March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell

This graphic novel is the first in a series telling the story of civil rights leader and former Democratic Congressman, John Robert Lewis, one of the "Big Six" leaders who organized the March on Washington in 1963. March opens in the present and then flashes back to Lewis' humble beginnings on his family's farm in Alabama.

John Lewis wakes up the morning of January 20, 2009 - the beginning of a very special day. Lewis shows up at the Cannon House Office Building where he meets Rosa Parks. Suddenly three people enter his office, a lady with her two sons, Jacob and Esau. She has brought them to see Congressman John Lewis' office. She wants them to "know how far we've come..."

As he points out some of the key photographs in the picture, one of the boys asks him why he has so many chickens in his office. This triggers Lewis' memory of growing up and he begins to tell them his story. He starts with when it was his responsibility to care for his family's chickens. They lived on 110 acres of land in Pike County, Alabama that his father bought in 1940 for three hundred dollars. Lewis knew all the different kinds of chickens on their farm and even named some of them. He loved them so much, he would conduct funerals for them when they died, and he would deliver a eulogy. He often protested his parents treatment of the chickens and wouldn't be at family chicken dinners. 

John's eyes were opened when he was taken on a trip north by his uncle, Otis Carter.  Otis lived in Dothan, where he was a teacher and school principal. The trip north meant no stopping at restaurants because there was no where for them to eat as black people. Uncle Otis knew which gas stations to stop at, offering colored washrooms. Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky were the states they had to be careful in. Once they got to Ohio, they felt safer. In Buffalo, New York, Lewis was thrilled; the city was busy and his uncle's home had white people living side by side with them. Lewis was able to visit a department store. He saw that life was different and after that trip he was different.

When Lewis started riding the bus to school that fall he could see once again how different life was for black Americans. Roads into "colored" communities were not paved until whites had to drive through them. The books and buses in Black schools were hand-me-downs. White schools were nice with playground equipment while the colored schools were cinder block with a dirt field to play in. Lewis also noticed the people working in the fields or on the prison gangs were usually blacks too. But sometimes, Lewis' family needed help on the farm. His father wanted him to stay home and help out but Lewis would hide. 

Then in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the doctrine of "separate but equal" upon which segregation was based, was ruled unconstitutional. Lewis was certain things would change, that he would be going to an integrated school with a nice bus. Lewis noticed that the ministers at church never mentioned the injustices that were happening.

In 1955, he heard a young preacher out of Atlanta, Georgia on the radio. His name was Martin Luther King Jr. and he preached the social Gospel. That spring another ruling by the Supreme Court, which struck down segregation, saw segregationists insist they would defy the law. In August, the body of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, a black boy visiting Money, Mississippi was pulled from the Tallahatchie River.  He had been forcibly taken from his relatives' home after calling a white woman, "baby". Despite the testimony of a black farmer who witnessed what really happened, the white men were acquitted. 

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus and was arrested. Martin Luther King led a boycott of the buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Lewis was inspired by King and so five days before his sixteenth birthday, he preached his first sermon.

The woman in his office wants to know how he managed to attend college. He tells her that his mother helped him by encouraging him to apply to the American Baptist Theological Seminary, a school for Black men and women. He was accepted Lewis got a job washing dishes and serving food. But he wanted to do more for Black rights.

Lewis wanted to attend Troy State, which was closer to his parents' home, but Black students weren't accepted. He applied as a transfer student but when he never heard back he wrote to Martin Luther King Jr. He also began communicating with Rev. Ralph Abernathy and a lawyer, Fred Gray who represented Rosa Parks.

In the spring of 1958, Lewis met up with Fred Gray and Martin Luther King Jr. After questioning him, they told Lewis that if he wanted to attend Troy, he would have to sue both the State of Alabama and the Board of Education. Because he wasn't old enough, Lewis would need the permission of his parents. They also pointed out that he and his parents would most likely face serious repercussions. Ultimately, Lewis' parents decided against giving him their permission to proceed.

Lewis is interrupted in telling his story and told he must leave to meet Rosa Parks, but is also told he has a message from Jim Lawson. In 1958, Jim Lawson ran a series of workshops on non-violent action and passive resistance. After this, Lewis and others, as part of the Nashville Student Movement began protesting segregation at department store lunch counters. It was the beginning for Lewis, of real action, nonviolent protest to end segregation in Nashville and across America.

Discussion

March is the first of three comic books that tell the story of John Robert Lewis, a congressman and civil rights leader. Lewis, who was born near Troy, Alabama, was the son of sharecroppers and by his own admission grew up poor. Most of the area where he lived and grew up had few white people, yet everything was segregated. He and his siblings were denied the use of the local public library, being told it was for whites only. His trip north to Buffalo, New York opened Lewis's eyes to the extent of segregation and its impact on himself and his family. He saw that things could be profoundly different and he wanted to change America, supposedly founded on the belief that "all men are created equal" and yet not in practice.

Lewis had to counter not only white America and its segregationist practices, but the views of the older Black generation exemplified by Thurgood Marshall and local Black ministers who seemed to want to maintain the status quo. And yet, as is told in March, Lewis and the Nashville Student Movement were successful in their first nonviolent protests. 

The beginning of Lewis's civil rights work is a story of courage and determination. Lewis acted on his belief that all men are created equal and that he and other African Americans had the same rights as white Americans. To achieve the goal of dismantling segregation, Lewis and many other civil rights leaders began to implement nonviolent forms of protest, at great personal risk. He states that he felt this calling at a young age and it seemed to intensify as he grew older and saw the world as it really was.

Lewis' story is told with the assistance of  Andrew Aydin, who served as his Digital Director & Policy Advisor while Lewis was a Congressional representative. It is told as a story within a story: the book begins with Lewis getting ready to meet Rosa Parks in 2009 in preparation for attending the inauguration of Barak Obama as president of the United States. Illustrating Lewis' story is the artwork of Nate Powell, an accomplished and award-winning graphic novelist. 

The graphic novel format makes John Lewis' story accessible to readers of all ages and backgrounds. The visual character of the graphic novel conveys  the reality of what segregation entailed for millions of Black Americans in the 20th century and highlights the significant efforts these early civil rights activists had to resort to, in order to undo a deeply entrenched system of discrimination and hatred. It also visually portrays the violence, hatred and ugliness of those determined to prevent Black Americans from gaining their God-given right to be treated with respect, dignity and equality.

March is a book for people because it is only in reading about and studying the past, can we make a better future for everyone.

Book Details:

The March by John Lews, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell
Marietta, Georgia: Top Shelf Production   2013
121 pp.

The Girl From The Tar Paper School by Teri Kanefield

In 1951, fifteen-year-old Barbara Rose Johns and her sister Joan attended Robert R. Moton High School - a high school for black students - in Farmville, Virginia. In the 1950's, segregation which kept black and white Americans separate in schools, restaurants, theatres, and in most public areas, was legal in the United States. The high school, for students from the black community, consisted of a main brick building surrounded by temporary classrooms constructed of wood and covered with tar paper. In rainy weather, these wooden "chicken coops" as the students called them, leaked. In cold weather they were heated unevenly by the pot-bellied stoves, meaning those students near the stove were warm while those further away shivered from the cold. In contrast, the school for white students, Farmville High School, "had modern heating, an industrial-arts shop, locker rooms, an infirmary, a cafeteria, and a real auditorium complete with sound equipment."

Barbara questioned her music teacher, Miss Inez Davenport whom she had come to trust, about the unfair conditions of their school. Miss Davenport challenged Barbara to act. Barbara, who lived in Darlington Heights with her parents, considered the problem of the tar paper shacks. Eventually, Barbara came up with the idea of leading her fellow students on a strike to protest the terrible conditions and the lack of action by both the school board and the town officials. The next day Barbara called together students she felt were important leaders in the student community including John and Carrie Stokes (vice president and president of the 1951 graduating class respectively) and John Watson (school newspaper editor-in-chief and member of the school business club). The students decided to strike in the spring in an attempt to force the school board and city to act.

