Summary
The new section begins with Truman and Lynne’s time living together in Mississippi. Lynne finds the lives of poor blacks in the South to be aesthetically pleasing, like art, something that she knows is patronizing and jeopardizing to her relationship with Truman. Meanwhile, Truman has had enough of the civil rights movement and consents to move to Mississippi as an alternative to living in France.
When Truman’s friend, Tommy Odds, is shot by white assailants, Truman begins to notice a change in his feelings for Lynne. Truman goes to visit Tommy in the hospital and finds out that he has lost the lower half of his arm. During the visit, Tommy lashes out at Lynne, telling Truman that he has a deep hatred for white people and wants to act violently toward them. Truman feels that Lynne is guilty for Tommy’s injury, in part because Lynne made the white townspeople angry at Tommy for being seen out with a white woman, and in part simply because she is white.
Shocked at his realization that, by extension, he is partially responsible for Tommy’s injury, Truman drops the bottle of wine that he brought to his friend. He reflects on other black men he knows who have married white women. Although Lynne tries to earn the trust of black men who are wary of white women, she is no longer welcome in the civil rights movement.
Three years after marrying Lynne, Truman goes to see Meridian in a small town in Alabama. Meridian refuses to take Truman, however, for Lynne’s sake; when Truman says he should have married her, Meridian counters that he should have loved her. Truman is surprised that Meridian dismisses him. Although she points out that back in college he wanted a completely different woman than her, Truman has nonetheless been obsessed with the thought of Meridian for years. He recalls one cruel comment when he told Meridian that he liked the white exchange students because they read The New York Times, making her feel ashamed of her upbringing. Torn by his conflicted feelings, Truman continues to run away from Lynne to spend a few days with Meridian.
The narrative then jumps to the summer before Meridian arrived in Chicokema. Lynne came to visit Meridian after Truman called from her house. Meridian tries to assure Lynne that there’s nothing between her and Truman, but Lynne insists that a connection exists between them. Lynne is bitter and angry, shooting off criticism about Truman, her deteriorating appearance, and black people in general. Truman and Lynne get into a loud fight in the backyard while Meridian stays inside; Lynne calls Truman a “nigger” multiple times, and Truman tells Lynne to go home. Meridian comes out and tries to calm them down, but Lynne remains angry.
Later, Lynne apologizes for her behavior as she lies crying on Meridian’s couch. She tells Meridian that when she was living with her and Truman’s daughter, Camara, in New York, she slept with many black men who pursued her. She talks about her parents’ rejection of her after she married Truman. Lynne also starts to say that one of Truman’s friends raped her, but Meridian says that she wouldn’t believe her.
In the next section, the first of three labeled “Lynne,” Lynne recalls her early relationship with Truman. They used to meet in Truman’s mother’s house, but Lynne’s own mother followed her there one day. Lynne’s mother was so distraught at the discovery of the relationship that, as she rang the doorbell, she began screaming in anguish. Lynne hears the sound of her mother’s scream in her head for the rest of her life.
Analysis
These sections focus on Truman and Lynne’s relationship, offering insight into the joys and struggles of an interracial relationship during the 1960s in the South. Because of the social barriers between Lynne and Truman, it is difficult for them to make the relationship work, even though they both admit to genuinely loving each other at one point. One result of the difficulties of making their relationship work in a society where they aren’t even allowed to be seen with each other is the resentment that bubbles up on both sides. Truman resents Lynne because of her race: her very presence around him and his friends puts their lives in danger, and at times Lynne herself is racist and thinks about black people in problematic and patronizing ways. Lynne, meanwhile, resents Truman because she believes he only married her for the shock value of having a white wife.
The threat of physical violence that hangs over Truman and any black man seen with Lynne is intimately tied up with the resentment and anger that often pervades Truman and Lynne’s relationship. Tommy Odds represents a faction of black society that has grown to hate whites because of the unfair violence to which they’ve been subjected. His viewpoint deeply affects Truman; Truman begins to understand that Lynne is a dangerous wife to have, and begins to question her motivations for marrying him in the first place. Although Truman loves Lynne, he can’t help but sympathize with his friend Tommy, and he understands that Lynne, through no fault of her own, is still a member of the race that performs angry violence against his innocent friends.
In addition to racial barriers between Truman and Lynne, a sense of economic inequality hangs over the relationship as well. At first, Truman seems fascinated by Lynne’s privileged background; he even uses it as ammunition against Meridian, making her feel ashamed of her upbringing by insinuating, with his New York Times comment, that she is not as cultured as Lynne. Later on, however, Lynne loses her economic privilege when she is abandoned by her family for marrying a black man. In this sense, her sacrifice of choosing Truman over “everything,” as Meridian puts it, becomes a mark of her new life with Truman.
Meridian is no longer the focus of the narrative in these sections; her story fades to the background as Truman and Lynne’s takes the spotlight. When she shows up, however, Meridian is often being taken advantage of by her old friends. Both Truman and Lynne turn to Meridian, who, through her difficult experiences, has come to have a more mature and calm grasp on reality than either of her old friends. However, because of these very hard-won positive attributes—a clear perspective, and non-judgmental care and love—Meridian is only further exploited by her friends. Even though she is ill, she is constantly caring for both Truman and Lynne, talking to them, making them tea, attempting to settle their disputes. Meridian’s experience is a further example of the exploitation of black women and their emotional labor by men and whites.
Finally, Lynne’s family demonstrates the typical racist attitude of privileged whites during this time period. Lynne’s mother literally wails when she finds out that Lynne has been having a relationship with a black man, and Lynne’s father declares that she is dead to him. Even though Lynne recognizes the irrational hatred behind this rejection, her awareness doesn’t lessen the sting of familial rejection. It seems to her that she is always hearing her mother scream in her mind, knowing as she does that the beginning of her life is forever closed off to her.
