Essay Questions

Whose baby is mentioned, and what does it represent?

The baby isn’t real; it is simply a metaphor. The main character (Smarsh) decided never to have a baby, and instead constructed one in her own mind. The baby represents her ties to patriarchal norms and her unrealized alternate future. Her baby is seen as a companion and she occasionally talks to it. Part of her choice to not have a baby is based around the systemic poverty that her family was born into. Her child represents her unfulfilled destiny but also the reason why she was able to break from the norms of her family, go to college, and have her own career.

How does Smarsh break from the traditional values that her family had?

For one, she decided not to have a baby in her teens. Instead, she went to college and graduated with a BA. None of her family members went to college. She grew up without the systemic poverty that her family endured. She even became a professor and bought her own home, instead of moving from home to home like her family did. She became a success in the conventional sense rather than in the familial sense, which breaks from her roots.

How does the book emphasize a dichotomy of rich and poor?

It is frequently pointed out in this book how the poor become more impoverished and the rich maintain their status. When repairs needed to be done to Smarsh’s house, it was hard for them to afford it. Her family could not access water. The rich constantly belittle them and look down on them throughout the course of the book, and Smarsh notes that she does not feel like a person in their eyes.