41 pages • 1 hour read
De'Shawn Charles WinslowIn West Mills
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1, Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary
In October 1941, Azalea “Knot” Centre’s boyfriend Pratt Shepherd urges her to stop drinking. She tells him to “go to hell” (3), and he leaves. A few days later, Knot receives a note from Pratt stating his desire to marry her and start a family. The note also announces his intention to leave West Mills, North Carolina, the town where they live, in one week if she does not respond. Azalea and Pratt live in a small, predominantly African American neighborhood on one side of the town’s canal.
That weekend, Knot visits her friend and neighbor Otis Lee Loving who advises her to reconcile with Pratt, asking “Why you so set on bein’ lonely, Knot?” (5). He and his wife, Penelope “Pep” Loving, tell her that the townspeople gossip about her drinking. Knot goes home and reads a chapter of Charles Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop, which her father read to her in Ahoskie, North Carolina. She lived in Ahoskie until her father arranged for her to become a schoolteacher in West Mills. Knot is a skilled teacher but doesn’t enjoy her work.
The night before Pratt intends to leave is Knot’s 27th birthday. Knot goes to Miss Goldie’s Place, a nearby juke joint. Against the advice of her friends, including a bartender named “Valley,” she flirts with a tall stranger passing through town named William. Knot and William walk towards her house, kissing. They are surprised to find Pratt on the front porch; he reprimands William, who leaves. Knot and Pratt have sex; afterwards, Knot wants another drink but resists the urge, knowing Pratt disapproves. The next morning, Knot expels Pratt from her house, telling him not to come back, then has “the drink she had wanted the night before” (21).
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary
After coming home from work, Otis Lee feeds his chickens. Noticing that a few are missing, he calls to Pep, who opens a window and tells him that she sold some, that she’s cooking one, and that Rose and Noni, whom Otis Lee believes to be his mother and grandmother, are cooking a pair in their small house located in Pep and Otis Lee’s backyard.
Pratt appears in the yard and tells Otis Lee that Knot threw him out for good. He also shares his plan to join the military. A few days later, on his way out of town, he asks Robert “Breezy” Loving, Pep and Otis Lee’s four-year-old son, to hug Knot for him. Pratt first came to West Mills in 1938 to care for his nieces while their mother, Pratt’s sister Pleasant, spent a month in jail after accidentally killing her abusive husband; Pratt decided to stay after meeting Knot.
Otis Lee’s frustration with Knot reminds him of his relationship with Essie, whom he believes to be his sister. However, he later discovers—as Knot already knows—that she is his mother, Rose is his grandmother, and Noni is his great-grandmother. Otis Lee believes that Essie betrayed Rose and Noni by selling their land to buy a ticket to New York when Otis Lee was a small child. In 1924, while he was 16 years old, Otis Lee went to New York, where, with the help of his aunt Gertrude, he found Essie passing as White under the name Ellen O’Heeney and running a brothel with her husband, a corrupt police officer. Unable to convince her to return, Otis Lee returned to West Mills in 1927.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary
In December 1941, Knot realizes she is pregnant. Knowing that her family will disapprove since she is not married, she writes a letter telling them that she is going north for six months of training as a teacher. She wonders to whom she should give the child, ruling out the Lovings because “she needed the two of them for herself” (34).
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary
Otis Lee asks Phil and Lady Waters, a childless couple who are longtime friends and neighbors, to adopt Knot’s baby. Lady asks whether Milton Guppy is the father, since she saw him in Knot’s yard once. Guppy resents Knot for taking the teaching position formerly occupied by his wife who, after losing the job, took her children and left him. Otis Lee says that Pratt is the unwitting father.
Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary
Living reclusively and having told the townspeople she has the pox, Knot endures the discomfort of pregnancy and continues to drink. One day in March 1942, Knot receives a surprise visit from Noni, who guessed that she was pregnant. Noni gives Knot a care basket and promises to keep the pregnancy secret. Otis Lee and Pep visit Knot a few days later and assure her that the Waterses have not changed their minds about taking the baby, though Pep suggests that Knot might change her mind after giving birth.
One day in July, Knot’s water breaks. She recalls watching her eldest sister Mary give birth; Knot found Mary’s pain amusing at the time. Pep, who is a midwife, delivers Knot’s baby girl an hour later. Not wanting to risk becoming too attached to her child, Knot instructs Pep to lay the baby in another room, though she steals a “dangerous” glimpse as Pep carries her away. That night, the Waterses happily take the baby, promising to tell the townspeople that they adopted her from one of their nieces.
That evening, Knot asks for liquor; Pep refuses, knowing it would exacerbate her bleeding. Disappointed and missing her baby, Knot cries. Pep feeds her and reads to her. Over the next two weeks, Knot stays home, eating little and missing her child, though she feels she made a “safe” choice by giving her away.
Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary
After dinner, Otis Lee tells Knot that the schoolmaster wants her to resume teaching. Knot says that she does not want to teach anymore. Seeing her grief, Otis Lee recalls Rose’s grief when her husband, whom Otis Lee believes to be his father, passed away. He also recalls Essie’s refusal to return to West Mills from New York City, a decision he characterizes as “choosing sadness” (60). After Otis Lee suggests that Knot go get her baby from the Waterses, she leaves abruptly. He asks Pep what to do about Knot, and she tells him that his responsibility is to care for his family, not Knot.
Breezy returns from a visit to Rose and Noni with two pieces of cake. Otis Lee thinks to himself that Breezy seems to want two of everything.
Part 1, Chapters 1-6 Analysis
In West Mills opens during the Jim Crow era in the southern United States. During this period, racial segregation was mandated by law in public facilities and put into practice privately, effectively limiting social and economic opportunities for African Americans. This is reflected in the very layout of West Mills, with the White and Black communities separated by a canal. Juke joints like Miss Goldie’s Place developed as places for sharecroppers and plantation workers to relax through dancing, gambling, and drinking. When William first sees the street where Knot lives, he comments that it looks like “slaves’ quarters” (18), to which Knot replies that it “used to be” (18). While there is some contact between the White and Black communities, Knot reflects that most of the town’s “white folk […] don’t know [her] from a can of bacon grease” (7).
These first few chapters introduce key characters and set the stage for future conflicts. Knot’s decision to reject Pratt’s proposal is a turning point in her life. By marrying Pratt, Knot could have had a more conventional family life. Instead, she chooses to remain single, protecting her autonomy to drink, read literature, and have casual sex, and allowing her to avoid the risks and commitments of marriage and parenthood. Though she gives birth to a child, she gives her away immediately, both to protect her way of life and to protect her daughter, as she considers herself unsuited to parenthood. The only real threat to her independence comes from her father—or rather, from her mental projection of him. She thinks of him often, imagining how he would respond to the people and situations she encounters. For instance, her conviction that he would not like Pratt influences her decision to turn him away.
Stylistically, Winslow’s third person narration generally follows the thoughts and feelings of a single character in each scene or chapter. For instance, Noni is referred to as “Miss Noni” in passages reflecting Knot’s perspective and as “Ma Noni” in passages reflecting Otis Lee’s perspective. Character backstories, such as Otis Lee’s relationship with his Essie, are related organically as part of a character’s thought process. In both internal monologues and in the dialogue, Winslow reproduces his characters’ regional dialect.
