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Chapter 19
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
Marvin’s girlfriend is beautiful and well-dressed but not very kind. She’s frustrated with Marvin for treating her house like “a hotel.” Mrs. Malone assures her that they won’t stay long. The girlfriend points the Malones toward her sister’s room. To Deza, it looks like something out of a magazine. The furniture and décor match each other, and there’s a dressing table with a half-length mirror and a collection of perfume bottles. Mrs. Malone initially expresses surprise to find Black people living in such luxury, but then she concedes that there’s not much difference between the Carsdales and Marvin Ware—they all make their money the same way, by taking one nickel or dime at a time from poor, honest folks.
Although the book seems to agree with Mrs. Malone that Marvin Ware and his girlfriend are taking advantage of others—the opposite of Jimmie’s “Robin Hood” mentality in the opening chapters—it’s nevertheless important to note that neither the Great Depression nor the experiences of Black Americans in the area are uniform. Although their numbers were disproportionately small compared to their White peers, some Black people in the period were comparatively wealthy, just as many wealthier citizens managed to maintain much of their wealth and influence throughout the years of economic distress.
Themes
Deza catches a glimpse of herself in the dressing-table mirror, and she’s surprised by how tired and sad she looks. When Jimmie comes into the room, Mrs. Malone lets him know exactly what she thinks of the situation. She’s ashamed that he’s been associating with criminals like Ware, and she’s scared that he’s going to get himself in trouble with the law or involved in an illegal scheme. Jimmie is hurt. Before he storms off, he says that Marvin has tried to get him involved in the gambling business but that he has always said no. He knows the difference between right and wrong, and he’s just trying to help his family.
When Deza looks at herself in a mirror which also reflects the luxurious room, the contrast between her life and the girlfriend’s couldn’t be starker. Thus far, no matter how bad things got, the Malones have always been able to take care of themselves, and Mrs. Malone is both ashamed and worried that Jimmie felt he needed to turn to someone like Ware. But, while all hope is not lost, this moment is undoubtedly bleak for the family. Jimmie shows strength of character in finding a way to help his family without compromising his morals along the way.
Themes
Mrs. Malone sends Deza after Jimmie. She finds him in the yard with a woman named Miss Carter and her daughter, Eppie (short for Epiphany). Miss Carter explains that she and Eppie rode the rails to get to Chicago. When the kids say they’re headed for Flint via Detroit, Miss Carter’s ears perk up. She’s heard that there’s lots of work in Detroit, and she suggests they could ride the rails there together. Jimmie and Deza decide to ask Mrs. Malone about it. Much to their surprise, she agrees that it’s the best next step.
Miss Carter and Eppie have been living even rougher than the Malones, showing just how desperate times have become for many people by the mid-1930s. Miss Carter’s nonchalance and expertise put Deza and Jimmie a little at ease, since it means that they’re not the only ones going through hard times at the moment. And riding the rails will get them quickly to Flint, the first glimmer of hope either of them has had since the landlord turned them out.
Themes
Miss Carter advises the Malones to take only what they can each carry bundled in a blanket and to choose those things which might be useful to them in the camps where indigent people gather, such as cups, plates, and flatware. Anything fragile must be left behind. Mrs. Malone says she has no intention of ending up in a camp, and Miss Carter gently replies that few people who end up there planned to. It’s only when the Malones open their last box without finding Deza’s dresses or precious books that she realizes she left her most treasured possessions back in Gary, forgotten under what used to be her bed. It’s true what Mrs. Needham told her on the last day of school: the best laid plans of mice and men often “gang a-gley.”
Readers with keen memories will recall that Deza kicked the box with her most treasured possessions under her bed—instead of carrying it downstairs—in the previous chapter. Only belatedly does Deza realize that she accidently left these treasures behind. There is literally nothing else left, at least in terms of worldly possessions, that Deza can lose. She is at rock bottom. Yet, she doesn’t give up or give in. She keeps pressing forward, in part because Mrs. Needham’s lessons have prepared her for the idea that suffering is an inevitable and universal aspect of human experience.
Themes
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