When the kids come home from school, all three refuse to tell Mom and Dad about their problems, because they fear their interference will only make things worse. So, for Jeannette, the bullying continues every day for weeks. They beat her up for being poor - she only has three dresses and must wear them more than once each week. Furthermore, Erma won't allow them to bathe more than once a week, so they are always dirty with oily hair. Jeannette finally has the courage to tell Mom that three black girls are giving her a hard time for her poverty. Mom tells Jeannette to say that Martin Luther King would be ashamed of them. Jeannette tries it, but they only laugh and beat her harder. Jeannette is nonetheless fascinated by the tall black girl named Dinitia. She has seen her smile sincerely and feels like there has to be something good inside her.
One day, about a month after they arrive in Welch, Jeannette climbs some steps at the top of a hill in the park. She runs up the steps of the World War I memorial and sees a little black kid on the other side cornered by a big mongrel. She tells the boy not to run, but he does anyway. She jumps down to follow and realizes the dog is not malicious and won't bite. He'll just push and pull the boy for the sheer joy of dominating him. Jeannette picks up a stick and tells the dog to get away. The dog tucks its tail and runs the other direction. Jeannette then picks up the little boy piggyback and takes him home per his weakly murmured directions. After she puts him down and he goes into his house, she turns to leave, only to see Dinitia looking out the door of a house across the street. She watches Jeannette curiously.
The next day, Dinitia refuses to take part in the usual bullying of Jeannette. The rest of the girls, having lost their leader, stop beating Jeannette, and Dinitia asks Jeannette to help her with an English assignment. Jeannette agrees, but knows that given the racist feelings of her grandmother, she will have to help Dinitia at her house. Of course, Erma finds out anyway and asks why she had gone to Niggerville. Jeannette is appalled at Erma's attitude. Erma claims she has not gone out of the house for fifteen years, because the niggers have moved so close to her neighborhood. Also, she tells Jeannette that now she is a nigger lover. Jeannette finally has enough. Her parents had always told her never to use that word and now she tells Erma the same thing. Erma is astonished that Jeannette has stood up to her and retaliates by denying her any supper.
Jeannette talks to Mom about her skirmish with Erma, and Mom warns her
that she has to be polite. This doesn't seem like Mom to Jeannette who
has heard her and Dad rail against inequality and racism. They had always
been outspoken about their opinions. Now they're supposed to bite their
tongues. But she is right; Erma will boot them. Situations like these,
she realizes, are what turns people into hypocrites. Mom says that Erma
just can't let go of her misery. It's all she knows. She advises Jeannette
that everyone has something good about them. You just have to find the
redeeming quality and love them for it. Jeannette says, Oh, yeah? How
about Hitler? What was his redeeming quality? Mom says Hitler loved dogs.
Mom's advice about looking for the redeeming quality in every person
is really true when it comes to Dinitia. She was more than willing to
bully Jeannette until she saw her help her neighbor without any thought
of color or race. The contrast to this, of course, is Erma and the other
members of Dad's family who believe naturally in being racist. The reaction
of the black girls, believing Jeannette thinks she's better is a reverse
kind of racism. Both these examples show the impact of poverty on the
people who live in it for long periods of time.
In late winter, Mom and Dad decide to return to Phoenix and bring back the things they had left behind. Lori, being the oldest is left in charge, but of course, they are all answerable to Erma. Mom is quite excited by the prospect of an adventure. Dad has still not found a job and uses the excuse of union corruption to avoid a job in the mines. Jeannette wishes they are all going together, but Dad refuses to allow them to go, making all kinds of excuses for that as well. Jeannette points out that taking his kids has never bothered him before, but Dad won't budge. Brian wonders if they'll come back, and Jeannette wonders the same thing. They have become more of an inconvenience now that they're older. She says, I have to believe they'll come back . . . If I don't believe, then they might not return. They might leave us forever.
Erma becomes even more cantankerous. She hits them on the head with a serving spoon when she doesn't like the looks on their faces. One day, they're sitting in the living room, when Erma tells Brian his britches need mending. She declares that it will be easier to mend them while he is still wearing them and makes him follow her into Grandpa's bedroom. Jeannette hears Brian begin to protest against something, so Jeannette goes into the bedroom where she finds Erma grabbing at Brian's crotch, while the little boy tries to protect himself, with tears falling down his face. Jeannette yells at her to leave Brian alone which draws Lori to the commotion. Before they know it, an all out tussle erupts between Lori and Erma, with both of them slapping and hitting the other. Eventually, Uncle Stanley comes in and separates the two. From that moment on, the kids are relegated to the basement, forbidden to come upstairs to eat or use the bathroom. Sometimes, Uncle Stanley will sneak in food, and they have to go out the outside entranceway to go to the bathroom outside. She also denies them any coal, and with a cold snap, they spend all their time when not at school under the covers together, doing their homework and trying to stay warm.
When Mom and Dad finally return, Erma meets them with her list of grievances against the four kids. Dad stomps down the stairs and refuses to listen to why they had attacked Erma. He says he doesn't care what happened and that Brian's a man and should be able to take it. He can't even bring himself to look at Jeannette as he rants and raves against them.
Later, when the kids are all in bed together, they discuss how weird
Dad had acted. Jeannette asks whether Dad had ever been treated like Erma
had treated Brian. She says it is gross and creepy to think about, but
it would explain a lot: why he had left home as soon as he could, why
he drank so much, why he got angry at their explanations, why he never
wanted to visit Welch, why he came to West Virginia only at the last minute,
and why he shook his head so hard to keep from hearing what Erma had done
to Brian. Lori says not to think about it or it will make her crazy. So
Jeannette puts it out of her mind.
This chapter is interesting in that it tends to explain why their father behaves the way he does. Ironically, he is incapable of protecting his children as a result of his past, and it is Lori and Jeannette who come to Brian's defense.
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
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