A Fortune of Sand

In the patriarchal society of 1920s Detroit depicted in A Fortune of Sand, psychiatric labels and institutionalization can be used to restrict women’s freedom and autonomy. Sepetys shows how women’s creativity, unconventional behavior, and emotional distress can become grounds for questioning their mental fitness, particularly when their behavior conflicts with the expectations of fathers and husbands. This danger extends to the Nightingale, which combines a genuine artistic residency with a concealed psychiatric evaluation program. Although the program is intended to protect women from unjust institutionalization, its secrecy leaves residents unaware that their behavior is being assessed. Through the interconnected fates of Marjorie, Ivy, and Juliette, the narrative examines how psychiatric authority can shape women’s freedom, particularly when fathers and husbands seek to define their behavior as evidence of mental unfitness.

The discovery of the Nightingale’s concealed evaluation program marks an important turning point. Marjorie finds files in Dock’s basement office that list each resident’s artistic discipline alongside an “alleged diagnosis.” Her own file lists the alleged diagnosis of “Chronic Imaginative Derangement” (197), turning the imaginative quality that defines much of her character into grounds for psychiatric concern. Bernice’s file lists “Inhalant Addict,” reflecting her history of inhaling varnish, while the playwright Georgina Godlin’s file lists “Aggressive Agoraphobia.” The files disturb Marjorie because she had entered the Nightingale believing that she was participating solely in an artistic residency and had not knowingly consented to psychiatric evaluation. The program therefore introduces a central tension in the novel: Even an institution created to protect women from unjust confinement subjects them to judgments about their mental fitness without their full knowledge.

The program’s origins are rooted in Juliette’s own experience of patriarchal control. Juliette Bonafante, the institution’s founder, shares her history of being locked away for years by her father, who insisted she was possessed by the devil. A dentist discovered an impacted tooth pressing against a nerve, and her behavior subsided after the tooth was removed. Juliette’s experience shows how a father’s authority could determine whether a daughter was considered mentally “unfit” and deprived of her freedom. Her experience also explains the protective intention behind the Nightingale: She wants to prevent other women from being unnecessarily confined in state institutions. Yet Marjorie’s discovery that residents are evaluated without knowing the full purpose of the program complicates this purpose. The Nightingale attempts to protect women from unjust institutionalization while retaining the authority to assess their mental fitness without disclosing that assessment to them.

The consequences of psychiatric authority become most severe in Ivy’s fate. When she returns home after Cecile’s party and demands a divorce, her husband, Luther, calls the police after finding her on the roof and portrays her behavior as evidence that she has a mental illness. Ivy acknowledges that she had been drinking and yelling for Santa, but she also explains that Luther had taunted her and told her that she was “crazy” for wanting a divorce. She is subsequently confined at Eloise, where she tells Marjorie that her diagnosis is “mourning and melancholia.” A newspaper article reports that she was found “claiming she was a Christmas tree” and repeats Luther’s claim that she sometimes experiences dissociation (196), while omitting the abusive circumstances Ivy later describes to Marjorie. Her confinement demonstrates how psychiatric judgments can become especially dangerous when an abusive husband has the social and institutional power to shape the account of his wife’s behavior. In Ivy’s case, her attempt to leave her marriage ultimately results in a further loss of freedom.