On April 23, 1951 the students of Robert Russa Moton High walked out of class, led by Barbara Johns. The students kept their plans secret knowing that if parents or teachers were aware of the possible strike they might lose their jobs or face other repercussions. Principal Boyd Jones was lured into town by a telephone call informing him that black students were causing trouble in the town. Once Principal Jones had left the school, notes written by Barbara informing the teachers in each class that there was an assembly in the school auditorium distributed. Once the teachers and their classes assembled in the auditorium, Barbara took the stage and asked the teachers to leave. Barbara's speech focused on the terrible conditions at the school, the inability of the parents and the city to deal with this problem and how they had to the right to the same facilities that the Farmville white students enjoyed.

Principal Boyd returned to the school and urged Barbara and the students to quit their strike, telling them that a new school was being worked on. But Barbara asked him to leave and she then led the students on a picket in front of the school. After meeting with Reverend L. Francis Griffin, the pastor at the First Baptist Church in Farmville, Barbara called the NAACP in an attempt to get them involved but they were reluctant, telling her to write a letter.

Some of the Moton High School students who attended the strike.

The (white) superintendent of Prince Edward County Schools, T. J. McIlwaine refused to meet with Barbara and the students, so she along with several other students walked to his office and met with him in the county courthouse. He refused Barbara's demands for black students to join their white counterparts at Farmville High and insisted that a new school was in the works. He also stated there was no difference in quality between the two high schools.

Three days into the strike, on April 25, 1951, two NAACP lawyers, Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill arrived to speak with Barbara and the striking students. They encouraged the students to go back to class because their strategy had changed. Instead of seeking schools of equal quality for black students, they were now working towards desegregation. Barbara's goal for the strike was a new building. Instead, the student strike at Robert R. Moton High would become part of a much larger push to achieve desegregation. Barbara Johns' initiative to improve schools for black students had suddenly blossomed into a much larger effort, the beginning of the struggle to end segregation of black students in America.

Discussion

The Girl From The Tar Paper School, which was written for children and teens, does an excellent job of recounting this important event which marked the beginning of efforts to desegregate schools in the United States.

Kanefield begins by describing the school that Barbara Johns and other black Americans in Farmville, Virginia must attend, and her decision to do something about the inequality experienced by black students in the county.

To help readers understand the factors that may have molded Barbara Rose Johns and motivated her to act, Kanefield delves into her family history. Readers get the sense of a close-knit family helping one another, with deep roots in Prince Edward County. Barbara, through the efforts of her Uncle Vernon Johns, a Baptist minister, learned about black history and was most definitely exposed to his volatile preaching which called out both blacks and whites. Like many black Americans, Barbara experienced racial prejudice, some of which is recounted.

Like her Uncle Vernon, Barbara "...put into words what needed to be said..." at the very beginning of the strike. Barbara's actions stunned her fellow students "...who saw her as reserved and something of a loner..." Her leadership qualities were very much in evidence during the initial stages of the strike. She boldly confronted the white superintendent, Mr. McIlwaine,

Accompanying Kanefield's narrative are a few family photographs - most were lost when the family home burned down in 1955 - as well as photographs of important lanmarks and areas that were important to Barbara and her story.

Social change is always difficult and often not without resistance. In the chapter titled, The Lost Generation, Kanefield recounts one of the unintended consequences of the fight to desegregate schools. Many readers will be shocked to learn that when desegregation was determined to be unconstitutional through the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the Prince Edward County school board refused to desegregate even though they were ordered to in 1959 by the Federal District Court. They closed all the Prince Edward County schools meaning that black children had no means of education while white students were able to attend a private school. This mean spirited action meant no schooling for black students until 1964, a situation that affected these families for years to come. Amazingly it took a Supreme Court decision to force the schools to reopen and "it was not until the 1980s that Prince Edward County schools were fully integrated and funded adequately enough so all children in the county could be educated."

