44 pages • 1 hour read
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
Ayana Mathis’s 2012 novel The Twelve Tribes of Hattie follows the lives of the Shepherds, a black family struggling to succeed in Philadelphia between 1925 and 1980. At the center of the family is their inscrutable matriarch, Hattie, who remains an enigma to her children even as they grow into adulthood. With only two exceptions, each of the book’s chapters delves into the mind of one of Hattie’s children (and one granddaughter) over a span of several decades, and their collective perspectives bring into focus Hattie’s hopes and sufferings. The novel was an Oprah Book Club selection in 2012.
Plot Summary
In the first chapter, set in 1925, Hattie remembers fleeing Georgia at the age of 15 after white men killed her father and commandeered his prosperous blacksmith shop. Two years after settling in Philadelphia, Hattie marries August Shepherd. She gives birth to twins she names Philadelphia and Jubilee, but they die of pneumonia before their first birthday. The loss of her twins extinguishes Hattie’s belief in the North as the “Promised Land” for African Americans. Embittered by the harshness of her life, Hattie dispenses with hope and raises her subsequent children without tenderness or mercy.
In 1948 Floyd, Hattie’s 22-year-old son, tours the South, playing his trumpet.
Unlock all 44 pages of this Study Guide
Plus, gain access to 8,850+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: