moves beyond the naturalism of Wright and Chester Himes to debunk myths about African-Americans and American culture.

The setting and themes of Ann Petry's novels are a natural outgrowth of her intimacy with the black inner-city life of New York and the white small-town life of New England. Born in 1911 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, Ann Petry grew up in a predominantly white environment and, in the family tradition, graduated in 1934 with a degree in pharmacy from the University of Connecticut. After working in the family drugstores in Old Saybrook and the nearby town of Lyme, she married in...