If anything, The Girl From The Tar Paper School, helps young readers understand how racial prejudice can be so harmful both to those who hold these beliefs and to those who are victims of such prejudice. Kanefield portrays the extraordinary efforts black Americans had to go to simply to achieve the right to attend schools like other Americans and how these efforts were often peaceful and required great determination and courage.

The back matter contains an extensive Author's Note, A Select Civil Rights Timeline, Endnotes detailing the sources of quotes, a Sources page listing resources used, Image Credits and an Index. Well-written, enlightening and very moving.

image credit: http://www.newseum.org/2015/02/26/unsung-heroes-farmville-student-strike/

Book Details:

The Girl From The Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement  by Teri Kanefield
New York: Abrams Books For Young Readers    2014
56 pp.

Pocket Full of Colors: The magical world of Mary Blair, Disney artist extraordinaire by Amy Guglielmo and Jacqueline Tourville

Disney artist, Mary Blair was born Mary Browne Robinson in 1911 in McAlester, Oklahoma. Her family was quite poor and so they moved frequently, from Oklahoma to Texas, and then finally settled in California in 1918. Mary attended Live Oak Union High School graduating in 1929. She then went on to study Fine Arts at San Jose State College.

In 1931 Mary won a scholarship to the Chouinard School of Art located in Los Angeles. There she studied under the direction of American illustrator, Pruett Carter. She also met her future husband, Lee Blair at Chouinard. They married in March of 1934.

Because of the Great Depression both Mary and Lee had to work as commercial artists to support themselves. However Mary Blair did have art shows featuring her watercolours at several galleries in Los Angeles by 1938. These paintings featured darker, earthy colours but had an overall soft, muted quality. A good example of her style is the watercolour, Laundry Day which was painted in 1938. However her relationship with Walt Disney was to have a major impact on her life and her art.

In 1938 Lee was hired on by Disney Studios and worked on the animated films Pinocchio and Fantasia.  In 1940, Mary was hired to replace Lee in 1940. The Blairs were invited to accompany Walt Disney and his wife Lillian on a tour of South America in 1941. There Mary was exposed to the vibrant colours of the Latino culture and landscape which she began to incorporate into her own artwork. Her style changed to one that was described as "wild" and "electic".

Brigette Barrager's vibrant artwork from Pocket Full of Colors.

During World War II, Lee enlisted and was stationed on the east coast while Mary continued to work for Disney where she was assigned to oversee the art for several animated films including Three Caballeros. Throughout the late forties and into the early 1950's, Mary was the colour stylist for many Disney productions including The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Alice In Wonderland and Peter Pan.

Although Lee had left Disney much earlier and Mary eventually left in 1953, her years with Disney contributed significantly to her art career. She worked as a freelance artist but also continued to work with Disney on various projects including murals and commercial projects.

Guglielmo and Tourville's exquisite picture book is the perfect vehicle to tell the story of Mary Blair. The authors' text is accompanied by Brigette Barrager's vibrant digital artwork portraying Mary Blair's artistic development into one of the world's most accomplished animators and illustrators of the 20th century. Interestingly Barrager has worked for Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. It is really Barrager's beautiful illustrations which make this picture book simply grand and help to bring to life the story of Mary Blair. You can view more of Barrager's artwork at her website.

Many young readers will have seen the Disney versions of Cinderella, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland but may not have realized they were actually watching the artwork of Mary Blair. Although Pocket Full of Colors doesn't contain any of Mary Blair's actual artwork, the authors have included an Author's Note at the back with a photograph of the Blairs. This picture book is a great addition to a home/school or public library collection.

Book Details:

Pocket Full of Colors: The magical world of Mary Blair, Disney artist extraordinaire by Amy Guglielmo and Jacqueline Tourville         
New York: Atheneum Books For Young Readers        2017

Echoes of the White Giraffe by Sook Nyul Choi

Echoes of the White Giraffe is the second book in Sook Nyul Choi's books about a young girl and her family living in Korea during the first half of the 20th century.

Echoes of the White Giraffe begins in the year 1950. Fifteen-year-old Sookan is now living in Pusan with her younger brother Inchun and her mother after having barely escaped from the bombing of Seoul by the Korean and Chinese Communists. Sookan and her family had reunited after their daring escape out of Northern Korea which was occupied by the Russians who had driven out the Japanese occupiers. Sookan, her best friend Bokhi, Inchun, Teacher Yun and many other refugees had all played a part in building a school so that they could return to their studies. Teacher Yun and other teachers who had escaped from Seoul when the war started eight months ago are eager to help the students catch up.

Sookan misses her "beautiful brick Ewha School with its sparkling classrooms and its beautifully tiered garden." But she also misses her family home in Seoul. As refugees Sookan and her mother and brother live in a small wooden shack at the top of the mountain near Pusan. In their flight from Seoul they became separated from her father and three older brothers and haven't heard anything since then.

One morning Sookan is awoken by the loud yelling of a man on the opposite side of the mountain, telling everyone to wake up. Curious to see who the man is, Sookan races to the top of the mountain and yells back at him. She asks him if he is a mountain poet and calls this unknown man her "shouting poet". His yelling is a daily ritual that awakens the refugees.

Sookan settles into life in Pusan. Her family are Catholics and they attend Father Lee's morning and Sunday Masses. She also sings in the choir which is directed by Haerin Min, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Lim, the town doctor. The choir is made up of members from Pusan High School for Boys, Pusan Girls' School and also the refugee students from Seoul. 

Sookan doesn't much like Haerin, after the disdainful way she treated Sookan and her family when they first arrived in Pusan, looking down on them because they are refugees. Sookan spends a great deal of time with the choir, practicing every Saturday and singing at four Masses on Sunday. It is in the choir that she first meets Haerin's oppa or brother, Junho. Sookan finds seventeen-year-old Junho to be very handsome. Because their voices harmonize so well together, Haerin places Junho and Sookan together in the center of the choir, having them sing duets together.

One Sunday after Mass, Haerin catches up with Sookan as she walks home and questions her about her escape from the war in Seoul. Haerin's insensitive questioning makes Sookan uncomfortable but when Junho manages to meet with them Sookran tells him about her life in Pyongyang, North Korea. Despite Junho's kind remarks Sookan feels humiliated.

Sookan's time in Pusan is punctuated by several tragedies. Her best friend, Bokhi who lives with her aunt, learns that her parents died in the bombing of Seoul. Bokhi is so distraught that she does not return to school for days. Sookan stays at her house to try to encourage Bokhi to accept her parent's deaths and to realize that living her life well will please them. Eventually she manages to get Bokhi to come to see Teacher Yun who helps her cope. But when Sookan returns to her home on the red mountain the next morning she oversleeps. It is then that she realizes that she has not heard the shouting poet that morning and learns from her mother that he has died. Sookran's mother takes her to his grave where they discover his name was Baik Rin which means "white giraffe".

As time passes, Sookan and Junho develop a special friendship. When Sookan misses several days of school because of Bokhi and the death of Baik, Junho comes to visit her on the mountain. Under normal circumstances it would not be proper for Junho to stay to visit Sookan but because he is caught in a heavy downpour, Sookran's mother, recognizing the attraction between the two,  suggests he stay. This gives them a chance to really talk. Sookran tells him how her family came to escape Seoul and travel to Pusan. Junho asks Sookan what her plans are after she finished high school and she tells him that she wants to study history in America, then return to Korea to become a nun with her sister Theresa. This revelation disturbs Junho and as the rain has ended he quickly leaves.

Junho arranges for he and Sookan to have their picture taken together - something that is considered highly improper. When Junho receives the pictures, he secretly passes one onto Sookan but Haerin, jealous of Sookan's relationship with her brother, informs their parents. Junho's mother is furious and yells at Sookan's mother but Dr. Min is more tolerant understanding the innocent nature of their relationship.

With the signing of the armistice, once again dividing Korea in to the communist North and the democratic South, Sookan, Inchun and their mother return to Seoul where they find the three older boys at their badly damaged home. Eventually they learn that their father was killed in the bombing of Seoul. Amidst this loss, Sookan decides that she will study hard so she can apply to colleges in America. But in doing so it will mean leaving behind the young man she truly loves.

