Men We Reaped

In Chapter 9 Ward and her family return to DeLisle and move onto her mother’s newly purchased land and into a single-wide trailer. After constantly moving homes and jobs, their father discontinues his child support payments and moves to New Orleans. The children visit their father on weekends and during the summer.

Ward continues to attend the private Episcopalian school she began attending in elementary school; she remains one of the only Black students there. She recalls only a couple of other Black students throughout her years at the school, but despite this connection, she feels the division in their class status, as “both of these Black students [come] from two-parent, solidly upper-middle- or middle-class families” (183). The only other Black students she encounters are students recruited for the school’s basketball team. The similarities in race and background between her and these students give Ward “some respite, some illusion of community” (183). Ultimately, Ward retains outsider status due to her obsession with reading.

She befriends other students with artistic interests, but she remains the only Black student in these groups. To fit in, she adorns herself in the secondhand clothing of wealthier students procured from her mother’s work as a maid in their houses.