Linden Hills: Three Perspectiv Essay, Research Paper

Linden Hills: Three Perspectives on the Main Theme

You ain t gotta die to go to the real hell. No?

Uh uh, you just gotta sell that silver mirror God propped up in your soul.

Sell it to who the devil?

Naw, just to the highest bidder, child. The highest bidder (Naylor 1).

In Linden Hills, Gloria Naylor presents the inner conflicts of many distraught and unique characters. Three characters that lead particularly interesting lives are: Rev. Michael Hollis, Willie Mason and Winston Alcott. Reverend Michael Hollis is an affluent preacher who lives and works in Linden Hills. Willie Mason is a young street poet from Putney Wayne, a poor neighborhood bordering Linden Hills. At last there is Winston Alcott, a middle-aged lawyer who desperately tries to live the heterosexual lifestyle and in doing so, he hurts the one person he truly loves. These three characters define the theme/moral of this dystopian novel which shows that success comes with consequences. Linden Hills exhibits a very gloomy side of success for blacks in America, presenting a powerful moral that not only can success be superficial, but, you can lose things most precious in the process, even yourself.

Reverend Hollis identity conflict seems to be the struggle between his personal expectations for him as a preacher, and the expectations of the Mount Sinai Baptist congregation, members of the richest church in Linden Hills. Although his grandmother s church was raggedy and poor, the people in the congregation were filled with the power of God, a feeling that the citizens of Linden Hills have never experienced. While preparing for Mrs. Parker s funeral, Reverend Hollis recalls the reason that he chose to dedicate his life to the church: “What had drawn him was the power that was possible between people; together they created ‘God’– so real and electrifying you could believe that once it was a voice that shook mountains. That was what he had set out to follow. But somehow, somewhere, it was a calling that went wrong” (Naylor 177). Hollis realizes that he went wrong when he accepts his job in Linden Hills. The middle-class people there do not want him to help them create the great voice of God in their congregation. Instead, they are more concerned with his handling of the church s economic matters. He tries to hide his disappointment with his life by numbing his mind with alcohol and nice clothes, but these masks only fool the superficial people in Linden Hills. He cannot hide the truth from himself, even though he has been trying to ever since he came to this wealthy community.

Even though Willie is not playing a role dictated by the pressures of society, he feels uncertain about his future as a street poet. As he gets older, he does odd jobs to pay his rent, and he gives poetry readings with Lester at local coffeehouses and bookstores. Willie seems satisfied with this lifestyle for now, but he is disturbed when he thinks about his future: “So Willie gained the respect of Wayne Avenue because he was a ‘deep’ dude. But it was getting toward the end of the year and the icy winds had driven Willie s audience into their separate homes. He was now forced to talk to himself, and his reflections disturbed him. He was twenty years old and the last job he had he worked side by side with a twelve year old who came in after school. Would that be his fate at thirty and forty? With jobs like that, he saw himself frozen in time, never becoming a man, just a very gray-haired boy. He d think about Linden Hills and all that it offered, and wonder if perhaps there might have been another way” (Naylor 29-30). Willie feels that if he continues to live as a street poet, spending his time reading at coffeehouses and doing odd jobs to get by, he will never become successful. He considers the opportunities of life in Linden Hills as an alternative lifestyle and he is enticed by the chance to have a stable future, a home and a career. During his journey through Linden Hills with his friend Lester Tilson (a resident of Linden Hills), he learns that in order to live such a life, it is necessary to trade in his happiness and most precious dreams. Fortunately, this bargain with the Devil is one that Willie is not going to make.

If it s not the life you really want David turned away from the living-room window- remember I offered you another. (Naylor 78).

Winston Alcott s life in Linden Hills is the most supportive of the novel s theme. His life is a total lie. Winston s previous lifestyle with his partner David made him happy. He sacrifices his eight year relationship with David to assimilate into the Linden Hills culture. Winston, with the help of Luther Nedeed, feels he has to lead a straight life to be successful and this makes David furious, he just does not understand how Winston could beytray him. Winston s most shocking choice is to get married to Cassandra. Have you enough backbone for once in your life to accept responsibility for what you really want. Not your father, not your law firm you, Winston (Naylor 79). Unfortunately, like Reverend Hollis, Winston also gets sucked in by this terrible whirlwind over Linden Hills.

Linden Hills is a community of assimilation. These people have stripped their lives of it s pieces to sell their soul for a cheap name and estate in this wealthy community. They will live their lives with large houses, big cars, jewels, expensive clothing and unfulfilled dreams. These people have hurt themselves, their families and loved ones all in the name of status and wealth. However, one of the only characters in this story who stayed as true to himself as possible is Willie, the boy who lives on the poor street outside Linden Hills. Willie Mason may have some troubles, but he knows who he is, he knows what he wants (even though it is a struggle to achieve it), and he knows he is not like them. The residents of Linden Hills signed away their souls when they applied for success and high status. All Luther did was given them a community to do it in.

Irresistible power and great wealth may, up to a certain point, give us security as far as men are concerned; but generally, the security of men depends upon the tranquillity of their souls, and their freedom from ambition. –Epicurus