The Darkest Child

“‘I swear, I got the dumbest children in the world. Sometimes I wonder if all y’all belong to me.’

I wondered, too. Sometimes I even prayed there had been a mistake, and that somebody would come along, take my hand, and say, ‘Rozelle Quinn, I believe this child belongs to me.’ Mama would push me into the arms of the stranger and say, ‘You’re right. I knew all along she was your child, but I loved her so I just couldn’t bear to let her go. You take her, though, because she rightfully belongs to you.’ I would go off to my new home where there would be a bed from the Griggs furniture store, a dress for every day of the week, a change of underpants, and two pairs of shoes with good hard-bottom soles. I would have an electric light to read by, and rows and rows of all sorts of great books.”

This passage illuminates the poverty of Tangy’s family, and it also establishes her belief that access to books and knowledge is as important as access to essentials such as clothing. Early on, Tangy’s fantasy includes the notion that Rozelle isn’t her real mother, but it also includes the notion that Rozelle loves her deeply. This illustrates Tangy’s early ambivalence toward Rozelle. Eventually, to make the right decision for her own well-being, Tangy will have to place less emphasis on Rozelle’s positive qualities so that she can leave.

“Mushy is the first to move. She wraps her arms around Martha Jean and pulls her to her feet. We all begin to move, fetching water, tearing bandages, pouring our love onto a wound that will never heal. We work as a silent, defeated army, beaten down by our mother, tending our wounded. We do not retaliate, for our victory is inconceivable.

In less than five minutes, our mother had taught us to never touch her metal box, and the true meaning of fear. I wondered that day if I was the only one in the room who knew that there was something terribly wrong with our mother.”

This passage moves from individual narration to collective narration to emphasize the camaraderie between the Quinn siblings. With an abusive, neglectful mother, the siblings have formed strong bonds with each other and have taken on the role of caretakers. Tangy’s loyalty toward her siblings is a positive phenomenon, yet it stands in her way of leaving for years.

“What set [Sam] apart from the others was his light complexion and the sandy-brown color of his hair. He looked like, and was often mistaken for, a white man, although everybody in Bakersfield knew he was Negro. Probably the only person who did not know he was colored was our mother. She took pleasure in categorizing her children by race. Mushy, Harvey, Sam, and Martha Jean were her white children. Tarabelle, Wallace, and Laura were Indians—Cherokee, no less. Edna and I were Negroes.”

This passage illustrates The Effects of Systemic Racism and Colorism on Individual and Family Dynamics. Although Rozelle is a Black woman, she’s light-skinned and she is prejudiced based on skin color, even when it comes to her own children, illustrating how colorism can exist even within Black communities. Rozelle prefers her light-skinned children, whereas her dark-skinned children are subjected to extra and unique forms of abuse.

“‘What is it you want Sam to lead?’ I asked.

‘The Movement,’ he answered. ‘You must know about the Movement, Tangy. We’re going to change some things in this town. We're going to change some things in this country. You’ll see.’

I stood there perplexed, staring at his back as he crossed Market Street and made his way toward the flats. What a ridiculous statement, I thought. They can’t change anything. My entire life had been spent in Bakersfield, and I knew. I didn’t know about the rest of the country, but I knew that nothing was going to change in Triacy County.”

This passage illustrates Junior and Sam’s commitment to fighting against The Effects of Systemic Racism and Colorism on Individual and Family Dynamics. Tangy is also interested in this cause, but she’s doubtful whether social change is possible in her hometown, illustrating the extent of oppression in the novel’s isolated setting.

“She spat a mixture of saliva and snuff right onto the belly of the stove. ‘Yo’ mama can’t be helped,’ she said. ‘Ain’t nobody in the world can help yo’ mama.’

With that, she turned her back to us and left our house. The gob of snuff sizzled in her wake and became a permanent stain on the stove. For some reason, I felt it was a stain on me as well.”

This passage illustrates The Complexities of Mother-Daughter Relationships within Troubled Families. Unbeknownst to Tangy at this time, the midwife, Zadie, is Rozelle’s mother, and their hatred for each other is based on their troubled past together. The stain that Zadie leaves on Rozelle’s stove symbolizes the pain that remains inside Rozelle due to their troubled mother-daughter relationship. The fact that Tangy feels like the stain affects her, too, reveals how troubled familial relationships can create multigenerational trauma.

