Plum Bun · Chapters

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Chapter companions for Plum Bun by Jessie Redmon Fauset.

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Chapter 1
Epigraph
The epigraph presents a nursery rhyme about going to market to buy a plum bun and returning home, which serves as a thematic prelude to the novel's exploration of markets—both literal and social—and the transactions of identity and belonging.
Chapter 2
Dedication
The author dedicates the book to her parents, Redmon and Anna Fauset.
Chapter 3
Plum Bun
The chapter follows Angela Murray as she navigates her life in New York, passing as white and exploring her ambitions in art and love. She meets Anthony Cross, a fellow artist, and grapples with her identity, relationships, and the tension between personal freedom and racial loyalty.
Chapter 4
Home
The chapter explores the concept of home through the Murray family's life on Opal Street, highlighting the tension between their comfortable domestic life and the racial realities that shape their existence. Mattie's Saturday excursions with Angela provide a glimpse into the family's navigation of identity and belonging.
Chapter 5
I
Angela Murray wins the John T. Stewart Prize for her painting 'Fourteenth Street Types' and plans to study in France with her classmate Miss Powell, who has won the Nehemiah Sloan Prize. However, the American Committee for the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts revokes Miss Powell's scholarship and passage money because she is Black. Angela, who has been passing as white, is outraged. When reporters come to pressure Miss Powell, Angela impulsively reveals that she too is Black. She then seeks comfort from her sister Jinny and later attends a committee meeting where Anthony Cross, also revealed to be Black, defends Miss Powell's decision to withdraw from the fight.

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Epigraph

Dedication

Plum Bun

Home

I