Gloria Naylor's Linden Hills

Gloria Naylor's Linden Hills is a novel that tells the story of a black neighborhood built and supported by the manipulative and mysterious Nedeed family. The first Luther Nedeed to arrive from the South bought the apparently worthless land and established his undertaker's business there. Each succeeding generation of Nedeeds consisted of one son who was the exact image of his father and bore the same first name. The first Nedeeds had hoped to defy the white world and the white God by establishing the worth of the black people who lived in Linden Hills. They devoted all their efforts to building up the neighborhood and ensuring that as it improved, and the land became extremely valuable, it remained in the hands of African Americans. But the current Luther Nedeed had become convinced that there was nothing that black people could do to truly change their lot. The people in Linden Hills were, in his estimation, merely white people disguised. As he saw it, "Linden Hills wasn't black; it was successful" (17). It is the denial of blackness in pursuit of whiteness that is the illusion that the people in Linden Hills are encouraged to pursue. By cutting themselves off from their past, Naylor argues, they are making the present and future empty.

The self-hatred of this Nedeed motivated his desire to create a neighborhood which would continue to look like a black success story but would actually ensure, through the careful selection of tenants for the thousand-year leases

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without a stable life and a family" (75). This is the kind of family that Nedeed needs to further his plans; one that has been forced and stands no chance of success. Through his blackmail Nedeed has succeeded in forcing Winston Alcott to marry and by doing so Alcott has abandoned his real self. This abandonment of self, whether it is distance from one's past or denial of one's sexuality is precisely the sort of action that deprives the individual of his or her soul. Once Alcott has gone through with his wedding he knows that David will no longer have anything to do with him. At the wedding, when Willie begins to observe him, Alcott has the appearance of one of the lost souls in Dante's hell. As Willie notes, "that guy looks like someone just punched him in the stomach and his lips sorta froze up that way" (84). David eventually repudiates Alcott by reciting a Whitman poem that Willie recognizes, but not before Alcott's treachery has been confirmed. His sin in failing to openly acknowledge David earned him a place on Second Crescent Drive. But now Luther Nedeed promotes Alcott to Tupelo Drive, for his "dedication to Linden Hills"--his treachery has earned him a spot in the lowest reaches of hell (87). Section 3, Decemb

Category: Literature - G