Summary
We see Eula and Eli running through the dunes on the beach in a flashback. They laugh and enjoy themselves.
Back in the present, Mary applies face powder and tells Eula that they live like savages on the island. Suddenly, Mary lets out a scream and Trula giggles at her. "I sure hope they're fixing some gumbo," Mary says.
Elsewhere, Iona asks her sister where she found Yellow Mary, then comments on the fact that Mary is a "scary woman," not a family woman.
Mary tells Eula that "the raping of colored women is as common as fish in the sea." Eula tells Mary that she didn't tell Eli who raped her, and Mary is relieved, saying that if Eli knew, he might end up dead if he tried to seek revenge.
The Unborn Child narrates in voiceover, "I remember how important the children were to the Peazant family, and how I had to convince my daddy that I was his child." We see a group of men on the beach setting up a photograph with Snead. As Snead takes a photograph, one of the men tells him to talk to Bilal if he wants to know about African people. Bilal came over on the last slave ship, The Wanderer, the man tells him.
Mary tells Eula that her baby was born dead and that she started working for a wealthy family off Edisto because she needed money. She followed the family to Cuba, where she took care of the family's children and became "ruined." Eventually, she says, she left Cuba.
We see Yellow Mary and Trula walking along the water's edge, then embracing. They walk with Eula and find an old weathered umbrella buried in the sand, which they open and stand beneath. We then see them sitting on a fallen palm tree.
Iona watches as St. Julian Last Child walks on the beach leading a horse by a rope. Going to him, she embraces him, and they kiss one another.
Haagar calls for Iona, but she cannot find her. She then complains that Nana won't sit near them where they can watch over her. We see Nana take a leather pouch out of her tin can, a prop that one of the younger women remarks that she is never without. Haagar compares Eula to Nana, saying that they're both strange, but Viola scolds Haagar for making fun of an old woman. "Just like Eula, you married into this family, but she's our grandmother. There's nothing wrong or harmful in that tin can she carries, just some old scraps of memories."
They continue to talk about Nana, the fact that she was never educated and she doesn't know much about the outside world. One of the women says that Nana ought to come north with them, but Haagar thinks that if Nana wants to stay, she should. "I'm an educated person, and I'm tired of those old stories!" yells Haagar, saying that she doesn't want her children to grow up to be like Nana. They talk more about Bilal Muhammed, and Viola calls him a "heathen." Haagar is outspoken in her desire for change, saying, "I'll lock horns with anybody and anything that tries to hold me back."
Thunder begins to rumble as a storm rolls in. The Unborn Child narrates, "Everyone was just as scared as Nana Peazant." We see a group of girls running on the beach towards a wooden chair, then getting coached by Viola, and we see men playing a hand game, and then a game of Mancala.
A man wearing a bowler hat, Eli's cousin, walks through the forest, when suddenly Eli jumps on him and the two men laugh. Eli's cousin tells Eli that a man named Solomon is in town, with a black woman, who "says she's a newspaper woman." His cousin then tells him that he's working on an anti-lynching law again, and asks Eli if he wants to be involved. Eli tells him that he's leaving the island with the group the following morning. The men fight, and Eli ends up beating his cousin.
The Unborn Child narrates, "In this quiet place, years ago, my family knelt down and caught a glimpse of the eternal. We left our markers in the soil, in memory of the families who once lived here. We were the children of those who chose to survive. Years later my ma told me she knew I had been sent forward by the old souls." We see a young girl with a blue bow approaching a group of women who are dying fabrics. A man stacks woodblocks and sings as a young boy watches him.
The young girl approaches Mary, Trula, and Eula, who are looking at a newspaper. The girl points at an advertisement for teddy bears. Trula points at the various luxuries of American consumerism in the newspaper and says she wants them. "I wish I had a rabbit," she says. The women ask a little boy named Ninnyjugs what he wants, and he replies, "Everything!" Haagar does eenie-meenie-minie-moe to help Ninnyjugs decide on a product he wants.
Analysis
In this section of the film, we learn that Eula was raped and impregnated by a white man. Mary counsels Eula that such things happen all the time, but that she ought not to tell Eli, or he will likely try and get revenge and risk his own life. The women treat the revelation of this traumatic event with a straightforward candor, as if there is nothing surprising about it. While Eli has been emotional and upset about his wife's rape, Eula maintains a more sorrowful air of resignation, and this shows the ways that the two members of the couple must bear the violence against their race differently.
We also learn more about Mary's biography in this section. She tells Eula that she had a baby, but that it was born already dead, a fact that she reveals with a brusque acceptance. Going on, she tells Eula about her previous employment and the fact that she too has been raped. Mary is as wise as she is cynical about the island, and provides some comfort for the sheltered Eula by relating her own experiences of the world.
The visual imagery of the film continues to contribute to the storytelling. There are many scenes in which dialogue is sparse, but in which the viewer learns more about the relationships between the characters. For instance, when we see Mary, Trula, and Eula walking on the beach and finding an abandoned umbrella, which they then all stand under, we see the ways that Mary and Trula are taking Eula under their wings and helping protect her and make her feel loved and accepted in spite of her recent tragedy. At dusk on the beach, the three women walk at the water's edge in pale dresses, and discover a relic from the past together, lit beautifully by the soft light of the setting sun.
In this section, we also learn more about Haagar. As conservative and close-minded as she seems when she lays eyes on Yellow Mary, Haagar's main motivation in life is to move away from the provincial existence in Ibo Landing and seek out an education and connection to the wider world. She is outspoken in her desire for a better life and more opportunity, and she rails against the old superstitious ways of Nana Peazant. Haagar is a major representative of the changing of the times, and the fact that the old traditions of the island are drifting away as time goes on.
The film stages the bridging between the past and the present visually, particularly through the experience of a young girl who lives on the island. We see her wandering around, first past a group of island elders washing and hanging fabrics up to dry. Here, she communes with the past, with older modes of being, the traditions that the Peazants will leave behind when they leave the island. She then finds Mary, Eula, and Trula, who are looking at a newspaper of some kind, and points to a teddy bear being advertised. Here, we see the girl encountering the modern age, pointing to a teddy bear and desiring to be more of a part of modern society. The girl represents the potential of the Gullah people, to either stay steeped in their older traditions, or else try to move into the modern era.
