"It doesn't take a reader long to figure out where Paule Marshall is headed in her ultimately successful new novel, Praisesong for the Widow." - Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times, 1983. Allusions and references Allusions to other works The author makes use of many quotations throughout the text in order to bring to the attention of the reader the way in which Avey Johnson was under the influence of many generations of material. The Woman at the Washington Zoo, by Randall Jarrell "Leroy" by Amiri Baraka from Black Magic Poetry "Little Brown Baby" by Paul Laurence Dunbar A song called "The Big Drum Dance of Carriacou", annotated by Dr. Andrew C. Pearse "Children of the Poor" by Gwendolyn Brooks "I, Too" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes "Runagate Runagate" by Robert Hayden "Romance in the Dark", music and lyrics by Lil Green Lyrics of "Four Women", by Nina Simone "Good Times" by Lucille Clifton "The Creation" by James Weldon Johnson Lyrics from "Jelly Belly Blues", by Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine Allusions to actual history, geography and current science The first scene takes place aboard the Bianca Pride, a cruise ship, somewhere in the Caribbean. The rest of the chronological events of the novel take place on the islands of Grenada and Carriacou. The islands of Grenada and Carriacou that are mentioned in the novel are actual places in the Caribbean. Grenada has a population of 100,000 and English and French patois are spoken there, as the island was discovered by Christopher Columbus, and thereafter colonized by both the French and the British. Carriacou is 16 miles off the coast of Grenada, and has a population of 6,000 people.] The flashbacks during the novel reference Tatem, South Carolina, where Avey's great-aunt Cuney lives. When referring to her married life, Avey is living in Harlem, New York, in a poor, mostly African American neighborhood, and more specifically on Hasley Street in a small apartment. Later, the family moves to a larger home in North White Plains, where Avey lives at the beginning of the novel. The author also alludes to the Jim Crow laws that were in standard practice in the Southern United States from 1876 to around 1965. In "Praisesong for the Widow", Avey and Jerome Johnson are forced to move to the back of the bus in traveling south to South Carolina, and make reference