She knew her white fellow New Englanders at close hand, in short, and brought an insider's experience to her rendition of their lives. In Country Place , Petry probes beneath the surface of the stereotypical serenity of small-town New England life, exposing in the process the racial and ethnic animosity directed against blacks, Jews, the Irish, and the Portuguese. Her critique of the hypocrisy of New England life is even more sharply expressed in The Narrows , a complex novel about a forbidden love affair that crosses racial and class boundaries. Black No More was a wild and spirited attack on the myths of racial superiority and white supremacy, and Langston Hughes, whose 1934 collection of short stories, The Ways of White Folks , was a biting, trenchant critique of contemporary attitudes of white Americans towards their black fellow citizens. But Louella Brown's spirit, her music, and her laughter shape the action of the story.
Race clearly pervades every level of action here and is central to the story's resolution.
Like her literary predecessors, however, Petry imagines a world in which racial thinking gives way to a recognition of our common humanity. She therefore participates in an essentially optimistic literary tradition that celebrates human possibilities.