Terry McMillan’s “It’s Not All Downhill from Here”: black women discharging interpersonal conflicts

Abstract

The research work attempts to study the contemporary African American women’s struggle to discharge their interpersonal conflict with reference to Terry McMillan’s “It’s Not All Downhill From Here”. Conflict is an expression of struggle between two or more interdependent persons who have incompatible goals. Through her works, Terry McMillan voices the life of urban African American middle class women. The Black women of this class are suppressed under various roles and responsibilities especially related to their families that have lots of challenges like addiction, crime, lack of trust and emotional bonding. Lack of any support builds up antagonistic mindsets and develops interpersonal conflicts. They are trying hard to resolve these conflicts and attempting to restart with more focus on exploration of self. The research work analyses the conflict resolution strategies employed by African American women in the novel.

Keywords

• conflict resolution
• african american women
• self
• interpersonal relations