One day Junho comes to visit her in Seoul. He is now enrolled in Dongkuk University where he is studying literature. Junho tells Sookan that after finishes his studies he will enter the seminary to become a priest. This leads Sookan to wonder whether he has decided to enter the seminary because she told him she was going to become a nun or whether this was always his plan.

Sookan works diligently passing her exams and prepares to leave for America but before journeying overseas she decides to visit Jonhu. Unable to see him one last time, Sookan must believe that it is because they are "everlasting friends".

Discussion

Echoes of the White Giraffe is a beautifully written story that explores the themes of identity, forbidden love, and hope. This short novel manages to portray the uncertainty of life during the Korean conflict and the life of a refugee in a realistic, somewhat reserved way. The story is narrated by Sookan who reveals that her family was reunited in Seoul in 1945 and settled into a beautiful home at the base of Namsan Mountain. All this changes five years later when they are forced to flee from Seoul, their family becoming separated once again and Sookan, her mother and younger brother Inchun, crammed onto a boat which takes them to the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, to Pusan. In the first part of the novel Choi effectively portrays the uncertainty, fear and humiliation of Sookan's situation as a refugee.

Choi makes special use of mountains in her story as a symbol of safety and hope. When Sookan and her family flee to Namsan mountain in Seoul, the mountain is a source of protection and safety. The red-brown mountain they live on in Pusan, along with other refugees, symbolizes the obstacles they now face as refugees within their own country. They have no home, no relatives and an uncertain future. Climbing the mountain at the end of each day for Sookan seems almost impossible. The red mountain mud stains their shoes and their clothing, and climbing is sometimes so difficult that "On rainy days, we had to get down on all fours to climb up the muddy, treeless mountainside." Sookan states that the "red mud caked on my shoes made me feel very heavy." Their new life in Pusan is represented by this mountain. Sookan describes their home as "one room made of four thin plywood walls with a sliding door separating a small kitchen area from the main part..." When she looks down the mountain she is afraid seeing "dark shadows moving about. Feeling afraid that the dark valley might swallow me..."

However, the mountain provides them with a symbol of hope and also comes to represent how their lives gradually change as they overcome various obstacles. It is on the mountain that Sookan hears the man she calls the "shouting poet" who yells every morning "Hello, all you refugees on these mountains. Rise and shine. Remember it is a new day, a brand new day. Hello, hello." His voice reverberates over the mountain and Sookan notes that he makes the word "refugees" sound sweet; "The word "refugee" rang as melodiously as all the other words, not sounding as cold and ugly as it had the first time I heard it..." The shouting poet gives them all hope reminding them that each day is fresh, a new start.

But as life carries on and Sookan settles into a routine of attending school, hearing Mass and singing, she one day realizes that the mountain too has changed. "The mountain was not so difficult to climb as it used to be. The path up the hill had become worn and smooth from constant use. In some of the steep areas that were difficult to climb, people had dug little footholds that made it more like climbing a ladder". This description can be applied to Sookan's life which has now become a bit easier, with the refugees helping one another. Even the shacks now look different from one another, some with "tall yellow sunflowers, while another had morning glories scaling the walls and climbing the roof. Another had rows of tin cans blossoming with pansies and marigolds... It was as if each little house were furiously competing to be the prettiest, most cheerful one on the mountain." The shouting poet has done his work, he has passed on hope to the refugees on the mountain and that is reflected in their homes and their lives.

Choi's writing is very sensual, evoking the sights, sounds and smells of Sookan's world whether it be in Pusan or Seoul. The descriptions are poetic and beautiful, capturing the world around them, "We walked all the way to the jagged black rocks that jutted into the sea. In gloomy silence, we watched the waves crash violently onto the rocks, filling the air with cold, gray mist."

