Sadie and Maude presumably are based to have lived during the early forties somewhere around the area of Southside Chicago presumably Bronzeville a neighborhood in that area that was predominately black during the early twentieth century. Black communities during that time period were much different than they are today. During that time there were more nuclear family units, meaning both a mother and , black on black crime was almost nonexistent in comparison with today’s standards, (people were most like too occupied with the white on black crime.LOL) and the civil rights movement was in the planning stages so hope and diligence was truly all people of color had.
Black people were discovering and trying to stay in their place in the still very racist society, being a minority it was difficult to truly fight for their rights being outnumbered and all. That is just what we were to a minority, so for Sadie few they themselves were probably afforded. Unfortunate though because given either path both women decided to venture on there would always exist the negative consequence, and I will go on to explain just what I mean by that.
“Maud went to college and Sadie stayed at home” therefore Gwendolyn could have ended the poem at this point right, Maud obviously did the right thing at least by today’s standards, we could just access from those two lines that because Maud sought out further education and Sadie did not Maud led the successful and fulfilling life while Sadie most likely ended up failure, sponging off her parents, running about, having children out of wedlock, working at some fast-food joints, basically fulfilling the role as a true disgrace to not only herself but black society in general. Well not so fast, because regardless of Sadie’s decision to not pursue higher education she chose to live her life to her on ideals and standards and did so unapologetically, and not only did she not go to
