“No matter who your mama is, or how long she’s been gone, you can’t help but miss her. When you are born, she marks you with her milk, even if you never tasted her breast. That’s not hoodoo, it’s just the way the body and the spirit come together to make you a person.”

Vernice’s thoughts emphasize the value that she places on her absent mother, universally claiming that everyone would “miss” their mother as the one who created them. These lines establish The Psychological Impact of Maternal Absence, portraying Vernice as deeply and possibly irrevocably affected by her mother’s death.

“Maybe that’s the definition of the word ‘trifling.’ A person who is impossible to defend, but if you loved her, you had to try.”

In Annie’s first chapter, she contemplates the word “trifling,” which she hears several people use to describe her mother. Because of the bond she has with her idea of her mother, Annie feels the need to “try” to “defend” her, even if she never truly knew her. The Psychological Impact of Maternal Absence can be significant even second-hand: Annie grows up hearing negativity about her mother, which deeply affects her.

“I hope she was in love, that she got to feel the thrill of desire and spirit aligning. And as I lay there, the bed seemed to want to swallow me. I was dreaming, but I was awake. I was breathing and at the same time I was choking to death.”

Vernice’s dream-like state lends insight into her internal conflict over her mother’s absence. Two images conflict in this description: dreaming versus being awake, and breathing versus choking. This juxtaposition highlights the duality that exists within Vernice. Although she is largely happy with her upbringing, preparing for college, and optimistic about her future, she is still pulled down by the weight of her mother’s death.

“‘I can tell you were raised like a princess,’ [Babydoll] said. ‘Just you and your mama. You too soft to have been brought up with men.’ […] Somehow, she had crisscrossed the nature of things where she got to be the virtuous woman and I was the jezebel.”

Babydoll, who is crass and direct, provides Annie with new perspective on her situation. To this point, Annie has lamented the fact that she grew up without a mother, overcome by the resulting lack of belonging. Here, she is bluntly told that others have problems, too. This moment serves as Annie’s first step into the world outside of Honeysuckle, initiating her into The Search for Belonging and Self-Definition through the harsh reality that everyone faces difficulties—not just her.

“I have been here every day for the last seventeen years. Let’s be clear; everybody didn’t leave poor little you.”

Similar to the harsh words that Annie receives from Babydoll, Aunt Irene speaks bluntly as Vernice grieves the fact that Annie left for Memphis in the middle of the night. Vernice’s self-focused loss has blinded her to the care and support that Aunt Irene has always given her. This moment of brutal truth ends Vernice’s coddling as she begins to grapple with the real world of adulthood.

“I don’t know why I was surprised to discover that this place that used to be a farm was now a brothel. In those days, nearly everything for colored folks was molded into whatever we needed it to be.”

At Lulabelle’s, Annie reflects on the repurposing of a former plantation into a brothel. She notes how Black people have always “molded” the world to fit their needs, connecting her own struggles to the broader idea of Black identity. After being unfulfilled in childhood, Annie embarks on The Search for Belonging and Self-Definition. Here, she is inspired to consider what an adult life could look like by Lulabelle’s nontraditional creation of her own business and willingness to “mold” systems of oppression to suit her needs.

“Aunt Irene went out to the shed and retrieved the brass-buckled trunk the Ohio Man sent all those years ago, when she had accepted that her visit to Honeysuckle had turned into a relocation. The brown leather was supple, like she had tipped out to the shed from time to time, rubbing it down with saddle soap.”

As Aunt Irene prepares to return to Ohio when Vernice goes off to college, her Ohio Man suitcases represent change and mobility. Aunt Irene is returning to where she was happiest, undertaking the journey by using the same suitcase she brought with her. This scene emphasizes the fact that Aunt Irene came to Honeysuckle out of obligation, not happiness; she has polished the suitcase over the years to prepare for her eventual departure.

“The truth of the matter is that I selected this seat with the humility required of those of us tucked under the smelly wing of Jim Crow. Choosing this row, I believed it to be the best seat among the worst. But by accident, I situated myself in the worst among the best. The distance between the seats was shorter than my arm.”

Vernice’s struggle on the bus to college situates the novel historically within the Jim Crow South. Ironically, she does not make the conscious decision to sit in the “white” section, instead doing so by accident. However, the fact that she is still severely punished—thrown off the bus and left without her luggage—emphasizes the deep impact of racism throughout the novel. Despite everything she has done to have the opportunity for college, Vernice is still restricted by the time she is living in.

