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Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Mighty Miss Malone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Hope
Talent and Hard Work
Family
The Black Experience in America
The Great Depression
Summary
Analysis
On the second morning of summer vacation, Deza wakes up to the sound of Mr. Malone puttering around in the kitchen before sunrise. When she and Mrs. Malone stumble into the kitchen, Mr. Malone tells them he’s going fishing on Lake Michigan—where the biggest and tastiest perch are—with his friends Steel Lung Henderson, Hank, and Carlos.
Although he clearly enjoys the time with his friends and the hobby of fishing, the trip means a lot more to Mr. Malone than just that. Like Jimmie’s ill-conceived attempt to steal the pie, it represents Mr. Malone’s desperate attempts to provide something for his family. If he can’t find work, he can at least put some food on the table in these desperate times.
Themes
Mrs. Malone is very unhappy about this. Lake Michigan can be wild and dangerous. Mr. Malone promises they’ll be safe. Before they can argue further, Steel Lung quietly knocks on the door. He is the only Black man in Gary who keeps his company job year-round, and that’s because it’s a terrible job. Once a month, the steel mill furnaces must be cleaned and inspected, and factory bosses don’t like to waste time letting them cool all the way down first because it takes so long to get them back up to the right temperature. So, they hire Black or Mexican men to go into the hot furnaces and do the necessary repairs. Mr. Malone once held this job, but it exacerbated his asthma so badly that he eventually got laid off.
Lake Michigan is a large and potentially dangerous body of water with strong invisible currents and the potential for large waves and hazardous weather conditions. But, as Mr. Henderson’s brief backstory suggests, life in the Depression and life for Black men in the pre-Civil Rights era is generally dangerous, too. Racism and prejudice lie beneath companies offering the most dangerous and uncomfortable jobs to non-White people and the callous disregard with which the bosses treat these essential employees.
Themes
As they climb into the car, Mr. Henderson promises to bring Mr. Malone back in one piece. Deza and Mrs. Malone wave from the porch, then Deza goes back to bed. Little does she know it’s the last night of good sleep she will have in a long time.
Deza goes back to bed, hoping for a fresh fish dinner. But the book foreshadows coming trials for readers, suggesting that Mrs. Malone’s fears were well founded.
Themes