Sookan is shown to be a sensitive thoughtful girl who develops a chaste attraction to Junho. She rebels mildly against the strict norms of her culture which dictate that men and women do not mix in public and that unmarried men and women do meet unchaperoned. Sookan cannot bring herself to tell Junho how she truly feels, no matter how many times they meet, leaving her wondering what could have been. In the end, her one final attempt to see him goes ungranted making it seem as Junho said that they would be "everlasting friends". Sookan must come to accept Junho's decision to enter the priesthood as he had accepted her decision to travel overseas to study with the intent to eventually enter the convent.

There's also the lovely theme of faith woven through in this novel as Sookan and her mother attend Mass and find hope through their faith. Choi achieves her purpose well in this novel, explaining some of Korea's 20th century history, and portraying the culture of Korea, the resilience and determination of its people in difficult times to young readers. Echoes of the White Giraffe is the second of three autobiographical novels written by Sook Nyul Choi is a novel filled with tragedy and loss, but also hope and acceptance.

Book Details:
Echoes of the White Giraffe by Sook Nyul Choi
New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing   1993
137 pp.

In Trouble. A Novel by Ellen Levine

In Trouble is a short novel that attempts to portray what it was like in the 1950's for young women experiencing a crisis pregnancy, hence the title "in trouble". The novel tells the story of two girls, Jaime Morse and her best friend Elaine over the span of four months, from March to June of 1956. The author sets her novel in the McCarthy era, when Cold War America was on the hunt for any type of communist infiltration of society. Attitudes towards people who were different were unaccommodating and the strict social norms of that period were not to be broken, for any reason.

Told in Jaime's voice, the novel opens with Jaime talking to Elaine who wants her to help set up a weekend away with her college boyfriend, Neil. Elaine wants to stay with Neil who has been pressuring her to become intimate, saying that he has told her "it's a sign I don't love him if I won't". Jaime agrees to help her friend although she doesn't feel this is the right thing for her friend to do.

Eventually Elaine confides to Jaime that she is pregnant. When Jaime offers to get her aunt to "help" her, Elaine tells Jaime that as a Catholic she cannot have an abortion. Jamie who is in high school also hints that something terrible that has happened to her. "Now when something happens -- I will not think about It. I will not remember It. I will NOT -- I cannot tell anybody, not Elaine, not Georgina, who's my closest friend now that Elaine is gone. Not anybody. Not ever."  Although Jaime won't tell anyone and she doesn't want to think about what happened, the reader soon learns that she went to visit her cousin Lois in Greenwich Village and was date-raped by her cousin's friend.

All of this is set against the backdrop of Jaime's father returning home after being imprisoned for just under eleven months for being a member of the Communist party years ago. As well the author sets the tone of what it's like to be pregnant and unmarried in 1956. Girls who are "in trouble" are suddenly sent away when their "time comes". There are the requisite discussion about sex education, condoms and abortion circa 1956.

Soon Elaine's parents learn of her situation and she is taken to Catholic Services where she signs away her baby to be adopted. In 1956, as a single mother, she doesn't have the option of keeping her baby.  Elaine loves Neil, who now won't have anything to do with her but who pressured her into relations in the first place. She wants his baby, but she isn't being allowed really to have any say in what will happen to her or her baby. Elaine's parents haven't been much help to her either - telling her that she's ruined their life!

Eventually, Jamie is able to tell Paul, a boy from the school newspaper when they are on a date, what has happened to her. The panic that she feels when she first suspects she might be pregnant is truly heartrending. She can't believe what is happening to her and Levine creates a great deal of empathy for Jamie in her descriptions of how she feels and the terror and helplessness Jamie experiences over becoming pregnant.

Elaine has her baby at a Catholic orphanage but it is taken away from her and she is understandably traumatized. Levine also effectively portrays the loss and the terrible pain Elaine feels in giving up her baby which she truly loves and wants. "They took away my beautiful baby." she tells Jamie.

