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Part II: Maps (1978)
Chapter Four
Summary: Chapter Four
Having won a track scholarship to UCLA, Jude arrives in Los Angeles in the autumn of 1978. On the bus ride there, Jude reads a mystery novel that Early had gifted her. Accustomed to the way that people in Mallard obsessed over her dark skin, she barely noticed the bus driver gawk at her. As a child Jude would read mystery novels while Early cleaned his gun. One day, she asked Early if he could find her father, to which he replied that her father was a bad man. Afterward, Jude imagined her father rescuing her from Mallard. When her father never appeared, Jude began running as a means of escape. Growing up in Mallard, Jude was subjected to constant jokes about her “blueblack” skin. At one point, Adele had even tried to prevent Jude from running during the day out of fear that her skin would get darker if she spent time in the sun.
Jude was tormented by her classmates, in particular, Lonnie Goudeau, who was the first to call her “Tar Baby.” When Adele suggested Lonnie harassed her because he liked her, Jude recoiled, remembering how her father abused her mother. Before the physical and emotional bruising, on Jude’s first day of school, a classmate, Louisa Rubidoux, questioned if Desiree was really Jude’s mother. Dissatisfied with Desiree’s empty promise of leaving Mallard one day and the doubts about Desiree being her real mother, Jude began telling her classmates that her true mother was lost. She began to imagine that Stella was her real mother.
By the time Jude was in high school, she had become accustomed to the name calling and teasing but grew incredibly lonely. Running became a solace from the loneliness. When she was eleven years old, Jude received her first pair of running shoes from Early during one of his return trips to Mallard. Jude referred to these periods of time when Early would return as “Early season.” During this time, Jude observed the change in Desiree’s behavior, and how Adele, disproving of Desiree’s infatuation with Early, would reminisce about the light-skinned boys in Mallard that chased Stella and Desiree around when they were younger.
After dropping Jude off at the bus station, Early drives Desiree to her shift at Lou’s Egg House. Desiree could not have fathomed when she first returned to Mallard that she would be there for the next ten years. In the beginning, Desiree lied to Jude with the promise of returning to D.C. As Desiree’s relationship with Early developed, however, Desiree began to feel comfortable in Mallard, cherishing the fact that she was with her mother and was loved there, as well as removed from the grips of Sam’s violence. Though Early and Desiree are not officially married, they have a mutual understanding and love for one another.
Throughout Jude’s freshman year at UCLA, she delights in telling people that Mallard cannot be found on any map. One April evening, she takes Reese to the library to prove her point. Reese and Jude met at a Halloween party that Jude’s roommate, Erika, had dragged her to. To Reese’s surprise, Jude was right—Mallard was nowhere to be found on the atlas.
Analysis: Chapter Four
This chapter explores the theme of the past living on in the present. As Jude leaves home for the first time, her past surfaces and reveals the ways that her parents have influenced her identity. Stella’s absence in Desiree’s life is part of the reason that Desiree stays in Mallard longer than she intends to; despite Jude’s desire to leave, Desiree finds comfort living in a place where she is surrounded by signs of her sister. Jude mentally replacing Desiree with Stella is a way to punish her mother, but it also shows that Jude feels that her mother, like Stella, is absent. The physical absence of her father causes her to sentimentalize him and long to be rescued by him, despite his abusive behavior toward her mother. It is so difficult for Jude to reconcile the loving side of her father with the violent side that she imagines them as two separate people. In the same way, her fear of Lonnie’s violence lives side by side with softer feelings for him. This chapter highlights how Jude’s parents’ flaws and selfish pursuits have isolated her and left holes in her identity.
This chapter introduces the second side of the map as a symbol of another world to be known. Jude, Desiree, and Early are all grappling with the idea that their lives could be different. As Jude leaves home for the first time, she reflects on how her life might have turned out if her mother had kept her promise to leave, or if her father had come to claim her. Desiree too wonders what her life could have looked like if she had left Mallard or if she had never come back. Within Desiree and Early’s unconventional relationship, the other side of the map is the phantom of a traditional life of marriage and “full love.” Both Desiree and Early fear this other world, but in their own slow way, they move closer and closer to it. The other side of the map is hidden and may not exist at all, but these characters still strive to determine if it is worth pursuing.