“‘You a Quinn, baby,’ she says softly. ‘We don’t run from nobody. Nobody! Do you understand that?’

[…]

‘You gotta fight. Don’t take nothing but swinging yo’ fist. You understand that?’

[…]

‘I’m gon’ make sho’ you understand it,’ she says, loosening her grip on my thighs. ‘Hand me that poker and hold her feet, Tarabelle.’

Tarabelle clamps down on my feet, immobilizing me. There is no time to cry out as my mother brings the searing fire iron down onto my leg. I swoon from the pain, and my mother’s voice trails me as I enter into a darkness that is death and float deeper still into Hell. ‘I done branded you a Quinn, girl. Don’t you ever run from nobody else long as you live.’

[…]

I remembered wanting to fade back into the darkness, but being unable to. I will forever wear a brand on my lower left leg that I am able to hide beneath a sock. Sometimes when I am most afraid, I touch my scar to remind myself that I am not a coward. I am a Quinn.”

The use of italics indicates a flashback, but the use of the present tense gives the traumatic memory a sense of immediacy, illustrating how strong of an impact it still has on Tangy despite being in the past. The physical scar from the branding on Tangy’s leg also symbolizes the emotional “scar” that the memory has left on her.

“‘The best way to get them is through education,’ Junior countered. ‘What good are laws that cannot be read or understood, or a tongue that spews only hatred and ignorance? What good is the written word to an illiterate man?’

[…]

‘I guess I believe in education as a weapon in our fight. That’s why I walk those roads out through the country every week. I want to help people learn to read and write. I know knives and guns are not the answer. Once we get a fight like that started, who will have the power to stop it? How many deaths will be enough?’”

Junior’s speech illustrates The Role of Education in Achieving Liberation. Although education may not automatically create social change, Junior reasons that it’s a logical first step because without education, people won’t even be able to understand what the present situation is or what’s problematic about it.

“‘I can’t see where it makes no difference […] After you finish school, what you gon’ do? You’ll get a job doing the same thing somebody doing that ain’t never went to school. My daddy say a colored woman ain’t shit. He say they ain’t good for nothing. Can’t do nothing but stand around putting a whole lot of weight on a man.’

‘We can teach,’ I said. ‘And Mushy works in a hospital. There are things we can do, Mattie.’

‘Mushy don’t work in no hospital in Bakersfield. I think my daddy right, so what’s the use going to school?’”

This passage illuminates the internalized misogyny that Mattie suffers from. Even though she is herself a young Black woman, she’s been conditioned to believe that Black women can’t achieve much in terms of academics or a career, so trying is pointless. Tangy resists Mattie’s ideas, which shows how she’s starting to have hope in the possibility of change and growth.

“My anger had dissolved; I felt cheated and confused. I ached for the comfort that Velman had offered Martha Jean. She was visibly bruised; my wounds were deeply buried in my soul. No one knew about them. I truly believed Velman would try to help Martha Jean escape our mother’s house, but escape was what I desired for myself as well. I wanted him to love her, but I realized that I wanted him to love me, too.”

Tangy develops a misguided desire for Velman to “rescue” her like she believes he did to Martha Jean when Rozelle sold Martha Jean (a child) to Velman (an adult) for a car. However, what Tangy ultimately desires is not Velman or any specific man, but rather liberation from Rozelle. Early on, she doesn’t realize that she can liberate herself, but later, she does.

“‘I know you’re hungry—so hungry that you will die of starvation if you stay in Bakersfield. I’ve watched you on the few occasions when I’ve taught your class. You devour knowledge like a buzzard on a corpse. […] There’re not enough books on the shelves of all the schools and libraries in this county to feed your hunger. You need more, and you’ll never find it here.’

[…]

‘I practice hard to speak the way Mr. Pace wants me to speak, but when I come home from school, my sisters and brothers get angry at me for talking that way. If I slip and say the wrong thing at school, Mr. Pace corrects me. Sometimes it embarrasses me when he corrects me in front of other people.’

