Whistling Past the Graveyard

Eula’s character is integral to the story. Eula, too, spurs the plot, and her motivations are complex. She wants children and family and tries to create a family out of her, James, Starla, and Wallace, telling Starla, “We are a family now, us four—a secret family” (94). Eula is “whistling past the graveyard” and unwilling to face the abusive, untenable reality. When Wallace tries to kill Starla, Eula confronts the stark situation, saving Starla and killing her husband.

Eula often acts as a mother figure and mentor to Starla. She cares for Starla when she catches a fever, and she teaches Starla about the normalization of racism. When Starla asks Eula why she doesn’t get upset over the racist driver, Eula quips, “Might as well get mad at the wind for blowin’” (147). As the quote demonstrates, Eula has a sense of humor. This moment also explores the nuance of the author’s presentation of Wishful Thinking Versus Confronting Adversity. Eula doesn’t always have the same privilege as Starla in being able to react head-on to adversity, for her own safety and mental well-being.

Eula is also resilient, surviving terrible situations. Her father and brother abused her, and her brother took away the baby she had with a kind white teen. Wallace abuses her, the Jenkins brothers try to assault her, and a group of Black men attempt to assault her outside the church. From one angle, Eula perpetuates the “strong Black woman” trope. In “The ‘Strong Black Woman’ Stereotype Is Dangerous,” the journalist Rith Etiesit Samuel writes, “We are robbed of the chance to transition into womanhood, stripped of softness or delicacy and expected to perform like superhumans while being treated as subhuman” (Etiesit Samuel, Rith. “The ‘Strong Black Woman’ Stereotype Is Dangerous.” Teen Vogue, 19 June 2020). Yet Crandall also gives Eula “softness” and “delicacy.” The other characters don’t ignore her pain, and Cyrena helps Eula express her traumatic memories. Around Cyrena and Starla, Eula is neither a superhuman nor a subhuman––she’s a person with feelings and emotions.

Eula represents an individual. Her struggles aren’t separate from racism, but Crandall doesn’t reduce Eula to a victim of racism. She’s complex, with distinguishable talents like baking. She doesn’t directly participate in the civil rights movement, telling Starla, “I done all the fightin’ I want to do in this lifetime” (489). After the journey, Eula wants peace, and in Cayuga Springs, with Starla and Porter, Eula acquires a sense of harmony and security.

Cyrena lives in the Bottom and teaches at the local elementary school. She represents activism, and her community scolds her for supporting the civil rights movement and allegedly exacerbating the racist status quo, but Cyrena reminds her critics that racism existed long before organized, widespread anti-racist activism. Though she doesn’t agree with her community, she remains friends with people like Mrs. Washington, suggesting that different ideologies don’t have to define a relationship.

Cyrena also represents kindness. While people continually turn Eula, Starla, and James away, Cyrena lets them live in her house and encourages Eula to bake and sell the goods to restaurants. While Eula acts like a mother figure and mentor to Starla, Cyrena serves as a mother figure and mentor to Eula, coaxing Eula to find catharsis by expressing her painful memories about her child. Cyrena mentors Starla, too, teaching her about the civil rights movement and its goals. Cyrena’s character is static, so she doesn’t change. She’s a reliable, dependable character who takes in Eula and Starla and gets them to Nashville.

Patti Lynn is Starla’s best friend and begins the book as Starla’s foil—that is, she has what Starla lacks, which is, in Starla’s words, “a real family with a sister and three brothers” (26). Patti Lynn and her family are integral to the plot. After Starla successfully sneaks out to watch the parade, she plays with Patti Lynn in the park. Jimmy Sellers’s mom finds Starla at the park, providing the impetus for Starla to run away. Patti Lynn’s family is also responsible for James, as Cathy, Patti Lynn’s sister, is the mother. This discovery changes Patti Lynn and her family, causing hardship. Mimicking Cyrena, Starla tries to get Patti Lynn to talk about her feelings, but Patti Lynn isn’t yet ready to confront her emotions.

Mamie is Starla’s grandmother and Wallace’s mom. She’s strict and abusive. She hits Starla and grounds her, but Mamie can’t curb her granddaughter’s bold behavior, which dismays her and makes her pray, “Dear Lord, give me strength” (5). Mamie represents a narrow view of identity, and she wants to mold Starla into a “young lady.” She calls Starla by her first name, Jane, because she thinks that Starla “makes people think of a trailer park” (11). The comment indicates that she’s judgmental and pretentious.

Starla lives with Mamie because her father works on an oil rig and her mother is in Nashville. While Mamie doesn’t experience character growth, Crandall adds quotes and moments to make her less irredeemable. Wallace partly vouches for her, explaining, “Even if it seems like she’s just trying to make your life miserable, she does want you to be happy. Part of being happy in life is accepting the rules” (422-23). The hazy memory of Lulu shaking Starla as a baby also supports Mamie’s wish for Starla to not see her. However, Mamie isn’t unfeeling; she invites Porter and Eula to live with her, and after they move out, she invites them to dinner. Mamie wants connection, but she has trouble expressing her need for relationships.

Wallace is Eula’s husband. He used to work at a charcoal plant, but he has trouble holding onto a job. According to the racist sheriff, Wallace “kept pickin’ a fight with his betters” (480). Eula has a different perspective, telling Starla, “That pride what bring him down” (94). Plausibly, Wallace’s “betters” are white men, and since Wallace didn’t tolerate their racism, they fired him. Wallace is keenly aware of the racist norms and thinks that Eula’s choice to take James will kill them. To save himself and Eula, he plans to kill Starla and James. However, Eula doesn’t let Wallace kill Starla, hitting him on the head with a skillet and killing him.

Before Starla and James entered their life, Wallace abused and gaslit Eula. He manipulated Eula’s reality, leading her to think, “I was no more than dirt till I was with him. He protect me” (290). Wallace wasn’t her protector but her tormentor. Part of Eula’s growth manifests in accepting the brutal toxicity of her former husband.

Porter is Starla’s dad, and his role deepens after Starla meets Lulu in Nashville and Lulu calls Porter to take her back to Mississippi. While Lulu is upset and unfeeling, Porter is reasonable and caring. He admits that he made mistakes with Starla, telling her, “[M]aybe I wasn’t as grown-up as I should have been. But I am now. It’s you and me, kid, from here on. You’re my girl. I’d be lost without you” (467-68). Porter goes from an absent father to an ever-present parent. He makes a home for Starla and gives her a family—a group of people who love and care about her.

Lulu is Starla’s mom, and she doesn’t physically appear in the story until the end of Chapter 24. Nevertheless, Lulu’s intangible presence helps propel the narrative. With her mother physically gone, Starla fills the vacuum with a romanticized image, declaring, “Lulu was gonna be famous all right, and then she’d come back and get me and Daddy. We were gonna live in a big house in Nashville” (13).

Lulu isn’t famous, and she doesn’t want to live with Starla and Porter. She’s a harried, abusive working woman living in a small apartment with her second husband, Earl. Lulu doesn’t change over the course of the narrative, but Starla’s perception of her changes. She realizes that her mother isn’t a great person and comes to appreciate the people in her life who do love her, like Porter and Eula.