PART THREE - WELCH

SECTION FOURTEEN (Pages 186-188)

Summary

One day, while Jeannette and Brian are out scrounging around their property, Brian lifts up a log, and they discover what turns out to be a two-carat diamond ring. Jeannette immediately thinks about selling it, paying off the house, and buying groceries. However, Mom refuses to sell it. She claims it hers since Dad had pawned her original diamond shortly after they got married. When Jeannette objects, because the ring can bring them a lot of food, Mom says, That's true, but it could also improve my self-esteem. And at times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food.

Jeannette recognizes that Mom's self-esteem does need some shoring up. She cries a lot, lies on the couch for days, and blames the kids for all her problems, including the fact that she's not become a famous artist. However, she usually bounces back quickly. One morning, she wakes up in a great mood and decides they will all work together and clean the house. Jeannette thinks it's a fine idea and comes up with a plan. However, Mom rejects it as being too much work. They end up just placing piles of papers in paper sacks and throwing dirty clothes into dresser drawers. Another day, Mom's good mood convinces her to try to prolong it by doing calisthenics. While she seems committed to something at last, twelve-year-old Jeannette comes up with yet another plan. This time, she has researched at the library, in the county and around the neighborhood, and now has an idea to broach to Mom. She tells her mother that they cannot go on living this way to which Mom says, You're always so negative. You remind me of my mother - criticize, criticize, criticize. Jeannette insists she's just trying to be realistic. Mom responds this time by pointing out that Jeannette never seems to blame her father. Jeannette says she knows that Dad isn't a saint, and so she thinks Mom must leave him. Rose Mary does a complete 180 by now defending Dad and piling on the guilt. Jeannette patiently explains that she isn't blaming Dad (she just knows he's pulling them down), but that a woman with an able-bodied husband isn't eligible for public assistance. Without Dad, they could get food stamps and clothing allowances. Of course, Mom's argument to this is that charity changes you like being hungry and cold never can. Jeannette then tells her own mother to forget charity, but get a job. To Mom, that sounds like an awful life. Besides, she now can evoke her Catholic upbringing and explain that she can't leave their father. Her final argument? Anyway you know your mom. I'm an excitement addict.

Notes

This section is filled with quotes that really express the truth about Rose Mary Walls. No matter how sympathetically she appears at times, the truth is that she is lazy, angry at the way her mother raised her, frustrated that she isn't talented enough to have become a famous artist, and totally self-centered. Even when she appears to feel bad about the hopeless life she's created for her children, her tears and her depression only help her manipulate her kids.

SECTION FIFTEEN (Pages 189-192)

Summary

Mom never tells Dad that Jeannette had urged her to leave him. So that summer, he still believes her to be his greatest support. One afternoon in June, they are sitting together on the porch. It is the hottest summer she can remember and it's only ninety degrees. Dad explains that they are used to the dry heat of the desert, and this is a humid heat. He does point out that the high position of their house is lucky, because it's hotter in the valley, and from there, they will never be flooded. He ironically points out that he had taken great care to find just the right house for them, because in real estate, location is everything. That sparks hysterical laughter from both of them, and they lay there on the porch shaking with the humor of the situation.

The main source of relief from the heat is the local swimming pool. Jeannette and Brian have gone there only once, because Ernie Goad made their lives so miserable and said such awful things about the family living in garbage, that Jeannette and Brian got up to leave. As they left, Ernie called out to everyone that the Walls kids are a health epidemic and that they need to be ejected to prevent any outbreak of disease at the pool.

A week later, the heat is still holding when Jeannette runs into Dinitia Hewitt. She has just come from the pool. It isn't a rule or anything, but the blacks all swim in the morning and the whites in the afternoon. When Jeannette explains why she and Brian don't go, Dinitia suggests that she come with her people in the mornings. Jeannette is worried that someone in the black community will be angry, but Dinitia says no one will be mad at all. So the next morning, she meets Dinitia in front of the pool, and they enter together. Inside the women's locker room is a whole different cultural experience for Jeannette. When she went in with white women, they all covered themselves with towels as they dressed into their bathing suits. However, the black women walk around, and even dance, fully naked, rub their bottoms and their breasts against each other in a non-sexual way, and comment on each other's bodies without any intent to humiliate. At first, they are a little upset to see a white girl in their midst, but once Dinitia speaks up for Jeannette, they shrug and fully accept her. They even make comments about how her pubic hair is red, and when Jeannette says, The collar gotta match the cuffs, she is definitely one of them.

Dinitia and Jeannette swim all morning long and play every game they can think of. By the time they leave, Jeannette's fingers and toes are completely wrinkled, and her eyes are red and stinging from the chlorine. However, she has never felt cleaner.

Notes

This section really juxtaposes how the so-called superior race - the white race - is quick to drive out any elements they designate unworthy, while the so-called inferior race - the black race - quickly accepts the stranger in their midst.

Metaphorically, Dad and Jeannette's hysterical laughter is a symbol of how ludicrous their lives are and what a fine line it is between laughter and despair. The locker room atmosphere with the black women is symbolic of the inherently good potential of all people who can put aside their prejudices for the sake of their humanity.