Boy, Snow, Bird

Boy receives congratulatory flowers from her sister-in-law Clara, heretofore unmentioned. She recalls an odd comment of Vivian’s: that Boy marrying Arturo gives Olivia the daughter she’d always actually wanted. Boy mentions to Snow that it’s from her aunt Clara, but Snow doesn’t recognize the name; Arturo explains that Clara is estranged from their parents and is vague on the details.

Neither Mia nor Webster has heard of Clara. Mrs. Fletcher has, saying “how wrong it was of Olivia Whitman to send that girl away” (120), but in contrast with Arturo, says that she did nothing wrong. Mrs. Fletcher, however, is likewise vague, only saying that she met her only once, when she came in to buy an 1846 edition of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and that she could see the resemblance immediately. Mrs. Fletcher provides Boy with a phone number, but no one answers when Boy calls.

Charlie writes Boy and tells her a story about his aunt, Jozsa, in the USSR. He tells her about how she was interned, and for weeks she tried to figure out what she did wrong, but couldn’t think of anything, so she finally zeroed in on something she said at a party: “Will spring never come?” She repeated the words until they sounded incriminating, then, convinced that was it, confessed; however, the interrogator believed she was joking. Later, she was released, and asked for as much American candy as Charlie could send. So, he did, and included a note suggesting she should come to America. Charlie’s aunt replied that she “can’t live in your shitty capitalist country” (124). Angry, he questions her communism, and she says that it won’t always be like it is.

Boy, thinking about the story, recalls a night two weeks before she ran away. Charlie had taken her for a slice of pie and insisted on walking her to the door, where Frank greeted them; he asked Charlie if he thought Boy was pretty, and he replied that he thought she was beautiful. Once inside, Frank began slapping her and making her say that she is ugly repeatedly. Later, Frank made dinner, and Boy recalls it being a fantastic meal, but Frank was biting his lip so hard through the meal that he began bleeding. She excused herself to bed, but when she woke up, she was tied to a chair in the basement with the rats. Her father stood over her with a rat, threatening to use the starved rat to scar her face. However, the rat didn’t gnaw at her face. Her father then killed the rat and ran up the stairs, cursing and crying. For the next couple weeks, he stayed out of her way.

During that time, Boy came to the conclusion that she had to kill her father or leave. She also decided that she couldn’t love Charlie because she believed she “had to be rescued […] as a proof of love. It’s better that Charlie and [Boy] didn’t make an automatic transaction, love exchanged for rescue” (129). She considers the impact Julia still has on Arturo’s life and believes that Arturo is “crazy if he [thinks] Julia [is] finished with him” as it is “bad enough with Charlie,” who is still alive (130).

Boy believes Arturo must have figured out that she loves someone else because he begins making chains out of heavy brass links. He unnerves her by asking what she thinks of them; she tells him to try them on. He does so, then apologizes. She tells him she’s pregnant; when they tell Snow, she asks for a sister.

Boy begins preparing for the arrival of her baby. She keeps a secret list of baby names and notices that she no longer recognizes herself in the mirror. Arturo reads poetry to the baby; Snow suggests the name Bird regardless of if it’s a boy or a girl. Snow begins asking Boy to sing the songs Julia left for her on her record, insisting that Boy is her mother, as well. 

Bird, as Boy names her baby, is born with dark skin. The doctors and nurses all assume that Boy slept with a person of color, but Boy realizes that Arturo is actually African American.

Arturo tells Bird the truth about his ancestry. His family had moved north from Louisiana to try to pass, and they were successful in doing so. Julia’s parents had likewise done the same, and when Snow was born, she was also light-skinned, so everyone continued keeping their actual race a secret.

When Boy returns home, Olivia tries to insinuate that Boy either cheated on Arturo or is herself African American, but Boy cuts her off and threatens to slap her. She recalls thinking of Sidonie during tea and believes she had subconsciously made the connection. Olivia tells Boy her story: the last time someone threatened to slap her, it was a white woman while they were still living in the South, who felt Olivia wasn’t doing her job quickly enough. She tells Boy of the racism and oppression they experienced in the South, justifying their move to the North and how difficult it is to see other people of color being treated poorly while they get away with it. Through her story, Boy continually tries to get Olivia to look at Bird, but she refuses; when she’s finished, she tells Boy to see if Clara, who is also dark-skinned, will take her.

Boy struggles with outside perception. Olivia shuns Bird, and Boy notices the judgmental looks she and Bird receive as they walk around town. At one point, she runs into Sidonie and her mother, who invites Boy over for tea. Sidonie’s mother tells Boy more about the Whitmans’ passing and the begrudging respect she and Olivia Whitman have for one another.

Boy watches Snow and Bird interact and becomes more frustrated with Snow; she fears for the day that “a wall will come up between” her and Bird because of their skin color, and she “won’t be able to follow her behind it” (145). She grows suspicious of Snow; she begins to dream that she is Bird, and she and Snow are walking through a hall of mirrors, Snow insisting that she is her best friend, although she doesn’t exist in the mirrors.

One day, Snow asks repeatedly to hold and carry Bird, regardless of how many times Boy says no. When Snow lays next to Bird and gives Boy “a look of radiant, innocent virtue” that makes Boy’s “skin crawl” (147), Boy is so angry with Snow that she raises her hand to hit her, though she restrains herself from doing so.

A short while later, as Boy’s despair worsens, she tries calling Clara again, this time getting an answer. Clara recognizes that Boy is crying on the other end of the line and tells her that she can send Bird to live with her and no one will blame her. Boy asks Clara about being sent away, and if she is angry with Olivia. Clara says no because she’s living as she likes to live. At the end of the conversation, however, Boy asks Clara if she’ll take Snow, instead.