Content Warning: This section depicts sexual assault, anti-gay bias, anti-Black racism, lynching, intimate partner violence, graphic violence, murder, termination of a pregnancy, and death by suicide. The source text uses the period-specific term “colored” to refer to Black characters and employs period-specific language to describe sexual orientation, mental health, and intellectual disability.

“I ain’t having ‘second thoughts’ about our marriage. […] I think getting married is the best thing in the world for messed-up people like you and me.”

This passage captures Maggie’s voice, reflecting the plain-spokenness that is part of her character, and establishes the contentment in her marriage that is a key part of her character arc. This early passage establishes the secret that bonds the two of them, establishing that the ground for their intimacy is a shared façade of conventional heterosexuality intended to disguise their sexual orientations. Here, Monroe introduces how The Value of Appearances and Reputation will play a key role in the novel.

“‘It’s a heavy burden, but a woman’s purpose is to find a good man and raise a family. That’s what God made us for.’ She’d told me that more than once. And I believed her, even though she didn’t seem too happy being married to Daddy.”

Maggie’s wry, reflective voice drives the novel, which is told from her first-person point of view. This allows the author to show the frequent divergence between Maggie’s thoughts and her words or actions. Here, she appears to agree with her mother’s pronouncement about marriage but also notices the irony that her mother has not married a “good” man. This passage illustrates the power that appearances of convention or respectability have over individual characters, despite how that relates to their happiness.