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Chapter 6
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
Junia and Cussy Mary arrive home after dark. Pa was worried because she’s late, and she doesn’t tell him about her encounter with Vester. Pa is on his way to a union meeting, so Cussy quickly packs his lunch. Strikes are dangerous for the miners, and she frets that Pa might be hurt or killed in the next one. But he wants to stand up for miners’ rights, since the Company treats them worse than animals. Pa’s older brother was tricked into being a miner’s sacrifice (to spare a mule) before Cussy was born. And recently, a miner was injured and the mule he was working with was killed in a cave-in. The Company docked the miner’s pay for the animal’s value.
Life in this area of Kentucky at this time is hard and precarious for almost everyone. The malicious and greedy mine Company treats its miners as subhuman, worth less than the pack animals they use in their work. That’s why Pa represents his fellow workers in union negotiations, despite the danger of doing so. And the story about his older brother illustrates the idea that, while there’s plenty of hardship to go around, it’s automatically harder to be a Blue, since the local, predominantly white, population discriminates against them based on their skin color.
Themes
Despite his own worries, Pa has taken time to clear part of the path that goes into town before Cussy Mary’s shift at the Library Center next week. She reminds him to take his stick for defense against any creatures he might encounter on the way to the mine.
Despite the hardship of their lives in the coalfields and as Blues, Pa and Cussy maintain their humanity by showing care and concern for each other and the people around them. Pa’s work exhausts him, yet he still finds time to clear Cussy’s paths to make her job easier.
Themes
With Pa gone, Cussy Mary begins her chores. She sweeps and mops the coal dust from the floors, washes it from Pa’s bedding and clothes, washes her own clothes, and takes three trips to the spring to fill up the tub for Pa to wash when he gets home. Chores and nighttime make her miss her mother; they used to sing and read to each other to distract themselves from the work and their worry over Pa’s safety. With domestic work done, Cussy rebinds Angeline’s book and adds to the newest scrapbook she will circulate on her route. It has comic strips, hill wisdom, remedies, poems, essays, recipes, and craft patterns.
Although it’s the 1930s, Pa and Cussy live in an area sufficiently remote that they have neither electricity nor indoor plumbing. Their already hard life is made more challenging because of the polluting coal dust that seems to touch everything. Yet Cussy still finds the time and energy to take care of the books she carries to her patrons, since the books seem to be the only way that people can improve their lives or expand their knowledge beyond their harsh subsistence existence.
Themes
Cussy Mary thinks back over the day. Schoolboys skipped crawdad hunting to hear her read; Martha Hannah dropped her clean laundry in the dirt; Mr. Prine actually smiled at her; and Miss Loretta cried. These reactions make Cussy feel appreciated, and she has a surge of affection for her patrons. She reviews the stops for the rest of the week, then puts her pillow on the table and rests her head on it. When she was five, her mother made them matching dresses out of a blue fabric with bluebirds on it. She swore it made their skin look whiter and more normal. Cussy’s mother was buried in her dress, and Cussy used the fabric from hers to make the pillow. Humming one of her mother’s lullabies, Cussy imagines her mother stroking her hair as she dozes off.
The juxtaposition between the maternal love Cussy remembers while cuddling her pillow and the harsh reality of her life, where she faces a lot of hateful discrimination, highlights the challenges Cussy faces as a Blue. But it was her mother who taught her to read, too, and so the contrast reminds readers that books have the power to overcome discrimination and hatred and bring people together. Cussy Mary’s encounters with her patrons, who waited months for her return, show the power of books. Everyone is relieved and happy to see her, even patrons like Mr. Prine who are more stand-offish because of her blue skin.
Themes
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Later, Cussy Mary startles awake to the sound of Junia braying in the yard. With Pa’s shotgun in hand, she ventures onto the porch. She can’t see any wild creatures in the yard, but she knows she’s being watched. Someone—probably Vester Frazier—is hunting her. With her good ear, she hears footfalls and rustling sounds that slowly die away, and when all is silent, she retreats to her sleeping loft with the gun.
Cussy Mary rescued Junia from neglect and abuse, and the mutual dependence between woman and animal is shown by Junia’s role as Cussy Mary’s protector. Junia underwrites Cussy’s autonomy and independence by protecting her, but Cussy’s quick dash for Pa’s gun shows that she’s also more than capable of taking care of herself.
Themes
