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Part Four: The River Keeps Running
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Warmth of Other Suns, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Migration and Freedom
History, Memory, and Identity
The Legacy of the Migration
The Economics of Racism
Love and Family
Decision, Consequence, and Regret
Summary
Analysis
Somewhere Near Cartersville, Georgia, Summer 1956. As a young woman, Wilkerson’s mother drives home from Washington, D.C. to Rome, Georgia in her brand-new Pontiac. But the car is covered in dust from the trip, so she goes for a car wash. After all, this is her “moment of glory.” Migrants typically visit home for summers, holidays, family events like funerals, and connecting their northern-born children to their family and culture. But often, these children don’t know how to deal with Jim Crow.
Wilkerson’s mother cares deeply about the impression she leaves on her relatives in Rome. This isn’t because of selfishness or vanity, but because she understands that her whole family will take pride in her success. Her visit will represent the excitement and promise of life in the North—and perhaps even convince others to follow her.
Themes
Ida Mae and George Gladney are too busy in Chicago to visit Mississippi for anything but funerals. Robert Foster prefers not to return to Monroe, and George Starling worries that it’s too dangerous to go back to Eustis, even though his job frequently takes him to other nearby parts of Florida. Relatives usually drive hours to meet him at the station, even if only for a few minutes while he waits for the train to refuel. One day, he even briefly runs into the notorious sheriff Willis V. McCall at the train station.
Ida Mae, George, and Robert represent the diversity of the Great Migration in virtually every way, but their lack of visits home is probably the only major exception. George and Robert, in particular, try their best to permanently leave their lives in the South behind—even if their social networks in New York and Los Angeles are primarily composed of fellow migrants.
Themes
The most famous Black Northerner to visit the South is Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy who goes to Mississippi to see his great-uncle and gets lynched for allegedly offending a white woman. His mother decides to hold an open-casket funeral in Chicago. Thousands of people attend, including Ida Mae. She’s horrified when she sees Till’s disfigured face.
Most Americans learn about the famous case of Emmett Till, but seldom in the context of the Great Migration. This is what makes Till’s story so tragic: he didn’t even understand the oppressive Jim Crow social codes that were used against him. But it’s also what makes his story so powerful: his family could only spread the news of his murder, hold a massive funeral for him, and make political statements because they lived in free Chicago. Otherwise, Till may have become just another of the countless lynching victims who never received recognition.
Themes
