The Narrows (Petry novel)

The epigraph in The Narrows from Henry V suggests that Shakespeare’s history play is the inspiration for the fictional town name of Monmouth, Connecticut: “...

I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the ’orld, I warrant you sall find, in the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, look you, is both alike.

There is a river in Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth: it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but ’tis all one, ’tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both.” (Fluellen, King Henry V, Act IV, vii) “The Narrows” itself, as a neighborhood within Monmouth, is also called by the names “Eye of the Needle, The Bottom, Little Harlem, Dark Town, Niggertown—because Negroes had replaced those earlier immigrants, the Irish, the Italians and the Poles.”[2] Abbie's home, one of the primary settings of the novel, is located on Dumble Street.

The main action begins when Link “rescues” Camilla Treadway Sheffield (who gives her name as “Camilo Williams”) from the advances of Cat Jimmie, a disabled veteran.

Link is deeply upset by Camilo's paying for their outings, which include theatre shows, extravagant dinners, and expensive hotels.

Link finds out, when Bill Hod leaves an old newspaper around for him to see, that Camilo is really Camilla Treadway Sheffield; in other words, not only is she white, but she is also rich and married.

Stud.”[5] Meanwhile, Malcolm Powther and the other staff at the Treadway estate begin to suspect that Camilla has another lover when Al, the chauffeur, repeatedly sees her coming home at late hours of the morning.

In an attempt to salvage Camilla's reputation, Captain Sheffield and Mrs. Treadway kidnap Link and try to force him to sign a confession.

Weak and Bill become mentors for Link, who lives in the back of The Last Chance for three months until Abbie demands he returns home.

Bill teaches Link a Black is beautiful style of thinking, which differs from Abbie's internalized racial shame.

The summer Link is 16, he is eager for a sexual experience but is worked too hard by Bill Hod to court girls his age.

The Narrows is generally considered to be of high literary merit[7] Though financially successful, it did not receive the same level of critical attention as Petry's earlier novel, The Street.

However, compared to her other works, "The Narrows shows a greater narrative skill than the first (The Street) and a tighter, sounder thematic structure than the second (Country Place).

Critic Ivan Taylor says, "Almost every one of them is a living vibrant character that one has met at some time or other on Dixwell Avenue in Hew Haven or 116 Street in New York or on the thousand and one Catfish Rows of Negro America.

According to critic Sybil Weir, "The Narrows belongs to the tradition of domestic feminism and realism created primarily by New England women writers.

"[9] The Narrows is often considered to Ralph Ellison's 1952 novel Invisible Man, which highlights similar themes of human nature regardless of race and majorly takes place in the northeast United States.