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Chapter 43
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
The suitor is Jackson Lovett, and when he rides into the yard, he picks up the candle from the dirt and tells Cussy Mary that he’ll need it for when his daughter gets her first courter. Cussy is shocked, and she tells Jackson that she and Honey already have everything they need. She refuses to accept his charity, and she refuses to give up her job. Jackson protests that he doesn’t want her to; she’s too important to the community to stop working. Besides, the WPA has started making exceptions for married women. Jackson confirmed this by reading the paperwork himself, even though Eula and Harriett were singularly unhelpful.
Cussy Mary’s confused reaction to Jackson’s proposal points toward two key elements in her life: her strong sense of autonomy and independence, and the way that people’s hatred and prejudice have traumatized her. She continues to assert that she can care for herself without help, and she initially thinks that the only reason Jackson is there is because she’s an unmarriable charity case. Despite their shared interests and experiences, she can’t yet imagine that he loves her, a Blue whom most people seem to despise.
Themes
Cussy Mary still distrusts Jackson’s motives, but then he tells her that he went to Pa and asked for permission to court her—six times before Pa said yes. Cussy is shocked; she assumed that Pa had wheedled a courtship out of Jackson. She can’t see why Jackson would marry a Blue. But he’s determined to marry her because he loves her, and he’ll tell everyone in Kentucky if he must. Cussy has lived in darkness and brokenness for so long that although she wants to fall into his arms and accept his love, it seems easier and safer not to.
The depths of the pain and trauma Cussy Mary has suffered from years of abuse and discrimination become clear as she struggles to accept Jackson’s love. After so many years of others treating her as subhuman, it’s hard for her to trust that anyone could love her. Her difficulty despite the evidence of respect and friendship from so many of her patrons shows how deeply ingrained her feelings of inferiority have become.
Themes
Jackson promises to love and protect Cussy Mary and Honey, but Cussy refuses to leave Pa alone in his sickness. Jackson tells her that there’s room for all of them, including Pa, on the mountain. He reaches out to touch her face, gently, tells her how much he truly loves her, and asks her to be his bride, to leave the hollow and come up onto the mountain with him. Cussy looks into his eyes, knowing she wants to be on the mountain with him forever. And he pulls her into a kiss. No one has ever seen Cussy as anything other than her ugly color before, has been able to make her feel valuable and worthwhile before. And so Cussy, feverishly, says yes.
As a final attempt to hold Jackson at bay, Cussy Mary protests that she must take care of Pa as well as Honey, since they are the last Blues, the last of her kind. But Jackson loves Cussy and her kind, and he plans to take them all into his life and his family, showing the power of kindness over inhumanity and discrimination.
Themes
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