“When you find her—if you find her—and you are let down because she ain’t nothing but a woman and not some goddess, just remember that she didn’t try to sell you for five bucks and a drink of cold water.”

When they discuss the Bible and Annie’s past for the first time, Lulabelle’s advice evokes The Psychological Impact of Maternal Absence while trying to get Annie to find perspective. As Lulabelle summons the image of a baby sold into a horrific fate, she makes it clear that abandonment is not the worst thing that could have happened to Annie. She is not trying to minimize Annie’s struggle but instead maternally guiding her to an understanding of the good things that she has in her life despite her mother’s abandonment.

“[W]hy did it feel so bad we didn’t have a man accompanying us? My curiosity flashed on my father. This may have been the only time in my life that I missed him. I felt like a bride ambling down the aisle alone.”

In a rare moment, Vernice thinks of her father, for whom she largely harbors anger over the fact that he killed her mother. Even his terrifying presence would have made arriving at college feel safer than traveling with only Ola Mae and Miss Jemison. Vernice uses a simile, comparing herself to a bride that has no one to give her away at her wedding. The image is about a lack of origins, playing into The Search for Belonging and Self-Definition. Like marriage, college is about entering a new stage of her life. In this moment, she thinks of her absent father, revealing deeply rooted grief at her lack of a traditional home and support system.

“Before I opened the door, I said, ‘I love you,’ tossing the words over my shoulder like a handful of wildflower seeds.”

The first time that Annie tells Bobo that she loves him, she uses a simile comparing the act of saying the words to scattering “seeds” into the air. This ambiguous image contains both the symbolism of germination, implying that the relationship could blossom, and indiscriminate “tossing,” which undercuts the care and intentionality typically used in gardening. The ambiguity emphasizes Annie’s struggle for attachment, rooted in The Psychological Impact of Maternal Absence: She struggles to invest fully in Bobo, instead saying these important words in passing as she exits.

“I was baffled how someone as observant as Joette could fail to understand that her cup more than runneth over. How couldn’t she see that she shared a room with someone who didn’t even have a cup at all?”

This thought from Vernice is the first time that Black Women’s Struggle for Upward Mobility is tied to Joette—even if Vernice does not fully understand it at the time. When Vernice first sees Joette, she sees her as someone with privilege who should be happy with what she has. However, she fails to understand what she will later discover: Joette has sacrificed part of herself to maintain her social status, leading to unhappiness.

“It’s not easy being a child when your mother is tending to another family all day. It’s among my theories that this has created a wound for our people. Our mothers were stolen from us.”

Mrs. McHenry explains that she too grew up without a mother because of her job as a maid to another family, illuminating the generational cycle of The Psychological Impact of Maternal Absence. Her confession underscores the complexity of maternal absence, which comes in a variety of ways. While Mrs. McHenry’s mother was in her life, she spent much of her time outside of the home, so Mrs. McHenry felt neglected. This also connects to the broader issue of Black identity, emphasizing how enslavement, indentured servitude, and systemic inequality have impacted Black families.

“Franklin had watched me with curiosity and with wonder. His imagination did most of the lifting. But Joette knew this body like you know your favorite song. If my body was the record, her gaze was the needle that made it sing. I faced her before I belted the robe closed.”

In comparing the way Franklin and Joette look at her, Vernice uses a metaphor, comparing love to music, to explain how each makes her feel. Her decision to face Joette, exposing her entire body, underscores the authentic sexual and romantic connection she has to Joette, which she is willing to give up for the social mobility that Franklin offers.

“I wasn’t so country and out of it that I had never heard of passing. […] But never in my life had I heard of anybody passing backward.”

In the theater, Vernice and Franklin discuss Marylinda and her father. Marylinda’s father, who is white, left Brooklyn and now passes for Black to be with his Black wife. The irony reverses Black Women’s Struggle for Upward Mobility, demonstrating that some people are willing to socially demote themselves for love. While Vernice is giving up love to be with Franklin, Marylinda’s father did the opposite: He gave up the privilege of whiteness to be with his love, a fact Vernice struggles to grasp because it is so different from her own feelings.

“Much is made of the burning love that hits like a smoldering remnant of a star hurled down to earth. Yet this is not the only type of love any more than the camellia is the only flower. There is the love that blooms from decency, and from that love, passion. On that cold day, I wanted to feel the marvel that was Franklin.”

