The Grass is Singing: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Using her savings, Mary purchases fabrics and other items to make the house look nicer. After a month, she has settled into a routine that makes her feel like a new person. In the morning she drinks tea with Dick. She leaves the cooking to Samson, although she no longer allows him to take a portion of food for himself. She spends all day sewing and sleeps well at night. She enjoys pleasing Dick with her work on the house, although Dick still treats her somewhat “like a brother.” After she has embroidered everything around her, she rigorously washes and paints the walls of the house. Following this project, she spends time reading, and one day Dick picks up a copy of The Fair Lady that Mary had left lying around. He reads a passage about the Dutch-descended trekkers in South Africa, and while he is reading Mary asks him if they can have ceilings. Dick is hesitant about the cost, saying they can have them if they “do well” next year.

Soon after, Mary puts the books away and returns to learning kitchen kaffir, which she practices by scolding Samson. Samson is deeply unhappy, and one day Dick finds Mary crying and claiming that Samson had stolen raisins she’d been saving for pudding. Dick comments that this is not so serious, and that Samson is “a good old swine on the whole.” However, Mary furiously insists that she will take it out of Samson’s wages—two shillings out of the one pound he earns per month. After learning this, Samson gives his notice, which upsets Dick, even though he figures he should have changed servants anyway when Mary arrived. Mary is horrified by Dick’s affectionate farewell to Samson. In the days that follow, she struggles with the burden of taking care of the house herself, although she also enjoys it.

Mary begins to find the heat “intolerable.” She wanders around the house, looking for something to do. At that moment, a young native man arrives at the house, asking for work. He asks for 17 shillings a month, and Mary barters down to 15. He is nervous and cannot understand her, even though Mary is now “fluent” in kitchen kaffir. Mary shows him around, already irritated by his presence, and at dinner she yells at him. This causes an argument between her and Dick, who insists that she will drive herself crazy by keeping her standards so high. Dick angrily leaves to smoke a cigarette outside. The next day, the new servant drops a plate out of nervousness, and Mary fires him immediately. Afterward she cleans furiously, “as if she were scrubbing the skin off a black face.” The next servant has years of experience working for white women and behaves in a blank, robotic manner. This irritates Mary, but she decides to have him stay.

Disturbed by the way Mary treats native people, Dick asks her to come to the land with him so he can show her how he works. Mary agrees reluctantly, and spends the whole time thinking about the new servant at home, imagining that he is going through her belongings and stealing. When Dick asks if she’d like to come again the next day, she refuses, saying it’s too hot. Mary becomes more and more obsessed with the heat, and asks Dick when it will rain. Dick is surprised that she does not know this herself, seeing as she has lived in South Rhodesia her entire life.

One day, Dick remarks that they have been running out of water very quickly, and he accuses Mary of wasting it. Mary responds that she uses it to cool herself, to which Dick replies that she is throwing money away. Mary is infuriated, even though Dick quickly apologizes. She goes into the bathroom and stares at the bathtub, which is covered in grease and dirt and scratches. She orders the servant to scrub it until it shines.

At lunchtime, Dick is surprised to find Mary cooking, and asks where the servant is. Mary says that he is cleaning the bath. After going to the bathroom Dick informs her that it is natural for zinc to look like that, and the bath is not actually dirty. Dick doesn’t want to be around Mary, and leaves without eating. Mary doesn’t eat either, and after clearing lunch away spends two hours listening to the servant clean the bath. After this time, the servant returns and says that he is going to his hut for food, and that he will return to the bath later. Mary feels guilty for a moment, but then tells herself: “It’s his fault for not keeping it properly clean in the first place.” The week before a fire had swept through the farmland, leaving the landscape barren and charred. Suddenly, Mary sees a car approaching, and she runs inside to tell the servant to make tea; however, he is still gone on his break.

Mary begins to panic; there is nothing to eat and she is not dressed for visitors. However, it is too late to do anything about this. The car stops and Charlie and Mrs. Slatter get out. Mary is relieved to see Dick’s car following closely behind. The four of them sit inside, and Mrs. Slatter expresses sympathy for Mary, recalling the time when she also suffered through poverty. However, despite Mrs. Slatter’s friendliness, Mary is “stiff with resentment.” Mary mistakes Mrs. Slatter’s genuine kindness for patronizing judgment, and struggles to think of a topic of conversation.

Meanwhile Charlie and Dick are in the midst of an intense discussion about farming and the burden of dealing with native people. Mrs. Slatter is hurt by Mary’s lack of engagement, and when the Slatters leave, Dick is sad but Mary is relieved. Dick says that Mary must be lonely, and Mary responds that she isn’t, simply because she doesn’t crave other people’s company. Dick nonetheless suggests that Mary go to visit Mrs. Slatter, a proposal that Mary flatly rejects.

At this moment, the servant comes out to the veranda and hands Dick and Mary his notice, explaining that he is needed in his kraal (his village). Mary is furious, and Dick breaks an unwritten rule by explaining to the servant that Mary is still learning how to run a household and that he will not be forced to work so hard in the future. Dick and Mary have a fierce argument, during which Mary feels a desire to hurt Dick. She begins to yell at him in a voice “taken directly from her mother,” the voice of a “suffering female.” Dick in turn speaks to her in a newly harsh way, saying that they will keep the servant and that she will have to learn to treat him correctly. Mary makes supper herself and Dick goes to bed early, leaving her alone. Mary goes outside and paces up and down the path, thinking about her old life in town. She cries for hours, and only goes to bed when she cannot walk anymore.

A few days later, Mrs. Slatter invites them to an evening party, which Dick reluctantly agrees to attend for Mary’s sake; however, Mary does not want to go, and sends a formal note declining the invite. This offends Mrs. Slatter, and causes Charlie to remark that the Turners need to be brought to their senses. Soon after, Charlie goes to visit Dick and advises him to stop planting crops that aren’t tobacco; however, Dick is resistant to this idea. Charlie asks Dick what he will do when he has children, and warns him not to ask for money when that time comes. Dick responds that he has never asked Charlie for anything, and the men feel both hatred and respect for one another.

After Charlie leaves, Dick is overcome by anxiety. He tells Mary that they may have to wait to have children, and Mary greets this news with relief. Meanwhile, Mary continues to have trouble dealing with native people, and isn’t able to keep a servant for more than a month. Dick wonders if this is his fault, thinking that Mary simply needs a way to keep busy.