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Tone
Troubled About My Soul
Explanation and Analysis—Nothing Very Outstanding:
In one of the novel's many flashbacks, Tish remembers her and Fonny's "first date." Fonny invites Tish to go to church with him and his mother and sisters, who are very religious. Tish and her family are not especially religious, which makes her nervous to go to church with the devout Hunt family. Tish describes how she knows that Fonny's mother doesn't like her. But Tish does not understand the reason why this is the case—and, as such, is an unreliable narrator:
[...Fonny's] mother and them two sisters didn't want me. In one way, as I realized later, they didn't think that I was good enough for Fonny—which really means that they didn't think I was good enough for them—and in another way, they felt that I was maybe just exactly what Fonny deserved. Well I'm dark and my hair is just plain hair and there is nothing very outstanding about me and not even Fonny bothers to pretend I'm pretty, he just says that pretty girls are a terrible drag.
Mrs. Hunt doesn't think that Tish is good enough for Fonny. Tish thinks this is because, as she says in the passage above, that she is not pretty enough: "I'm dark and my hair is just plain hair and there is nothing very outstanding about me." Tish is a 19-year-old girl, and though she is more mature than most teenagers, she still suffers from a lack of self-confidence about her appearance. This leads her to assume that Mrs. Hunt's distaste for her is due to her appearance.
But this is not true—throughout the remainder of the novel, Mrs. Hunt shows that she dislikes Tish because Tish and her family are not religious. But at this point early in the novel, Tish does not fully understand that fact. As a result, while Tish is usually a straightforward and reliable narrator, her poor self-image clouds the reader's understanding of the story. This method of narration reveals more about Tish's character and conception of herself than it necessarily does about other characters and their motivations.
Related Themes:
