55 pages • 1 hour read
Karen HesseA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Merlin’s unexplained departure from town makes him the prime suspect in the shooting. Constable Johnson worries about having to arrest Merlin when he returns to town, but Leonora knows Merlin is innocent because she saw him by her well at the time of the shooting. However, she does not tell Johnson or the detective from Boston, because she feels vengefully that “someone had to pay for me being a colored girl in a white world” (160). Esther decides that Merlin went on the heaven train when he left town, but she also knows he did not shoot her father, because she saw Johnny do it.
The Klan comes after Johnny “like ghosts,” and he welcomes them, believing his actions have regained their favor. Instead, they abduct him and brand him with the letters “k.k.k.” on his back. Constable Johnson finds him days later, wandering and in shock. Johnson also finds a baby girl left behind a tree to die, and when Viola hears of it, she is saddened at what the world is coming to. She cries while preparing dinner, and when Harvey tries to comfort her, they reconcile. In the penultimate poem in the novel, they dance together in the Grange Hall as Viola remembers why she fell in love with him in the first place.
After the shooting, the tide turns against the Klan. Reynard believes that the Klan will be unsuccessful because good people will stand up to them. His faith in the American people is restored when Americans elect Calvin Coolidge to the office of President and, in a more local fashion, when he receives the keys to his office and truck from Merlin in the mail. The state of Vermont also denies the Klan’s application to do business in Vermont, which forces them out of the state.
While on a bootlegging run, Iris sees Merlin walking on a back road in New York, and even though she has liquor in the car and could go to prison, she stops to tell him that his family is distraught over his disappearance. He walks away, and she doesn’t tell anyone she saw him.
Johnny jumps off a bridge to his death. Johnson sets up an extension ladder and climbs up to save him, but when Johnny jumps anyway, Johnson knows that Johnny is too afraid of the Klan to live. Esther goes into Johnny’s church and tells God that even though there is so much evil in the world, the good outweighs the evil; some people in town may dislike her and her father, but more people do like them and try to help them. She also tells God it was Johnny who shot her father, and she asks God to sort it out. Meanwhile, Johnny’s body is never found, but his ghost watches Esther as she talks to God in his church.
On Armistice Day, Leonora is with Mr. Field when he chases away Klansmen who are trying to lay a wreath on the courthouse lawn. He takes his cane to the Klansmen, and Leonora realizes that his sight is better than she thought, which reveals to her that he always knew she was Black. He stands guard at the courthouse all day, in the best mood he’s been in for months, and Leonora proudly brings him dinner.
Merlin returns home, and Constable Johnson immediately arrests him for attempted murder. In a poem that illustrates Merlin’s character arc in the story, Merlin comes clean about his activities. He isn’t afraid of jail, but he is tired of being followed by Johnny, who for weeks has shown up, “shadow-eyed / smelling of river slime” (148) in every town Merlin has landed in. Merlin refused to poison the well because he saw Leonora staring at him, and he remembered her chasing the train. He decides, “she was still a colored girl / but she wasn’t just a / colored girl, and i couldn’t poison her well” (150).
Sara, traumatized by the shooting and by Esther’s attempt to take the heaven train, hovers over Esther “like a hen over the warm eggs” (143). She and Esther oil everything in the house except the porch steps, so they can always hear when someone is coming. Though Sara still jumps every time she hears a sharp noise, Esther soothes her with her stories about animals.
Merlin and Constable Johnson pull a buck out of the frozen river where it had fallen through the ice. The buck jumps back into the same hole in the ice, and they pull it out again. The animal finally looks back at the town and runs away. It snorts once in the distance, and Merlin relates that the sound can be heard throughout the valley.
When Mr. Field tells Leonora that she can’t pay a debt by stealing from someone else, she finally tells Constable Johnson the truth, and she testifies in court that Merlin was not the shooter. Johnson asks Merlin who told him to poison the Sutters’ well in the first place, and Merlin names the Klan, but he does not mention Harvey. Merlin lives in fear of the Klan after he is acquitted, but he finally learns that they left Vermont after the state denied their petition to do business.
Afterwards, Merlin tells Leonora he came back to town because Johnny had been following him, and Leonora tells him that Johnny died by suicide. Merlin realizes he had been seeing Johnny’s ghost.
As Harvey and Viola patch up their differences and reconcile, Viola hints in their last poem that it was Harvey who had to “make things right” (157). As they dance together under a “myriad reflector” (an early form of the disco ball), Harvey poetically whispers to Viola, “it’s like snowstorm in may” (157). This previously hidden romantic side of Harvey reminds Viola why she first fell in love with him. It is also significant that they are dancing in a Granger Hall, as Granger members were renowned for their community service work, and Harvey’s membership in that group shows that he is patching up his reputation in town. Once again, the Pettibones symbolize the town as a whole, and each character in Act V makes amends or reconciles their differences with each other.
Merlin completes his character arc in this Act. Ironically, it is his Klan membership that forces him to confront his racism. The hate group strips him of his most prized possession, his car, and asks him to kill. In contrast, Klan opponents have helped him throughout the novel: Reynard gives him a job and springs him from jail, Iris attempts to persuade him to go home even though she risks arrest, and even Ira gifted Merlin’s girlfriend with a pair of galoshes when Ira heard about her having to walk across the county to be with Merlin. Merlin also learns tolerance by observing Leonora’s courage. In Act III, he watched, transfixed, as she chased down the train to save Esther. Despite his reluctant admiration, he did not refer to her by name but called her “the colored girl” (76). He also compared her to a deer “in a rifle sight / one you let go” (76), illustrating that he still sees her as prey. However, when Leonora sees him that night by the well in Act V, she says he “looked like / he’d been caught in a trap” (160); Merlin is now the hunted prey, and Leonora is showing him mercy. This moment teaches him that Leonora is far more than just the color of her skin.
