Analysis

The opening of the second book of the novel, "Reconstruction," explicitly deals with changes in southern politics after the war. The northern government with its Freedom Bureau has thus far been involved in rebuilding the south. The ease of life on Mr. Bone's plantation demonstrates the relatively high level of freedom and respect the blacks felt at that time. Not too long after the war, however, the northern government abandons the south, and when the southerners return, they bring back their racist social order. Jane herself keenly feels the abandonment by the north. While she once met the New Yorker from the Bureau who promised her that Louisiana would soon be as free as the north, she now knows that his statement is false. Furthermore, Gaines emphasizes the irony of the northern role by explaining that while the northern government abandons the reconstruction efforts, northern businessmen and banks make thing worse by lending money to southerners, like Colonel Dye, so that they can buy back their plantations. The north then has left the south with its old ways while simultaneously helping to promote them. Jane knows that "slavery has returned" once the white secret societies start threatening and beating blacks for the smallest oversight or success.

Time suddenly begins passing much more rapidly in this section. While we received an almost day-by-day account of her adventures while fleeing slavery, suddenly Ned is almost seventeen years old. The sequence of events is clear but the exact time between the different events is not. We have no idea of how many years Mr. Bone stayed on the plantation, for example. Toward the end of the section, Jane also starts offering certain predictions of future events. Ned later will become a soldier, she reports. Jane's ability to control how quickly time moves is consistent with an oral narrative. The existence of misspelled "oral" terms, such as "sable" for "saber" also reinforces its oral context.

If Ned now is about seventeen, Jane must be in her mid to late twenties. In contrast to her earlier desire for long adventures, she chooses to remain on the plantation several times during this section: first when Colonel Dye returns and second when Ned needs to flee. Jane's unwillingness to leave can be traced to her growing realization about the nature of the world, not due to her lack of spunk. Given the betrayal by the federal government, Jane cannot imagine that life in the north can be better than life in the south, so she stays. When Ned leaves, Jane insists that she can stay because no one will treat her like a dog. Jane lives in a racist system, but she has not internalized it. Her control over her ideology makes it possible for her to remain where she is despite the problems around her.

Ned's conflict and the emergence of Joe Pittman touch upon the theme of the difficulties of black masculinity in the south. Ned's trouble with the Ku Klux Klan foreshadows his later murder and also the trouble that the other black men will face for similarly independent acts. While Ned has to flee for asserting his own manhood and humanity (by helping other blacks flee), the white men who come to attack him in the Klan are cowardly. They come in a group to attack a single man, and they wear masks to hide their true identity. The failure of these white men to stand up and fight fairly is ironic, since the whites constantly act as if they are more powerful men than the blacks. The black man's desire to articulate his manhood in a system that demeans it will become further developed with the character of Joe Pittman.