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Chapter 10
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
Mr. Malone hasn’t returned by the time Mrs. Malone and Deza start making dinner. Deza tries to—but cannot—ignore the fear gathering in the pit of her stomach. A little before 6:00 p.m., Mrs. Henderson stops by. She’s worried, too. She and Mrs. Malone decide to borrow the car of another neighbor (Mr. Rhymes) and drive up to where Mr. Henderson likes to launch his boat to investigate.
Mrs. Malone’s fears seem well-founded indeed when Mr. Malone hasn’t returned by dinner. Notably, Mrs. Malone and Mrs. Henderson don’t sit around fretting—they jump into action. This speaks both to the importance of caring for one’s family and to the idea that hope is powerful, yet fragile. It doesn’t maintain itself but is built by countless choices and actions.
Themes
An hour later, Mrs. Malone returns. She and Mrs. Henderson found Mr. Henderson’s parked truck but no sign of the boat or the men. They surmise the boat might have gotten off track in a fog bank, and they reported the missing men to the police. Deza starts to cry, but her mother tells her to pull herself together. What would happen if Jimmie came home and realized that something was amiss? He’d probably run off looking for Mr. Malone, and then they would have two missing Malones. Deza considers how apt the phrase “pull yourself together” is, since losing Mr. Malone feels like losing a piece of herself, too.
Understandably, Deza finds the news of her father’s disappearance very upsetting—the worst-case scenario is that he and the others drowned in the lake. Mrs. Malone doesn’t criticize Deza’s feelings, but she does not want Deza to give in to hopelessness, either. It’s hard to pull oneself together in the face of adversity, but Deza has already demonstrated resilience and bravery in standing up to Dolly Peaches. She rises to the occasion again here.
Themes
Deza falls asleep in Mrs. Malone’s bed and wakes hours later to the sound of her mother screaming downstairs. Deza rushes to the living room to find Mr. Rhymes there, to take Mrs. Malone to the hospital, where there is potential news about Mr. Malone. Deza goes upstairs and taps on Jimmie’s door, hoping that if he’s awake, he will sing to her. But he just rolls over and keeps snoring.
Unfortunately, the situation goes from bad to worse when Mrs. Malone is summoned to the hospital. Deza instinctively reaches out for her usual source of strength and support—her family—but is rebuffed by Jimmie’s sleepiness. Family is important, but she has to learn to rely on herself, too.
Themes
