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Chapter 29
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
In Jimmie’s room, Deza chides her brother for failing to let her or Mrs. Malone know where he was and for changing his name. He protests that musicians adopt stage names all the time. Then, suddenly, Jimmie gets very serious. Mr. Malone told him something just before he left Gary, a secret that Jimmie has been carrying around by himself all this time. The secret about what really happened on the ill-fated fishing trip. Deza doesn’t want to hear it, but Jimmie insists.
Deza chides Jimmie for abandoning the family, but he hasn’t—the book has strongly implied that Jimmie has been sending the letters and money to Mrs. Malone and Deza, taking responsibility for not only their financial but emotional wellbeing. He’s sacrificing so that his sister won’t lose hope—because Jimmie knows that Mr. Malone is guilty of abandonment.
Themes
The story Mr. Malone told was true up to the point that they encountered the freighter. It didn’t capsize the boat, but its wake did suck away their oars and soak everyone in the boat except Hank. Cold and frightened, Carlos became paranoid and attacked Hank, capsizing the boat. Only Father and Mr. Henderson resurfaced. They clung to the boat for hours before Mr. Henderson started to go a little crazy, too. He attacked Father, accusing him of trying to steal his job. He tried to strangle Father with the anchor rope and knocked all his teeth out with one of the oarlocks. In self-defense, Father struck back with the other oarlock and killed Mr. Henderson. When he left Gary, he wasn’t looking for work, not really. He was trying to run away from his guilt and shame.
The real version of events on the lake, which up to this point only Mr. Malone and Jimmie have known, is much more horrific than the version Deza thought she understood. Not only did all of Mr. Malone’s friends die, but they died while attacking each other. Their fight over scanty resources metaphorically gestures toward the social collapse during the Great Depression. And it doesn’t align with what the book showed readers of the community in Gary, in which people like the Malones, Rhymeses, and Hendersons did share resources and look out for each other. But Mr. Malone’s crushing feeling of guilt over accidentally killing his friend does help to explain why he was so desperate in the leadup to his disappearance and why he felt driven to abandon a family that loved and needed him.
Themes
Deza tells Jimmie that Mr. Malone must be feeling better now, because he’s found work and he’s sending money and letters to her and Mrs. Malone in Flint. She pulls the letter out of her pocket as proof. Jimmie says it’s great news, but, like Mrs. Malone, he doesn’t really sound excited.
Any readers still unconvinced that Jimmie is the one sending letters to Flint should find their doubts laid to rest here. Jimmie is trying to support his family in a way that allows Deza to maintain her love for him and her faith and hope for the future—a generous sacrifice form the best brother in the world.
Themes