‘Don’t be embarrassed. It’s his job to teach you the right way, but in the end, you won’t have to satisfy him, or your brothers and sisters. You’ll have to satisfy yourself, Tangy.’”

Junior’s words once again emphasize The Role of Education in Achieving Liberation. Tangy still worries that her commitment to education alienates her from her family, but Junior points out that what matters is impressing herself, not anyone else. This is the last conversation Tangy will have with Junior before he’s killed, and his words have a lasting impact on her as she values education more and more as the novel progresses.

“‘I won't let you go. You my baby, Harvey. Don’t turn yo’ back on me.’

‘I ain’t turning my back on you. If you ever need me, I’ll come, but I done took my last beating and it’s just time to go. I’m sorry, Mama.’

[…] Already I missed Harvey, but he had just shown me that one day I, too, might walk out of my mother’s house—alive.”

Rozelle has conditioned her kids through abuse to be afraid of defying her or leaving her. However, Tangy quickly learns from watching Harvey leave freely that Rozelle doesn’t hold as much power over the kids as she once believed. Harvey is old enough to leave without being brought back by the police, and Tangy isn’t yet, but this experience is still formative for Tangy because she realizes that escape will truly be possible one day.

“Damn, Rozelle […] we got us a queen here. A sho’ nuff queen.

[…]

Lord, if she ain’t got my mama’s hair.

[…]

Yo’ mama […] I asked her to marry me once, but she wouldn’t do it. […] She said, ‘Crow, I can’t marry no man dark as you.’ […] That’s all the reason she ever gave. […] She kinda stuck on that color thang, you know? I was willing to take them babies she had and give ‘em a home, but all yo’ mama could see was color. She ain’t changed a bit, neither. She’d go out wit’ me, help me spend my money, have a little fun, but that was all. She didn’t want nobody to see her wit’ me. She still don’t.”

This passage illustrates The Effects of Systemic Racism and Colorism on Individual and Family Dynamics, showing how Rozelle’s family structure was literally altered because of her colorism—she refused to marry Crow simply because he was dark-skinned. However, Crow also provides a counterpoint to Rozelle’s colorism, calling Tangy a “queen” and praising her appearance rather than insulting it. After a lifetime of colorist remarks from Rozelle, this fresh perspective is enlightening and inspiring for Tangy.

“‘Okay, Rozelle, what happened?’ the sheriff asked again.

‘I don’t really know,’ Mama answered, and began to sob in her rehearsed, refined manner. ‘I was playing wit’ my baby right here on the porch. You know how you do. I was swinging her out, trying to get her to laugh. I don’t know what happened. I swung her out that one time and she musta kicked or something ‘cause the next thing I knew she was falling. Wadn’t nothing I could do.’

She was convincing. I thought for a moment that maybe I was mistaken in what I thought had happened. I thought she had thrown Judy from the porch, but no mother could do that, not even mine. Could she?”

This passage illustrates The Complexities of Mother-Daughter Relationships Within Troubled Families. Even after witnessing Rozelle throw Judy off the porch to kill her, Tangy doubts her own memory when she hears Rozelle’s explanation to the sheriff. This indicates both Rozelle’s level of manipulation over her children as well as Tangy’s disbelief at Rozelle’s extreme actions.

“Mr. Munford had told Mama that he couldn’t help her, and he doubted if she would find a lawyer in town willing to take Sam’s case. He had suggested she go to one of the neighboring counties to find a lawyer, but even then he thought she’d have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find someone willing to defend a Negro charged with assaulting a white man. He thought she’d stand a better chance if Sam’s only charge had been the murder of a Negro.”

This quote illustrates The Effects of Systemic Racism and Colorism on Individual and Family Dynamics. Sam is in jail for one crime he actually committed (beating up the white Griggs boy in retaliation for the Griggs boy hitting Rozelle) and one crime he didn’t commit (murdering Junior, which he was wrongly blamed for solely because of his race and skin color as a light-skinned Black man). Ironically, although his true crime of assault is objectively less serious than murder, the race of the victims renders the crime of assault “worse” in the eyes of the town’s white residents.

“I suggested she go talk to Mr. Pace, Mr. Hewitt, or Reverend Nelson. ‘They’re educated men, Mama. Maybe they can tell you how to help Sam.’

