52 pages • 1 hour read
Mary MonroeMrs. Wiggins
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1, Chapters 9-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “1917-1936”
Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary
Rather than critique Scotty, Maggie drives away and returns home to take a hot bath. The next morning, Hubert scolds her about not driving if she’s had too much to drink, saying, that if she crashed, “We’d never be able to live down a scandal like that” (50). Hubert commiserates with her disappointment and suggests trying to meet a man somewhere near Mobile. On Friday, Maggie dresses up and goes out, and she meets Randolph. She tells him her name is Louise and she is separating from her husband. She says she lives with her parents on the other side of town because she doesn’t make enough money to afford her own place. Randolph says he is lonely after his wife left him, and he’s already fathered seven children, which Maggie finds promising. The back room of the saloon seems to be occupied by other couples, so Maggie agrees to go to Randolph’s house with him.
Part 1, Chapter 10 Summary
Randolph seems like a nice man, and he has a well-kept house. He teaches Sunday school and helps out neighborhood children. Maggie wonders why his wife left him but has already decided what he’ll do. Randolph takes her to his bedroom and is enthusiastic about sex, while Maggie goes through motions she hopes he will like. Randolph suggests taking her on a date, and Maggie makes excuses. He asks her to stay and talk a bit, which she does, but then she returns home to tell Hubert about her evening. She refrains from telling him Randolph’s name or that she came close to enjoying their encounter. Instead, she hopes seeing Randolph will result in a baby as quickly as possible.
Part 1, Chapter 11 Summary
Maggie visits Randolph several times. She also visits her parents, who are pleased that Maggie’s reputation in town is improving. Maggie’s mother takes in ironing, and they joke about how they’d be out of jobs if white women started doing their housework. Maggie’s mother is pleased that a local woman wants to invite Maggie to join her quit-making group, but her father, who is drinking, says Maggie doesn’t need friends; she only needs to keep Hubert happy. Her father is suspicious because when her parents came to visit Maggie, they found Hubert alone. Her neighbors have also reported seeing her going off alone, “all dressed up like you was going to a honky-tonk” (65). Her mother warns Maggie to stay on the straight and narrow, as she puts it. Maggie drives to Randolph’s place. He wants to spend more time with her, including visiting her home, and Maggie nervously hopes she will get pregnant soon.
Part 1, Chapter 12 Summary
Maggie is glad when she gets her period because now she won’t have to worry about who fathered a child of hers. She continues to see Randolph, even going on occasional dates with him. She feels guilty when Randolph’s friends praise him, and when he invites her to move in.
When Maggie is sick one morning and bleeds lightly, she at first thinks her period is coming. Hubert is concerned, and Maggie worries she might have a sexually transmitted disease. She visits the clinic for Black patients and is delighted to learn she’s pregnant. She goes to the turpentine mill looking for Hubert, then the funeral home. When Hubert rushes home and learns the news, they cry and hug. That month, President Woodrow Wilson declares war on Germany, and Maggie worries that Hubert might be drafted.
Part 1, Chapter 13 Summary
It is now 1918. Maggie doesn’t visit Randolph again, and she feels slightly guilty about this. She gives birth to her son, Claude, two days after her 18th birthday, and now feels her life is complete. Hubert and his parents are ecstatic about the baby and help take care of him. Maggie is nervous about leaving Claude with her parents, a concern removed when her father has a seizure and dies unexpectedly. Then her mother dies of the 1918 influenza causing a global pandemic. Uncle Roscoe passes away and leaves Hubert the funeral home and his house. Hubert continues to work part-time at the turpentine mill, and Maggie takes on housekeeping and laundry jobs.
Their new neighbor, Mason Burris, has a reputation for being mean. One day, he shoots out the window of a neighboring house because the neighbors are playing loud music. His wife, Maggie says, “was one of the sweetest ladies I knew” (79). With Claude to delight her, Maggie can cope with the many changes and losses.
Part 1, Chapter 14 Summary
It is 1920. More friends and neighbors die of the influenza epidemic, but Maggie learns from the tragedy to appreciate her life all the more. She dotes on Claude and is apart from him as little as possible, to the point where Hubert warns her against spoiling him. He’s worried too much of Maggie’s loving attention will make the boy “funny” and speculates that his own mother’s affection turned him into a “sissy” (83). Maggie believes showing lots of love is natural and is not concerned that her actions will influence Claude’s sexual orientation.
Jessie has a son, Earl. The midwife stands up for Jessie when her husband, Orville, comes home and demands Jessie get out of bed and make his dinner. Orville has a bad heart and takes to his bed for days when he is upset. Maggie pays the midwife when Orville claims he doesn’t have money. Orville is rude to Maggie and Jessie both and complains about Earl.