Vernice has these thoughts when Franklin proposes to her, as she officially chooses to leave Joette for him. She uses two metaphors to explain how love feels, comparing to a meteor and a flower. Her love for Joette is “smoldering” like the molten space rock, strong, full of desire, and immediate. Conversely, she is hopeful that her love for Franklin is more like a delicate flower that could “bloom” over time via self-conditioning.

“I saw a young woman poised to take flight. Joette had the itchy readiness of a bullet in the chamber. I admired her in that moment as much as I had the day I met her, when I was just a country mouse toting a carpetbag. Joette Cunningham was ‘one of one’ like the Ohio Man—the likes of which I had never seen before, and, I suspected, something I would never see again.”

As Joette crosses the stage to graduate, Vernice compares her to Aunt Irene’s love, the Ohio Man. This comparison underscores the theme of draws a parallel between two romantic interests deemed inappropriate to pursue. In Vernice’s eyes, both relationships are forbidden and doomed to fail despite the intense love found within them.

“Annie and I were two motherless girls who grew into motherless women. Who would we be to each other if Annie and Hattie Lee connected? Yes, we would always have our childhood in common. But what if Annie repaired the hole in her dam with concrete and straw, whereas I was still using my finger?”

After Vernice learns of Hattie’s supposed death, she acknowledges her own internal conflict for the first time. Since her connection with Annie is rooted in the fact that they are both “motherless,” she wonders what it will mean for their friendship if Annie makes peace with her loss. Vernice expresses herself through a metaphor that underscores The Psychological Impact of Maternal Absence. In her eyes, the trauma of losing her mother is like water behind a dam, which both girls desperately try to prevent from flooding their lives.

“So maybe I demurred because I was afraid. And because I was too poor to be thrown out of school. Whatever my reasons were, I didn’t have anything to be proud of. Crossing the threshold into the clean, well-lighted department store felt like riding a train using a stolen ticket.”

As Vernice enters the previously segregated café that was integrated through the work of Marylinda, she feels complex guilt over her failure to help the civil rights movement while benefitting from its accomplishments. Her feelings offer a new perspective on Black Women’s Struggle for Upward Mobility. She acknowledges that her social standing and her desire for respectability prevent her from participating in the movement, but this comes at an emotional cost: She feels as though she has “stolen” her “ticket” to enter the café.

“Because your life isn’t even half done. You can’t be at the whole point today. And […] if meeting your mother is the point of a person’s whole life, like you said, then what does that leave for me?”

Vernice questions Annie’s assertion that finding her mother is “the whole point” of her life, marking their shifting perspectives. Vernice has found a replacement for her emotional void in Mrs. McHenry, Franklin, and Joette. Conversely, Annie has remained stagnant, fixated on the loss of her mother, emphasizing the growing divide between them.

“[Mrs. McHenry] lay the envelope on the kitchen table between us and we studied it like a scientific specimen. The paper was ecru and thick, yet light enough that it required just one stamp. This meant there was no internal envelope or reply card. Adding to the mystery, the address was printed in block letters like a ransom note, rather than in the florid calligraphy that protocol requires for an invitation.”

This humorous moment, where Mrs. McHenry and Vernice inspect the note that announces the end of Joette’s engagement, underscores the change that Vernice has undergone in the novel. Comfortable and happy in her marriage, she savvily investigates the note itself. She now understands the dynamics of these notes, noting its size, thickness, and writing—clues whose meaning she can now correctly interpret, showing how much she has become part of this world.

“I could picture Mrs. McHenry in front of a vanity mirror, pulling a paddle brush through her shiny hair, muttering the word that I never wanted applied to me—‘trifling.’”

The use of the word “trifling” is a callback to the fact that everyone in Honeysuckle used that word to describe Annie’s mother. This commonality highlights the parallels between the two women, neither of whom can be fully rooted. Knowing where her mother is and that she will not be part of her life continues to shatter Annie, who now compares her own mistakes to those of Hattie.

“I never knew how weighted down I was about my history until I was able to untie it from around my neck. With this ring, this name—for the first time in my life, I am not anybody’s ‘poor thing.’”

In a letter to Annie, Vernice explains that she can no longer help her get an abortion. Her words highlight the change that Vernice has undergone, particularly with regard to The Psychological Impact of Maternal Absence. She compares the loss of her mother to a physical “weight” that she has been able to finally “untie” and rid herself of. Now, she is hopeful that Mrs. McHenry, Franklin, and the class mobility that she has achieved will fill the void of her mother’s absence.