61 pages • 2 hours read
Kim Michele RichardsonThe Book Woman's Daughter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Function of Books
As the title implies, The Book Woman’s Daughter puts books at the center of the narrative, serving several different functions. Books offer freedom, a source of income, consolation, connection, and education. Honey says books are “[a]n escape, a friend, a lesson, and liberty for us all” (194). The last line of the novel highlights the most important function of books to Honey: “books had not only saved me, her, and others, but had given us something even bigger and more precious: Freedom” (310). In this passage, “her” refers to the “Book Woman,” Honey’s Mama. Both women experience freedom due to their love of books—literally, in Honey’s case, because books play a key role in Honey’s emancipation hearing. The hearing only happens because Honey reads about a famous emancipation case in an old newspaper while at work. Additionally, the judge was a patron of the Book Woman (Honey’s Mama) and believes being a Pack Horse librarian is a respectable profession. In other words, reading saves Honey from the House of Reform. For Honey, books are key to her survival as a free woman. She thinks, “A job and money—and the books—meant I could at least survive” (130).
Books function as a form of comfort and connection. The librarian Mr. Taft says, “books can help soothe all matters of the heart” (133). Honey echoes this sentiment frequently throughout the novel. When she encounters women who are struggling, Honey believes reading books will comfort them and offer companionship—that they will act as a “friend” to people in need (194). This is shown both overtly and covertly; Honey gives books to people specifically to comfort them, but she also provides books for Guyla Belle, who begs Honey to deliver them even at the risk of danger. Guyla Belle’s desperation for books—and the feminist novel Honey chooses to give her—showcases a type of emotional support that can only be found through literature.
Books connect lovers and family as well as friends. Honey is emotionally moved by the quote from a Yeats poem, “An Isle in the Water,” inscribed by her Papa in a book he gave to Mama on their wedding day (130). Poetry, and the gift of a book, represents the love between Mama and Papa. Books also connect Retta and Honey; while she is ill, Retta asks Honey to read her the Bible, the book she values the most.
Another function of books is to reveal the character of the person reading them. Many characters in the novel love reading—not only novels, but magazines, pamphlets, and various other materials. These characters are often on Honey’s side, or at least friendly to her. Doc’s wife, Millie, doesn’t speak Honey’s language, but she enjoys reading and she takes good care of Honey when Honey visits. Retta loves the Bible, and though she views most others as “foolish government books” (57), she admits that she loved reading children’s books to Honey. While she is vocal about her preference for Christian writings, Retta deeply values the ability to read. She became literate as part of the Moonlight Schools in Kentucky. Literacy is important for intellectual development and learning how to be a valuable member of a community, Retta believes. She, and Mama, pass down these values to Honey. In contrast to these kind, morally upright characters, the antagonistic characters in the novel hate books. The sheriff calls books “foolish, airish” (254), implying a lack of worth. Gillis threatens Honey, warning her not to deliver books to their house. Mr. Vessels, the lawyer representing the opposition to Honey’s emancipation, tries to defame her character by painting her books as immoral and sexual.
Books even serve an educational function. When encountering the corrupt, sexist sheriff, Honey thinks, “Long ago, I’d learned about these types of hardened men from the books I’d read, and they made me mindful to be on alert” (252). Books also enlighten Honey about fun activities that she is unable to access for many years because of her economic class. When Pearl invites her to her first pajama party, Honey thinks, “A fun party was something I’d only read about” (113). Books offer a glimpse into lives different from her own, which is especially important for a “Blue,” as an ostracized and isolated member of the community.
The Role of Female Friendship
In her Note from the Author, Richardson says, “I wanted to explore themes of sisterhood through the brave and indomitable Kentucky women” (311). The primary sisterhood in the novel is between Honey and Pearl. After her parents are arrested for “miscegenation” and her guardian Retta dies, Honey feels extremely lonely and sad. Pearl is there for her in her time of need, and Honey says, “I was warmed by this new friendship. And I could feel the grief halved and the loneliness lifting from my heavy heart” (110). Pearl frequently shows her sisterly affection through making food and drinks for Honey, as well as talking about books with her.
Female friendship is necessary to combat the sexism and male-dominated institutions that the women in the novel must deal with. Several women in Troublesome Creek reject sexist stereotypes and behavior; in addition to Pearl’s job at the watchtower, Bonnie, the miner, refuses to sexually objectify herself for her career. Honey herself rejects Carson’s well-meaning but emotionless marriage proposal, even though it would protect her from being sent to the Kentucky House of Reform.
Pearl in particular supports and protects Honey from sexism however she can. Pearl asserts that “[u]s troublesome women always fight back” (281). She attends Honey’s emancipation hearing, and she is the one to suggest that they deal with Gillis on their own, after the legal system—in their case, the sheriff—fails to support them after Gillis and Robbie’s attack. Pearl is also the one who breaks down the door when she and Honey are locked in the burning watchtower, literally saving Honey’s life.
A large part of female friendship in the book is coming together to fight violent men. Bonnie and Wrenna come together because they are both assaulted by Gillis. Bonnie has to face his violence in the already dangerous mines where they work, on top of further sexual assault from her other coworkers. Wrenna, who is just a girl, is beaten by Gillis for having an annoying pet rooster. When the sheriff, one of Gillis’s relatives, will not assist the women who have been harmed by Gillis, Bonnie and Wrenna encourage the rooster to attack him, which eventually causes his death. This is just one of many courageous acts performed by sisterhoods. Honey thinks about all the women in Troublesome who have supported her and each other and “[realizes] the women had been teaching [her] something important: courage” (281).
