abandons her after she puts up her home for bail money, causing Mattie to lose her home. Lorraine and Theresa are a lesbian couple who appear to suffer as much prejudice and hostility in Brewster place as anywhere else, causing them to relocate. Though Brewster Place represents the end of the line for most of its inhabitants, the women must share its reality and Mattie becomes the mentor and nurturer for many of the women. When Lucielia is lost in mourning, it is Mattie who offers her solace but in a way that tries to restore the dreams of such women who have little left to dream of, ôShe rocked her into her childhood and let her see her murdered dreams. And she rocked her back, back into the womb, to the nadir of her hurt, and they found itùa slight silver splinter, embedded just below the surface of the skin. And Mattie rocked and pulledùand the splinter gave wayàthey left a huge holeàbut Mattie was satisfied. It would heal,ö (Naylor, pp. 103-04).
While Mattie appears to have a gift in saving or healing others, all of the women of Brewster Place struggle to assert themselves and their heritage in the face of injustice, powerlessness, and abuse. As Puhr (p. 518) writes, Naylor focuses on ôconnection rather than separationö by turning ôsilence into speech.ö Through their sharing of the tragedies and injustices they endure, the women of Brewster Place are able to keep body and soul together. This is one of NaylorÆs central themes in The Women of Brewster Place, that with some support and guidance women subjected to such struggles can, indeed, endure. This support and guidance, however, appears far more often to emanate from females rather than males
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