Whistling Past the Graveyard

Content Warning: This section discusses racism, racist language and violence, child abuse, and spousal abuse.

“Worryin’ ‘bout how I looked was one part of being a lady I wasn’t looking forward to. Thank goodness I was only nine and a half and still had some time left.”

Starla’s narration invokes a sense of humor, and here she uses irony to parody the idea of becoming a “lady.” She turns it into a superficial identity, alluding to sexist norms and pressures on women to care about their looks. Thus, a nine-and-half-year-old has more freedom and substance than a “lady.”

“Patti Lynn had a real family with a sister and three brothers and lived in a big house on Magnolia Street. She even had a dog.”

Starla’s portrayal of Patti Lynn’s family links to The Complexity of Familial Relationships, with Starla reinforcing a conventional image of a family unit. Starla thinks that a “real family” requires biological relations, a nice house, and a pet, but she’ll eventually learn that the term is fluid.

“Now you gone and done it. We dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.”

The phrase “gone and done it” shows how Wallace mixes Southern American English and AAVE. The repetition of “dead” reveals his intense awareness of the greater racist community. If people discover that Eula took a white baby, white people could kill her and him with impunity.