The theme of family has acquired a new sound in the works of African-American writers. In “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, a home does not feel like home. The father instills fear in the child, and the very reality of family relations is called into question. The issue of feminism is also taking on new shades, separating privileged middle-and upper-class white women from African-American women. This is demonstrated in Gwendolyn Brooks ‘ “Kitchenette building,” which contrasts a white country house in an American suburb with mini-kitchens in which black wives and mothers are locked up.
Feminism is not the only social topic that African-American writers raise in their late work. In “An Agony. As Now ” Amiri Baraka addresses the issue of abortion. His poem from the face of an unborn baby who feels the hatred of his mother, but does not yet imagine that he will never see her, plunges the reader into horror. Thus, African-American poets in the post-WWII era raise the themes of a changing social structure: the institute of the family, and the relationship between parents, women, and children.