Some women in the book reject the female connection. The social worker, Mrs. Wallace, sides with the discriminatory legal systems against Honey to try and imprison her in the Kentucky House of Reform. The primary example of this aspect of the theme, however, is Guyla Belle. Frontier nurse Amara treats Guyla Belle after Gillis beats her and offers support against Gillis, backed up with her gun. However, Guyla Belle chooses to go back to her husband, taking her still-sick son with her. Amara says women like Guyla Belle “always go back to those pantywaist cowards, no matter how many times I stitch them up or set their broke bones” (166). Guyla Belle’s only real act of defiance against Gillis’s tyranny is to beg Honey to deliver books to her, setting up a secret signal to indicate to Honey when it was safe to visit. Gillis eventually murders Guyla Belle and destroys the book Honey had brought her. However, Guyla Belle is avenged by a female friendship: Bonnie and Wrenna’s.
Othering and Sexism in Rural Kentucky
Honey and her friends and family are subjected to various forms of discrimination throughout the book: sexism, against the female characters of the novel, as well as prejudice due to their blue skin. Although Honey’s condition does not define her race, the discriminatory laws and attitudes she encounters reflect the real-life racism that was especially prevalent in 1950s Kentucky. These forms of othering are systemic, but they are also perpetuated by individuals.
For instance, there are individuals like Gillis who physically abuse women. Francis, Honey’s crush, says that “men like Gillis have to be dealt with or they’ll keep hurting women” (172). However, men like Gillis are backed by male-run systems of power. When Pearl calls the sheriff after Gillis and his friend set her watchtower on fire, the sheriff leaves without making any arrests or even taking a report. He says he’s had enough “cockamamie female hysterias for one day” (254), easily dismissing a life-threatening, traumatizing event and assuming that Pearl is lying. The sheriff abuses the system of local law enforcement to protect Gillis, his relative. Female friendship is one way that the women in rural Kentucky confront sexism; Honey and Pearl can only trust and rely on each other when the men in power dismiss or outright harm them.
Honey’s extended, multi-generational family, referred to as “the Blues,” faces the equivalent of systemic racism. Kentucky’s legal system prohibits “miscegenation,” which applies to people of color—a category under which even “the Blues” fall. Honey explains to Pearl that the “mixing of any color is not allowed in Kentucky, the law says” (33). After her parents are imprisoned for breaking this law, the social worker assigned to Honey’s case in Thousandsticks, Mrs. Wallace, blends personal racism with her legal powers. She calls Honey “it,” dehumanizing her, and aggressively pushes to send Honey to the Kentucky House of Reform. During the emancipation hearing in Troublesome, she again calls Honey “it”: “[S]he referred to me again like she’d done in Thousandsticks” (293). Mrs. Wallace fights against Honey’s emancipation, just as she fought against allowing Honey to live with someone who cared for her. Legally empowering those who dehumanize people because of their skin color turns personal prejudice into a large systemic issue.
Othering and hate crimes extend into religion in the book as well. Honey tells Pearl about a preacher who would drown “other different folk” during baptisms (33). “Different folk” included triplets, people with albinism, and people with incurable or inherited conditions. The women refer to both this preacher and Gillis as demonic; Pearl says the preacher “sounds like Satan himself!” (33). This is a direct contrast to characters like Retta, who are deeply religious but also kind and accepting. The actions of the priest—and Honey and Pearl’s condemnation of him—demonstrate a split between institutional and individual religion. Members of the clergy abuse their power in order to kill people they are prejudiced against, portraying murder as an act of God. However, Pearl and Honey interpret the Bible in a way that defines murder as an act of the Christian devil. These views tie prejudice and violence to Christianity in different ways. Religion in the book is portrayed with both positive and negative connotations, and Richardson enables her characters to wield it in support of their various ideologies (both good and bad). However, she also shows how institutions like the church—and the legal system—can be weaponized against marginalized communities.
The systemic discrimination in religious and legal systems run by men forces the Kentucky women to seek out a different kind of justice. Just as “the Blues” can only rely on themselves, so too can the women in the book only turn to each other for support. When the preacher disappears, Pearl is sure he got “a righteous dose of Kentucky justice” (34). This insinuates that members of the community killed him or ran him out of town, rather than fighting a long battle within systems designed to ensure their failure. Bonnie and Wrenna also have to resort to measures outside the legal system to deal with Gillis: harming him with Tommie the rooster.
Honey has several advantages other women and other “Blues” do not. She can wear gloves to cover her blue hands, enabling her to “pass,” or blend in, as fully white most of the time. She has a well-respected job as a librarian, which saves her from having to work dangerous, low-paying jobs in the mines with men who would harass her. She also has the care and support of kind men, who utilize the systems that favor them to ensure Honey’s safety and well-being. Even so, Honey is warned that she will still face discrimination for being a “Blue,” regardless of her maturity, propriety, or success within the legal system. She is told, “Worse always [has] a way of finding the Blues” (68), a solemn reminder that a single successful outcome cannot undo the prejudice built into the foundations of systems of power.
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