Cora Lee Character Analysis

As a girl, Cora Lee is obsessed with baby dolls. She is awestruck when her mother informs her that she can make a real baby herself by having sex. As a sophomore in high school, she gets pregnant and drops out of school. Years later, she is living in a dirty, dilapidated apartment in Brewster Place with seven children, including a new baby. She has had a few long-term romantic partners over the years, one of whom beat her; now she restricts herself to one-night stands with men who leave her apartment before her children get up in the morning. Cora loves and carefully attends to the needs of her new baby, but she neglects her older children, who act out and refuse to attend school in consequence. When Kiswana knocks on Cora Lee’s door while recruiting for the Brewster Place tenants’ association, Kiswana quickly realizes that Cora Lee’s children are cooped-up and frustrated. She pressures Cora Lee to bring the entire family to an all-Black production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream organized by her boyfriend Abshu. Cora Lee and her children find the play unexpectedly moving, and Cora Lee resolves to be a better, more involved mother and get involved in her children’s education. Yet after she tucks her children into bed that night, she shoves down her memory of the play and has another one-night stand, suggesting that she may continue having new babies and neglecting her older children.