Part 1, Chapter 15 Summary
It is 1923. Maggie is a doting mother to Claude, though she does lightly spank him when he misbehaves, for instance when he disrespects their neighbor, Sister Goode. Maggie loves showing him off to others and is proud and grateful for what a healthy child he is, especially when Jessie’s son displays developmental delays and is diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. Orville blames Jessie and reveals he has another son by a different woman, then threatens to hurt Jessie when she protests. Maggie offers to bring Orville gumbo to placate him; all her family and friends love Maggie’s gumbo. Jessie reflects that Earl is not likely to ever get married. Maggie too declares that she will always be the most important woman in Claude’s life.
Part 1, Chapters 9-15 Analysis
The second half of Part 1 presents a successful completion of Maggie’s quest to have a child. Her happiness at having Claude is an emotional high point for the narrative, and these chapters establish Maggie’s deep emotional attachment to her son, which will become her motivation for subsequent actions throughout the novel. The joy she takes in her good fortunes provides balance and ironic contrast to Part 2 when troubles descend.
Maggie’s guilt over taking sexual advantage of a man without gaining his consent or participation in her pregnancy shows her moral conflict. While in the preceding section, she did not yet consider the unknowing man’s feelings, in this section, she expresses guilt at stopping all communication and visits with Randolph without any explanation—showing her internal conflict. She is generally a kind person, as demonstrated by her affection for Hubert and Jessie, who becomes a good friend. However, Maggie also shows herself to be opportunistic in pursuit of her agenda, in addition to having a strong sense of self-preservation, highlighting Monroe’s continued thematic exploration of The Dynamics of Intimacy, Abuse, and Secrets. This plants the seeds for her actions later. Claude is a joy worth the price and deceit Maggie paid to secure him, answering her wish to give and receive affection to a child. This need intensifies with the loss of her parents, which leaves Claude the last of Maggie’s blood relations and helps explain the intensity of her attachment to him.
This section also highlights different displays of masculinity in Maggie’s world through the contrast of the behavior of the different men. While Scotty is only interested in his sexual satisfaction, Randolph shows interest in getting to know Maggie as a person. He also exhibits affection for his children. Hubert, too, is courteous and attentive to Maggie, but he shares his concerns that his mother’s intense nurturing of him when he was a child may have impacted his sexual orientation. Orville is the opposite kind of man: aggressive, selfish, and prioritizing his own needs and desires over those of his family. He is manipulative and abusive toward Jessie, sexually unfaithful, and cruel to Earl, who has intellectual disabilities. Mason Burris is a further example of an aggressive man, which confirms how different Hubert and Randolph are from the type of men Maggie is used to being around. By contrasting the abusive or selfish behavior of men like Orville and Scotty with the respectful and attentive nature of men like Randolph and Hubert, Monroe continues to develop The Dynamics of Intimacy, Abuse, and Secrets.
This section also explores motherhood by contrasting Jessie’s experience with Maggie’s. Jessie’s struggle to get pregnant in some ways mirrors Maggie’s, but Earl’s strenuous birth and subsequent difficulties are a contrast to Maggie’s ease with Claude. While Jessie’s son requires extra care due to his intellectual disabilities and corresponding needs, Maggie spends as much time as she can with Claude because she relishes their relationship. Claude enhances Maggie’s reputation further; she takes him with her on errands in town because she enjoys how people compliment and admire him. Maggie isn’t concerned that her intensive mothering will have any ill effects, as Hubert expressed worry about, demonstrating the value that devoted motherhood has among this community and how her role as a mother positively contributes to The Value of Appearances and Reputation. Over and above her enjoyment of her son, however, Maggie wants to teach him acceptable guidelines of behavior, thus hoping to ensure he will maintain the appearances and reputation that will serve him as an adult and reflect well on her motherly conduct and family’s social standing.
World War I, which the US entered in April 1917 and ended with an armistice in November 1918, has little impact on Maggie’s life, unlike the influenza epidemic of 1918-1920, which took the lives of several family members and friends. These references help anchor the book in its historical setting but also depict the Black community within Lexington as somewhat isolated. Monroe illustrates the impacts of segregation in the depictions of health care; the hospital staffed by white doctors and nurses only tends to white patients, while Black patients attend a clinic which, Maggie suggests, offers a different quality of care and represents Justice and Fair Treatment in a Divided Society. The midwife attending Jessie’s birth also illustrates the way those within the Black community tend to one another, filling critical gaps left due to anti-Black racism and discrimination in the Jim Crow-era South. Uncle Roscoe’s work as an undertaker demonstrates another aspect of that care, though Maggie’s nervousness at visiting the funeral home provides irony and humor, considering how she will be involved with death later in the book.