Discussion

In Trouble is a typical biased look at the social issues of unwed mothers and unplanned pregnancy from a decidely anti-Catholic perspective.  As the representative Catholic character in the novel, Elaine is portrayed as stupid, unrealistic, ignorant and naive. She believes to the very end that her lover, Neil, will come get her at the maternity home and marry her. Although Jamie views Elaine as having been "forced" to have her baby, Elaine tells Jamie that she loves her baby and she loves Neil. Her "false hope" contrasts with Jamie's "realistic" view of her predicament. However, Elaine's hopes, while perhaps not realistic, are natural. It is natural to want the father of your baby to marry you. It is natural to love your unborn baby. In 1956 and in 20

In comparison, Jamie, who decides upon abortion, is portrayed as intelligent, realistic and in some ways very savvy. She knows how to get the information she needs to make the "choice" that will free her from the burden of her unwanted pregnancy.  But Jaime rationalizes her abortion choice primarily by denying the humanity of her unborn child. She tells Elaine that her unborn child is a "prebaby". "Elaine, hello. You don't have a baby. You've got a pre-baby in you. Not a baby.", to which Elaine responds, "A baby, Jamie, it's a baby and it's mine."  Later on she tells her parents, "I love you both," I said, and I meant it. "But I can't. I don't know all of the why. It's not just going to college." I touched my belly. "This is not a baby yet, and I can't let it be one. I mean, how could I have a baby and not take care of it?"

In Trouble contains a few bits of abortion rights rhetoric. For example, when Jaime tells her mother what's going on with her friend and that she is being forced to give up her baby for adoption, her mother admits it's a terrible choice. But Uncle Maury has the following response: "The only terrible thing," Uncle Maury said, "is when someone brings an unwanted child into the world."  Of course, Uncle Maury is referring to the oft-repeated feminist mantra of "every child a wanted child", implying of course that wantedness confers humanity and makes a pregnancy, a baby. Abortion in proabortion reasoning, will rid the world of unwanted children.

Unfortunately, the choice of adoption is portrayed as very traumatic one, while the choice of abortion appears to have little negative outcome. Readers are told how Elaine feels after the adoption - a choice she didn't want or really make. But in contrast, readers are not presented with the effects of abortion on Jamie, because the novel ends at this point. However, a point is made that the abortion allows Jamie to regain her life and that it is a good choice because it was the choice she wanted. 

In Trouble is a good starting point for a discussion about abortion, premarital sex, teen sex, rape, adoption and single parenting. It is also useful in providing a starting point for a discussion on how society has changed in its views of single mothers, premarital sex and rape. It was interesting to note that not one adult in the story reported the rape of their cousin/daughter. Lois simply sends her young male friend packing and Jamie's parents never really address their daughter's rape at all. Single mothers were strongly discouraged from keeping their babies mainly because at that time there was still great shame in having a baby outside of marriage and because there were few support systems in place for single mothers. 

In Trouble attempts to demonstrate to teens what it was like to have an unplanned pregnancy when abortion was illegal in the United States. It is based on the author's interviews with many women who experienced just such a situation in the 1950s. There is no doubt that society did not offer much in the way of emotional and physical support to women experiencing an unplanned pregnancy, often treating them with contempt while the men who pressured women to have sex or who raped women suffered few, if any consequences. And certainly the type of help that was offered to women in 1956, often being sent away to have their babies in secret while society gossiped and judged, did great harm. But that has all changed today. 

Levine states in her author's note that women now have choices and in particular the choice to abort and that they would do well to remember what it was like in the days of coat hanger and back alley abortions. However, abortion is not a reasonable choice to offer a woman in a situation that is both complex and intensely emotionally charged. In fact, abortion has not made the situation better. If anything it has added a new pressure to young women, telling them they are incapable of dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and that it will ruin their life. Abortion forces women to make a serious, unalterable and life-changing decision at a time when they are emotionally, physically and psychologically vulnerable. In the situation of rape, the woman must now manage both the trauma of the rape, as well as the trauma of abortion. The situation today for women with an unplanned pregnancy is much better - there is counselling, support during pregnancy and birth, the option to be a single parent or to adopt, including the possiblity of  doing an open adoption. In this respect, In Trouble, while portraying the situation sixty years ago, is not helpful in providing an intelligent and accurate perspective to the abortion debate.

Book Details:
In Trouble by Ellen Levine
Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Lab Lerner Publishing Group 2011
200 pp.