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Chapter 5
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
An anxious Clarice waits for Deza in the hallway. Clarice apologizes for acting so excitedly over her high grade and offers to help Deza get back at Mrs. Needham if necessary. Deza explains that second place was to teach her a lesson and that Mrs. Needham offered to tutor both girls in the fall.
Clarice’s threats sound a lot like the violence Deza’s so-called “second brain” was planning to visit on Mrs. Needham. They thus reinforce the intimacy between the girls, who do indeed seem to share one heart in two bodies.
Themes
When Deza gets home, she finds Jimmie laboring over two poorly executed drawings. One depicts the upcoming boxing match between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. The other outlines an elaborate plan to get the better of Dolly Peaches. It involves Jimmie lacing a haystack with needles, waiting for a rainstorm to make them all rusty, then positioning Dolly between the haystack and Deza. Deza is so notoriously accident-prone that once Mr. Malone said that people could rent her out as a sort of needle-in-a-haystack detector, since the needles would likely come flying out of the haystack to lodge themselves painfully in her body as splinters. Jimmie figures his plan is foolproof. If Dolly doesn’t die of blood loss, he’ll get tetanus.
Jimmie likes drawing, and Deza supports him even though he’s not good at it because she loves and supports him. Mrs. Needham just got done explaining to Deza that sometimes the best-laid plans go awry. Despite the effort he’s put into it, Jimmie’s far-fetched plan doesn’t seem to qualify as “well-laid” at all. But the fact that it isn’t going to succeed doesn’t seem to bother him; just imagining getting back at a bully like Dolly makes him feel better about things. And so does his sister’s love and support.
Themes
Deza shows Jimmie the dress and shoes from Mrs. Needham. Jimmie recommends that Deza show Mrs. Malone whichever item she likes second best first. Then, if Mrs. Malone says she must return the gift, Deza will still be able to hide (and keep) the other gift. However, Deza decides that honesty is the best policy. She puts on the dress and shoes, making a grand entrance when Mrs. Malone returns from her trip to the food bank. Mrs. Malone drops the bags of food in surprise. But, much to Deza’s relief, she says it’s okay for her daughter to keep the generous gift.
Jimmie’s devious little plan tends to reinforce Mrs. Needham’s lesson about the best-laid plans—he encourages Deza to hope for the best but plan for the worst, since life often goes that way. Deza respectfully disagrees, which makes sense for her character. Already, she’s shown readers how uncomfortable she is around stretching the truth. When she gave the pie to the poor people in the park, she still leveled with them about the dog spit. And in this case, it seems as if honesty is the best policy.
Themes
