#76 Her Sweet Jerome- Alice Walker
A wife struggles with herself, her ignorance, and her
husband. Walker does not portray this
woman in a good light:
“She was a big awkward woman, with big bones and hard
rubbery flesh. Her short arms ended in ham hands, and her neck was a squat roll
of fat that protruded behind her head as a big bump. Her skin was rough and
puffy with plump mole-like freckles…etc.”
She is a seemingly friendly, if not off-balanced proprietor
of a beauty parlor. She comes from money and falls for a dapper young
professor, Jerome. Jerome seems to have married her for he family’s wealth, and
does not seem to have any love for is wife, and is actually repulsed by her
presence. He is verbally and physically abusive.
She pretends that she is the luckiest woman in town and
tries to forestall small town gossip by weaving her own tales during the daily
beauty shop gossiping sessions…unsuccessfully:
“…fixing her face in a steamy dignified mask that encouraged
snickers.”
Her life becomes unhinged when she believes that Jerome is
cheating on her, and she becomes a public menace trying to track down the
infidels. Her father dies, leaving all
his money to Jerome and while he becomes a man of respect she is left behind
personally, socially, and politically.
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