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Chapter 1
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
Cussy Mary imagines her suitors as hungry trolls and herself as one of the Billy Goats Gruff from the fairy tale. The latest one is fat, and he just wants to see the deed to the land. His eyes flick between the deed and Cussy’s face for a few minutes, then he declares, “Not even for all of Kentucky,” and leaves.
Cussy Mary interprets her experiences through the books she’s read, showing the power of books to help people understand their lives. Sadly, her experience has been mostly painful, thanks to the way that people ignore her personality because of her odd skin color.
Themes
By the end of January, old, dirty, and foul-smelling Charlie Frazer has asked to marry Cussy Mary and Pa has signed over the deed. While Charlie waits to take Cussy to the priest, she pleads with Pa to change his mind. She’s repulsed by Charlie and scared of his family, which includes vicious and “hunt-hungry” Pastor Vester Frazier. But while Pa is clearly conflicted, he insists that Cussy go. She pleads and prays, but her father closes the door on her, and her words are swallowed by the dark.
Pa clings to tradition and insists that the only way for Cussy to be respectable is to marry, yet the only man who will have her is dreadful. Tradition is limited, and Cussy’s modern belief that she can take care of herself better than Charlie can will prove to be true. Pastor Vester Frazier gets a passing introduction here. That the novel describes him as vicious and “hunt-hungry” suggests that he’s dangerous in some way that may become important later.
Themes
Cussy Mary is horrified when Charlie tries to have sex with her. He’s not gentle and he holds a pillow over her face to avoid looking at it. When she fights to get loose, he beats her until she is barely conscious. As he penetrates her a second time, his face turns ashen gray. When she comes to, Pa and Doc are tending to her broken bones. Charlie died of a heart attack. Pa buries him—and the courting candle—in the yard.
Charlie sees Cussy as a blue devil rather than a fellow human being. He can’t look at her face and treats her with disdain and violence. Pa’s tenderness counteracts Charlie’s inhumanity. Burying the courting candle with Charlie is an admission of his failure and his promise to keep Cussy safe from men in the future.
Themes