‘Educated?’ she spat at me. ‘Junior Fess thought he was educated, and where is he now? I don’t need nobody that’s too smart for they own good.’

I wanted to tell her that any lawyer she found would be an educated man and, hopefully, a smart one, but I knew it was time for me to be quiet.”

This quote complicates The Role of Education in Achieving Liberation by showing Rozelle’s disdain for education, which causes Tangy to doubt education’s value throughout the novel. Here, she’s beginning to identify holes in Rozelle’s argument, which illustrates her character development and progress toward resolution, even if she isn’t honest with Rozelle about her ideas.

“‘Don’t you know your ignorance is what’s holding you down? As long as you remain ignorant, they’ll treat you any way they want. I know most of you have been right here in Bakersfield all of your lives. You don’t even realize you’re being mistreated. I call that ignorance. Most of you can’t even read the newspaper and you won’t bother to get someone else to read it to you. You don’t know what’s going on. You don’t even know that the rest of the world ain’t like this little backwards cracker town.’

[…]

‘I expect you to come together as a race […] to stop staring at the ground every time you speak to a white man that ain’t a drop better than you. I expect you to be the men you were born to be, and to demand your God-given right to be human.’

‘We’ve got wives and children to feed,’ one man yelled. ‘Who gon’ pay our wages when we go making all these demands?’

‘What wages? […] There’s not a dozen of you here who can feed your children without your wives going to work. And what is she doing? She’s getting calluses on her hands from scrubbing the white man’s house, tending his children, washing his clothes, and cooking his meals. I see your wives cutting through town every morning, going to East Grove, Meadow Hill, and some as far as North Ridge. They wash clothes and cook supper for the white man, then you wanna knock them around when they’re too tired to have your supper on the table on time.’”

Hambone’s speech at the fair illustrates The Effects of Systemic Racism and Colorism on Individual and Family Dynamics as well as The Role of Education in Achieving Liberation. Hambone, like Junior, now argues that education is a necessary condition for social change because education allows people to see the problematic situation clearly and determine the best remedy. Whereas others in the crowd argue that they can’t afford to focus on education and the fight for social justice, Hambone argues that they can’t afford not to because they have nothing to lose.

“My most pleasant days, oddly enough, were spent at the Whitmans’. Their house had undergone a remarkable restoration. It was now an unpeeling, spotless white with intact dark green shutters, and I felt more at ease there, to speak and roam about the rooms, than in my mother’s house.

In my mother’s house, we waited. We waited on her and for her. We waited for change, and nothing ever changed, except our mother’s moods.”

This passage illustrates The Complexities of Mother-Daughter Relationships Within Troubled Families. Rozelle’s shifting moods are particularly hard on Tangy because, since Rozelle is sometimes pleasant, Tangy isn’t sure how to feel about her. Whereas Tarabelle focuses only on Rozelle’s negative aspects and, consequently, gains clarity about the situation, Tangy’s nuanced view of Rozelle confuses her for years. Ironically, Tangy feels more comfortable at the home of the racist white family for whom she works, because the arrangement is stable and she knows what to expect,

“‘I’ve been looking over college material, trying to decide what to give you…I think I’ll give it all to you and let you make the decision as to where you’d like to go.’

[…] It should have been clear to him that I would not be attending college. It was doubtful that I would even finish high school, so why was he enticing me with such unobtainable prospects? I watched as he stacked the papers together, then pushed them to the edge of the desk, within my reach.

‘I appreciate this, Mr. Pace, but…’ I started.

‘You will go,’ he said with conviction. ‘You’ll go on a scholarship because you’re earning it. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve already earned it. I’m aware of the sacrifices you make to come to school, and still you outshine every student here. I’ve seen your sisters and brothers drop out long before they’ve even reached my class, but you’re determined, whether you know it or not. Tell me, Tangy, where do you see yourself five years from now?’

I closed my eyes, and although Mr. Pace had said five years, I saw myself at my mother’s age, working for Miss Veatrice, stumbling over clay pots packed with mud, and living in desolation on Penyon Road. I shuddered.

‘What do you see?’ he asked.

‘I can’t see that far, Mr. Pace,’ I lied.

