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Chapter 29
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 rides through the perfect June morning to her outpost, but soon the emotional trauma of the morning catches up and her head starts to ache. Jackson, on his way into town for a timber deal, overtakes her on the trail just as she faints. She comes to on the ground with Jackson cradling her. He’s worried that she is ill, but she explains that she’s just feeling the side effects of the medicine that “cures” her color. They fade as the drug passes through her system and she turns blue again.
The cost of being white grows ever higher the longer that Cussy takes the drugs. Nevertheless, desperate to be accepted and valued, she’s willing to take the risks. Jackson, like Eula and Harriett, assumes that her pallor is a sign of illness, but he reacts with care and concern rather than fear and loathing. Cussy Mary is already loved and valued by good people, even if she can’t yet accept it in her desire to be loved and valued by people (like Harriett) who have shown themselves to be meanspirited and discriminatory.
Themes
Jackson shakes his head, suggesting that the cure might be worse than the alleged ailment. With horror, Cussy Mary realizes that he considers her vain, just like Pa does. Jackson tries to tell her that there’s nothing wrong with her, or her color. But, recalling people’s scorn and hatred and her terrible marriage, Cussy strikes out. There’s nothing wrong, she declares, with his color in a world that only wants whiteness. She hurries home feeling small and ashamed.
Cussy Mary is ashamed to realize that Jackson might think she’s vain. She values his opinion of her as much as her father’s, hinting at the importance he holds in her heart. But at the same time, he speaks to her out of his own ignorance. He has faced hardship and trauma in his own life, but he is well-liked in the community, and he can’t imagine the discrimination that Cussy Mary has faced.
Themes
