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Chapter 13
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Kind, Kindness, and Discrimination
The Power of Books
Hardship and Humanity
Change and Modernization
Autonomy and Interdependence
Summary
Analysis
Doc pulls a sheet over Vester Frazier’s dead body. Junia trampled his ribs and “other innards,” but Pa also gave him some foxglove to stop his bleeding. Although he claims it was a normal dose, too much could have hastened the pastor’s death. It looks bad that two Fraziers have been found dead with the Blue Carters, even though Vester was on Carter land and Pa should have the right to defend himself. Cussy Mary and Pa are in a very vulnerable position. Vester was kin to the Sheriff, and that might overrule their personal bad blood. Not even his attempt to rape Cussy Mary will be accepted as an excuse—the community tends to shame and shun women who accuse men of rape rather than protect them. Doc and Pa send Cussy Mary outside while they discuss how to fix this problem, and she fears that Doc wants to fix it with her.
Foxglove is a plant herbalists use to treat bleeding and heart disorders; by dosing Vester with it, Pa is relying on old folk ways of healing. But because folk remedies were prepared at home rather than in a lab or factory, it’s hard to know the active dose in any preparation. It’s possible that the overdose was accidental, but also that it wasn’t, and the question of responsibility further endangers Cussy Mary and Pa in just the way they feared at the end of the previous chapter. Cussy’s multiple vulnerabilities are on display at this moment, too. People discriminate against her because she’s Blue, but in a society that tends to blame women for their own sexual assaults, her gender also puts her at a disadvantage. .
Themes