‘I think you can, but you don’t like what you see. Go to college, Tangy.’”

This passage illustrates The Role of Education in Achieving Liberation. Mr. Pace argues that going to college will give Tangy a ticket out of a life of poverty, sadness, and a lack of fulfillment, which Tangy fears is the only life possible for her. Although the novel doesn’t reveal whether Tangy goes to college, Mr. Pace inspires her to finish high school and leave town with Laura, so the role of education in achieving liberation is still emphasized.

“‘She says I’ll have to go back, Tara. I’ll have to go back until that lawyer gets Sam out of jail.’

We were silent for a long time, then Tara said, ‘You wouldn’t have to go if Mama was dead.’”

This passage illustrates The Complexities of Mother-Daughter Relationships Within Troubled Families. Despite any mother-daughter bond that may have existed once, Tarabelle is now so angry at Rozelle for selling her and her sisters into sex work that she thinks their lives would be better if Rozelle were dead. This passage foreshadows Tarabelle’s failed attempt to murder Rozelle when she burns their old house down at the novel’s end.

“I fought a compelling desire to snatch my sister from the arms I craved comfort from myself. I did not merely want her man; I needed him. He could be my deliverance, rescue me from Penyon Road, mend the broken pieces of my heart and make me whole again. With as much dignity as I could muster, I rose from the floor and went toward the front door, needing to get away from this house and all the things I could not have.”

Tangy temporarily longs for Velman because she believes that he “rescued” Martha Jean from Rozelle, and Tangy also wants to be rescued, healed, and fulfilled. When she leaves Velman and Martha Jean’s house in this passage, it’s a step in the right direction because to leave Rozelle’s house on her own, she first needs to give up on the idea that someone else is going to rescue her.

“‘They sitting in there planning to send you to that white school next year. They say you intelligent, you carry yo’self like a proper young lady, and you the somebody gon’ integrate that school. […] I ain’t buying none of it. They wanna take you away from me. That Mr. Pace of yours always wanted to take you away. I told ‘em to kiss my ass ‘cause you ain’t going to that school. They can find another guinea pig.’

[…]

‘Tangy Mae gon’ get a job—or starve. She ain’t going back to school.’

She meant every word she said, but my mother was a liar. I remembered her telling me that people in Georgia did not get hungry, so how could I starve? She had said that I was not going back to school, but I was. I had to.”

This passage further complicates The Role of Education in Achieving Liberation. Although integration would be liberating, Rozelle views it with disdain, just like she views education in general with disdain. Rozelle still fears that education will take Tangy away from her, which foreshadows how Tangy will leave town as soon as she graduates high school. Tangy’s perspective on education continues to evolve, however, and here, she completely dismisses Rozelle’s ideas, although she doesn’t admit this to Rozelle.

“I thought a daddy would offer love instead of anger. A daddy would soothe me and tell me that everything is going to be all right. A daddy would understand that I am just a child in a grown-up world, trying to do what I am told, trying to survive.”

This passage develops the relationship between Tangy and Crow. When Crow sees Tangy at the farmhouse and initially reacts with anger, she’s hurt because, to her, it’s obvious that she wouldn’t choose to be there of her own accord. Ironically, Tangy’s list of wishes about her father does come true eventually, but first, she and Velman must fully explain the situation to Crow.

“Velman stopped, turned to face Crow. ‘Hey, man,’ he said, ‘this ain’t my business. Ain’t nobody pimping my daughter all over Triacy County. And I got two daughters. But I’m man enough to stay put and see about mine. Let’s hear you say that. And while you running all over the place, from Detroit to Pittsburgh or wherever the hell you go, do you sleep on a bed? Your daughter been sleeping on a floor all her life. My daughter’s in there in a bed. So don’t you talk to me ‘bout no business, motherfucka.’”

Ironically, Velman does act as a protector to Tangy, but his protectiveness doesn’t take the form Tangy expected. Instead of purchasing Tangy from Rozelle like he did with Martha Jean, or even talking to Rozelle, Velman instead talks to Crow, who initially blames Velman for Tangy’s trouble. Through this speech, Velman helps Crow become an unlikely donor character in Tangy’s story.