Rosaleen was planning to do something she'd never done...register to vote. Only recently had the laws changed that would allow her to vote. Still, the Jim Crow laws were alive and well in the South. Prejudiced whites came up with all kinds of ingenious ways to prevent African Americans from voting. This was the reason that Rosaleen had practiced writing her name so carefully. If she didn't, they could use it as a reason to stop her from voting.
Many Southerns still felt as though the African American was "less than" a white person. Although slavery had died almost 100 years before, the attitude of many white southerners was still that the black people were "less than human." They were treated like chattel, without the same rights and priviledges that the white man took for granted. The sixties were a time when all of this was coming to a head. The Civil Rights Movement was gathering steam.
Brother Gerald's attitude was a typical one for a Southerner. We wouldn't even think he was a Christian today, but his attitude towards the black people was typical of the times. While he wasn't radical in the way that Franklin Posey was, hitting Rosaleen with a flashlight, he still intended to press charges against Rosaleen for "stealing" two paper fans that were probably given to the church. I remember those fans. Insurance companies and funeral homes were two types of businesses that bought these fans as an advertisement and gave them to various churchs. If it had been a white teenage boy, I guarantee that it wouldn't have even been mentioned. In fact, if a white person had asked for the fans, they would have been gladly given.
I hate to say it, but the attitude of the policeman was typical of that time also. The South was still kicking and screaming when it came to the black population. If they couldn't own the African Americans, they could at least treat them as they would anything of little or no worth to them. Everyone in the South was not this way, but the prevailing opinion was along those lines.
Lily was white, and some might wonder why her feelings weren't the tainted ones that even her father seemed to share. The answer that is clear to me is that the only person living that loved her was Rosaleen, a black woman. No one else had ever shown her anything but meaness and mistreatment. How could she let the only person in the world that loved her be beaten to death? She had to do something. The fact that T-Ray told Lily that her mother hadn't cared for her compounded her desire to leave. She says that she had the first religious experience in her life when she heard a voice tell her, "Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open." This is a reference to her leaving open the jar that she'd captured the bees in, so that they could get out and fly away. It was a sign that she her jail door had been left open and she could fly away. So, at 14 years old she devises a plan and she and Rosaleen escape. She says that she went from 14 to 40 because of what had happened to Rosaleen.
So, Lily sneaks out and pretends to be the wife of the policeman Avery Gaston, and draws the guard away from Rosaleen's hospital door. Then, she helps Rosaleen into clothes and they make their escape.
Lily decides to go to Tiburon, South Carolina because her mother left the picture of the black Madonna and that was what was written on its back. Even if Lily doesn't realize it yet, she is still searching for her mother. She is a girl who has never had any experience of motherly love and she longs for it. Later she says that it's a big gapping hole in her life that she is trying to fill.
Can I just say that I never realized how "real" of an issue this was until I read this book. I'm talking about the issue of segregation and prejudice. My mom was born in 1964, the same year that this story takes place. I wonder if these problems were still as big as they are in the story when she was growing up. She has never talked about it.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I'd like to throw out there is this: How did Lily get away with pretending to be someone's wife? She was 14 years old! Did they believe her? This is yet another example of how Lily must grow up over night and use her intellect for the benefit of others.
I think that perhaps there were multiple injustices that were righted in this book (or at least addressed in the story)
ReplyDeleteFirst, the injustice of a child growing up without a mother and living with an abusive father.
This was righted when Lily went to live with August and the other women.
Second, is the injustice of the way T.Ray treated Rosaleen (generally speaking: the treatment of all African Americans).
This was righted by their escape.
Third is the injustice of inter-racial relationships.
This was righted in the end by her relationship with Zach beginning to blossom.
Perhaps this book is more than just a story, perhaps it's a charge to right the social injustices of this world, because, as Christians, it's our responsibility to come to the aid of the fatherless (or motherless in this case) and to defend the widow, orphaned, or downtrodden.