Leonora also learns tolerance by the end of the novel. Although she begins the novel angry at the white townspeople, both Esther and Mr. Field prove to her that not all light-skinned people are violent racists. In addition to accepting Leonora as a friend despite the color of her skin, Mr. Field also teaches her about Black heroes in the Civil War, giving her pride in her heritage. His most important lesson, however, is that standing up against injustice is everyone’s obligation, regardless of skin color. His heroic stand against the Klansmen at the courthouse allows Leonora to discard her rule about not being seen with white people. By observing Esther, Leonora also learns that all races and religions can face persecution, and this knowledge gives her compassion toward others. When Leonora learns about Ira’s shooting, she immediately connects it to the burning of the Great Bethel Church of Africa in Chicago; she now understands that other Americans, in addition to African Americans, are targets for the Klan. Leonora evolves into a strong, self-confident, and tolerant young woman, and the lessons she learns from both Esther and Mr. Fields pave the way for her to give testimony at Merlin’s trial. More significantly, she feels confident enough to speak to Merlin on the street, and in a testament to his own evolution, Merlin speaks to her back as an equal.
Hesse’s characterization of Esther and Johnny in this Act reveals them as foils to one another. They are similar in that they are both spiritual leaders—Esther unofficially and Johnny as an ordained preacher—but Hesse contrasts them in both actions and words to illustrate the dangers of following religious dogma and leaders thoughtlessly. In addition to the obvious differences—male versus female, adult versus child—Hesse explores the importance of language and voice in the two characters. Esther’s voice is childlike and sometimes nonsensical, her speech patterns more like music than conversation. However, it is evident by the end of the novel that Esther speaks directly to God when she chatters to plants, animals, and birds. In contrast, Johnny has a powerful voice, and his utterances are to an unseen congregation as if he is preaching on a pulpit. His prejudices, however, reveal him to be false spiritual leader, and he loses both his voice and his spiritual authority when he attempts murder. After he shoots Ira, he no longer addresses a congregation, and his voice is only mentioned in connection to his speechlessness. For instance, when Constable Johnson finds Johnny after the Klan branded him, Johnny is “unable to give / any / explanation of his condition” (134). When he climbs the bridge to jump to his death, Leonora explains that
johnny reeves
who always has something to say to the crowd
stood,
swaying in the air,
silent (140).
In contrast, after the shooting, Esther tells Sara
stories about the animals in the woods
and the animals on the farm
and the animals in the circus
and at the fair (143).
While this characterization shows Esther’s age (young children babble endlessly about random subjects), it also shows her giving comfort to Sara—unlike Johnny, who is unable to comfort his flock at the end of the novel. Notably, both Johnny and Esther face death, yet Esther is saved miraculously by a ghost and Leonora’s courage, while Johnny is abandoned by the “Christian” Klan; unsaved, he dies alone and voiceless. This juxtaposition between Johnny and Esther is foreshadowed in Act I when Johnny shakes his fist at Esther on the riverbank, and Esther, thinking it a game, shakes her fist back while laughing.
While Hesse deliberately leaves Johnny’s fate vague, there are several hints about his ultimate destination. Dr. Flitt mentions that authorities never find Johnny’s body, although there was no way he could have survived. The lack of a body is a red herring for readers when Merlin sees Johnny following him, pointing to Johnny’s survival after jumping, especially since Johnny appears smelling of river slime. Johnny’s silence toward Merlin, however, in combination with the other ghostly appearances in the novel, points conclusively to Johnny’s state as a restless spirit wandering in search of the redemption he never received from the Klan. In her poem about Johnny’s church, Esther also provides a clue to Johnny’s fate when she repeats that she “did go inside the church of johnny reeves” (141), emphasizing that it is Johnny’s church, not God’s. She has “talkings with God about all the good thinkings and feelings that do race around inside me” (141). While there, she knows that “no one did hear my little talks with God” (141), hinting that a secret is about to be revealed. She tells God that she saw Johnny shoot her father, and she knows that “if i tell God in johnny reeves’ own church, / God knows what to do” (141).
God’s answer to Esther’s prayer is divulged in Johnny’s last poem, when he speaks of the child in the church who
listens a moment,
then laughs,
covering her mouth with the tips of her fingers
before she turns and walks out (155).
God has spoken to Esther, and because Esther is truly spiritual, she hears his plan. In Merlin’s last poem, he describes a buck that fell into a crevice between ice slabs on the river (ice, winter, and snow are all death symbols), and the buck’s predicament symbolizes Johnny’s fall into danger when he joined the Klan: Merlin and Constable Johnson pull the buck to safety, symbolizing Johnny’s chance at deliverance when was banned from the Klan; when he shot Ira, Johnny threw away his chance to change his ways and redeem himself; likewise, the buck jumps back “into the same dang hole we just pulled it from” (158). When Merlin and Johnson pull the buck out a second time, the deer looks back toward the town then runs off into the woods, and his snort is heard throughout the valley. Merlin and Johnson find the buck in the same river into which Johnny disappeared.
Those who refuse to bow down to the Klan’s influence emerge unscathed by the end of the novel. Reynard, Dr. Flitt, and all of the women (including the two girls) suffer due to the Klan, but they are guiltless because they remained true to their principles. Those who sympathize with the Klan and enter its ranks are either destroyed or must make amends: Harvey joins the Grange where he can serve the community instead of destroying it; Merlin flees his hometown and faces the victims of his previous racism when he returns; Johnny, unrepentant, is destroyed completely, losing his reputation, his voice, his life, and his hopes of heavenly reward.
By Karen Hesse