Black women's experiences and those of other women of color have never fit the public-private model. Rather than trying to explain why Black women's work and family patterns deviate from the presumed norm, a more fruitful approach is to question the very constructs of work and family. ("Native")Maud Martha Brown had strong ideas about marriage. She decided to conquer the role of wife, despite and because of her personal insecurities and difficulties. Unlike the pink images that enveloped the minds of many traditional (white) women during that period of the 1940s and 1950s, Maud Martha aimed to become a bride under the simplest of conditions. Maud Martha was willing to settle for being good enough to marry, rather than being a woman no man could refuse. Her position in society, her relationships with her family, and her overall existence in society greatly influenced Maud Martha's ideas regarding the male-female union. While still influenced by her previous roles, the final chapters of Gwendolyn Brooks' Maud Martha reveal an undeniably stronger and more mature heroine. Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Gwendolyn Brooks has gained much attention, but not without comparable controversy and criticism (Appiah 313). The Chicago-based author has built a solid reputation in both mainstream and African-American literary circles. However, his most popular works have garnered most of his poet laureate recognition. "No white poet of her quality is so underappreciated, so unforgivably unread. She should be widely appreciated...as one of our most extraordinary poets" ("Voices"). Brooks challenged the existing approach to romance, the fairy-tale nature of the Amer...... middle of paper ......d Giola's Literature Web Site. .Modu, Anaezi and Andrea Walker. All the Man I Need: Black Woman's Loving Expressions on Men They Desire. Newark: Gateway, 1999. 13-14.Parl, You-me, and Galyle Wald. “Native Daughters in the Promised Land: Gender, Race, and the Question of Separate Spheres.” American Literature 70 (3) (1998) October 14, 2000. Tresiddier, Jack. Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Images, Icons, and Emblems. San Francisco: Chronicle, 1997. 120-6.Washington, Mary Helen. “The Darkened Eye Restored: Notes Toward a Literary History of Black Women.” Angelyn Mitchell, ed. Inside the Circle: An Anthology of African American Literature, Criticism from the Present. Durham: Duke, 1994. 442-53.