Despite the frequent blend of past and present, the progression
of the novel is very straightforward. The purpose of Ellen's story
is to explain to the reader how she established herself in her new
home, which she does by first describing her unhappy past, meanwhile working
toward a complete picture of her stable, fortunate present with
her "new mama."
When Ellen remarks that she envisions her father's body
being carted away by "two colored boys," we are given an immediate message
that the book is set in a time and place where racial discrimination
is prevalent—in this case, the south during the mid to late 1970s.
Ellen makes this comment not because she, herself, is racist, but
because she has been raised in a highly racist community. The subjects
of race relations and race-related tension will soon develop into
one of the novel's main concerns. When, lying in bed with her dying
mother, Ellen comments that there is a "terrible storm coming,"
she forebodes the nightmarish events that are indeed soon to come
for her, including her mother's death, her father's torture, and the
many unhappy homes of which she will bounce in and out over the
next two years.
