The House of Eve

Ruby hears a woman crying as she enters the House of Magdalene. Mother Margaret points out a shaming room where mothers go for “correction.” Ruby is told to call Mother Margaret “Your Excellency.” Mother Margaret explains that the mothers are not allowed to share personal information (bar first names) to maintain confidentiality. A girl named Loretta is charged with helping Ruby get situated. Along with Loretta, Ruby will share a room with Bubbles and Georgia Mae, the only Black girls at the establishment; Georgia Mae does not speak. Loretta’s baby is due in January, and Ruby’s will be the next born. The girls again hear wailing, and Bubbles explains that it’s a girl who had to give up her baby. At dinner, the four girls sit separately from the white girls, and they have to sit on folding chairs rather than couches during nightly devotion. Ruby realizes the House of Magdalene is not as hospitable as the brochure made it out to be, but the stay is better than having her life ruined.

Rose wants to help Eleanor fake her pregnancy, and Eleanor is shocked because she and William agreed to keep their eventual adoption a secret. Rose offers a pillow that Eleanor can wear under her clothes, and has two brief events planned to keep up appearances. She encourages her to go to her mother’s for a bit, but Eleanor refuses to leave. She hired a contractor to convert one of Eleanor and William’s guest rooms into a nursery. When William gets home, the couple makes amends over Rose’s involvement.

Ruby and the other girls clean as Mother Margaret preaches: “Out there, they call you whores and sluts. Damaged goods. But in here, you can redeem yourself and pay for your sins” (236). She leads the Our Father prayer and then tells the girls to repeat that they are unworthy. A girl named Gertrude kicks Ruby’s scrub bucket, and Ruby learns that Gertrude is a lifer. Unbeknownst to Ruby, all the girls have to serve at the home after delivery to pay off their debt. The girls call the House of Magdalene the “Gingerbread House.”

During the day, the girls learn practical skills and spend time on school work. They also all have jobs, and Ruby’s is to sort mail—taught by a girl named Clara. Loretta is distraught because her boyfriend has not written in some time. Her boyfriend, Rucker, wanted to get married, but Loretta’s parents would not let them because he came from a lower socioeconomic class and is dark-skinned. Ruby explains that her situation is the opposite of Loretta’s: While Shimmy may be waiting for her, in her eyes, their relationship is over.

Eleanor prays and realizes that if she hadn’t miscarried in high school, she would have been the one giving up a baby to a couple, and feels grateful she is in the position of adopting. She wonders if William will be able to accept a baby that is not his, because bloodline matters to the Pride family. Eleanor continues her work for the library at home, and William picks up her schoolwork.

As Ruby waits to talk to a social worker, Ms. Jeanne, she hears her tell Clara, who has given birth, that the girl is unfit to raise a child. Clara refuses to give up her baby, and Ms. Jeanne tells her that since she acted like a “slut,” she does not have rights. The next day, Ruby witnesses Clara, who has bloody panties, being thrown into the shaming room for 24 hours. Ruby is woken up that evening by sirens as Clara is taken out on a stretcher. She wishes Shimmy would take her away, and realizes she is again paying the price for their sex.

Eleanor’s mother, Lorraine, calls her and says she had a dream about Eleanor’s baby, a girl. Eleanor feels lonely as William is busy working, but considers this her penance for infertility. Rose hires a dark-skinned man named Bernie to work on the nursery, and he and Eleanor develop an easy friendship. That evening, William and Eleanor attend a fundraiser in honor of Dr. Drew, a Black man who died in a car accident in the rural South. Eleanor excuses herself as planned so nobody can get a good look at her stomach, and Rose prompts William to stay because she has a driver who can take Eleanor home.

Ruby turns 17, and has not opened Shimmy’s letters. Bubbles’s water breaks, and she plans to escape with her baby. Ruby realizes she could lose her scholarship if she gets in trouble. Nevertheless, she and her roommates help Bubbles through her labor and delivery. Bubbles explains she is at the home because her father is a pastor, and he and her mother barred her from marrying Ray, the baby’s father. Ray is a 25-year-old man who worked at Bubbles’s high school and has a daughter. Bubbles gives birth to a daughter whom she names Joy. Later, Gertrude comes to the room. She and Bubbles have already developed a plan to escape together; Ray is waiting for them outside.

Eleanor refers to the House of Magdalene as the House of Eve. She wants to believe it is a hospitable place and thinks of Eve as “the first mother of all things,” and wonders what “her Eve looked like” (274). She also wonders if her baby’s mother truly wants to give her baby up as she has been told. William has to leave town for his brother’s engagement party. Eleanor asks him to stay home and then asks him to take her with him, but he denies both requests.

Clara never returns, and Ruby and her remaining roommates believe she tried to die by suicide; however, Bubbles and Gertrude escaped. Georgia Mae and another girl go into labor. The white girl goes to the clinic, but Georgia Mae is brought to a secret room to give birth. Ruby is allowed to help her roommate until a nurse arrives. Georgia Mae has an aunt who wants to raise the baby, but unbeknownst to Georgia Mae, Mother Margaret and Ms. Jeanne will not allow it because the baby is fair-skinned; they think the baby should be given to a wealthier Black family. When Ruby overhears this conversation, the administrators remind her that she must comply with Mrs. Shapiro’s deal.

Ruby rejoins a sobbing Georgia Mae, who says her baby’s name is David and that he was taken away; this is the second baby she’s had by her employer. Her first baby was born when she was 13, and her employer’s wife arranged for the baby’s removal. This time, the wife insulted Georgia Mae and brought her to the home. In the middle of the night, workers held Georgia Mae down and took her baby.

Eleanor takes a lavender bath as she thinks about her brother-in-law’s engagement party. The next day, Bernie comes to work, and she sits in the nursery and talks to him while he works. He talks about avocados, and she tells him that she never had one. When he is done working, he brings an avocado, and they eat it in the kitchen when William walks in. He questions Bernie and Ruby’s relationship, and she gets angry because she was stuck at home while he was at a party where Greta was present.

As Christmas comes around, Ruby imagines Christmas with Shimmy even though she knows he does not celebrate it. She and the other girls receive cheap cross necklaces, but Loretta drops hers on the floor. She goes into labor a week later, and is upset because Rucker has yet to respond to her letters. Ruby tells Loretta that she overheard that Loretta’s baby will go to a doctor and his wife.

Eleanor and William are angry at each other for a while, but eventually make amends. They receive a phone call saying that their son has been born, and will undergo standard tests until it’s time to pick him up. The couple decides to name him William Price the Third, and William thanks Eleanor. Eleanor believes this baby will bond her and William for life.

Loretta’s son has a droopy eye, which disqualifies him for adoption. He will be sent to an orphanage, and this distresses Loretta because she believed her baby would be given a better life. Ruby decides to paint a sunrise when Mother Margaret tells her that they have to go to the white girls’ clinic. She does not notice the needle in her arm and blacks out.