Necessary Lies

“Charlotte looked at me. ‘We’ll get you working on that petition right away,’ she said, and I nodded although I was thinking, what does Ivy want? Shouldn’t that count for something?”

From her first encounter with the Hart family, Jane is apprehensive about preventing Ivy from making her own choices. Because Ivy has epilepsy and is regarded as unintelligent, the state feels it is justified in making decisions for Ivy. This proves to be the novel’s central conflict and reflects the theme of Personal Agency and Autonomy.

“I was thinking how, in all the time I knew Mrs. Werkman, she never sat with me alone in the shade and asked me all these questions like I was a grown-up. Like what I thought mattered. She never asked me one single question about my daddy.”

Though it is against protocol for Jane to interact with her clients in a personal way, Ivy immediately appreciates the care that Jane shows her. This personal interest will ultimately help Jane earn Ivy’s trust. Ivy’s observation of the differences between Jane and Charlotte establishes the two characters as foils.

“‘It sounds like everybody in that household should be neutered,’ [Robert] said, and I had the feeling he wasn’t kidding.

‘I can see how the Eugenics Program is a good thing in some cases, but I’m not sure it would be in this girl’s.’ I toyed with my coleslaw. ‘I sort of see myself in her,’ I said, ‘and I wouldn’t want someone else making that sort of decision about my life.’”

Robert repeatedly sides against Jane on the topic of Ivy’s sterilization; for Robert, the ethical dubiousness of forced sterilization is outweighed by the removal of the “burden” more children will place on the public welfare system. In keeping with the theme of Personal Agency and Autonomy, Jane is aware of how valuable such rights are to maintain.

“‘Charlotte thought you might be a problem,’ [Paula] said.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’re unprofessional,’ she said. ‘You get too involved. That’s what she was afraid of. It’s easy to lose objectivity when you get too involved.’”

Jane repeatedly finds herself in the minority among the other social workers, who disapprove of the close relationships Jane forges with the Harts. Because this violates professional protocol, Jane will ultimately lose her job. The contrast between professionalism and “get[ting] too involved” highlights a challenge Jane faces in navigating the world of social work: She feels that getting involved in her clients’ lives is her duty as a social worker, but professional protocol requires objectivity instead.

“I couldn’t remember the last time I had that feeling, but I knew exactly what it was. Hope. She cared enough to bring us a fan. Mrs. Werkman never did nothing like that in all the years I knowed her. Mrs. Forrester could make things change for the good. Ever since that day she talked to me, I been talking to her in my head, telling her every little thought that came into it. I wished I could talk to her every minute.”

Though initially skeptical of Jane’s intentions, Ivy grows to trust her, recognizing that Jane does indeed intend to work in Ivy’s best interest. Though Jane’s actions in showing a personal interest in her clients violate industry protocol, doing so proves beneficial to Ivy. Ivy’s hope that Jane can “make things change for the good” underscores how the state typically provides temporary fixes rather than helping individuals break out of The Cycle of Poverty for good.

“‘They’re threatened by you,’ [Lois] said. ‘You chose to do something they’d never have the gumption to choose for themselves. Being their own person. When I was teaching, it upset Gavin at first because he thought it reflected badly on him, but then he realized how much I loved it. How it made me a happier person. I hope Robert understands that, too.’

‘Oh, he does,’ I said, a tiny bit envious.

‘That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?’ she asked. ‘Being able to choose what we want to do.’

I walked with her back to our table, thinking not about her or myself or Beverly Ann or Deborah, but about Lita Jordan and Ivy and Mary Ella Hart and all the other women and girls I was seeing who didn’t have many choices in their lives at all.”

Jane values her Personal Agency and Autonomy —one of the novel’s key themes—but knows that other women, and her husband, disapprove of the ways she has stepped outside of the Gender Norms in Mid-20th-Century America. Here, she shows an understanding of the way her race and economic status afford her privileges that other women do not have.

“If Ivy were my neighbor, though, no one would think of sterilizing her. That was the thing. The petition was because she was poor. Poor and on welfare and unable to speak for herself.”

Jane understands the inherent bigotry of the eugenics program. It argues for gradually eliminating those of certain races and, in Ivy’s case, those who are poor. Ivy’s poverty, Jane argues, causes her to lack Personal Agency and Autonomy, one of the novel’s key themes.

“‘Your self-righteousness is getting in the way of your duty to your clients, Mrs. Forrester,’ [Fred] said as he left.”

What Jane views as helpful and caring behavior other social workers insist is a violation of protocol that, they argue, will prevent her from achieving her desired outcomes. Fred attacks Jane in a personal way, insisting that she believes herself to be morally superior to the other social workers. The growing tension between Jane and her coworkers, like Fred, foreshadows her eventual dismissal from the job.

“‘There are too many silly rules in our lives,’ [Lois] said, ‘and our lives are far too short to pay attention to them.’ […]

[Jane] laughed. ‘You’ve got guts,’ [Jane] said.

‘And so do you.’ She patted [Jane] on the shoulder. ‘Those girls will remember that beach trip for as long as they live.’”

Though Jane intends to provide the Harts with some enjoyment—and to get to know them better so that she can gauge their needs—the trip to the beach violates industry protocol. Jane regrets this, but Lois assures her that breaking the rule is wise in this case. Ultimately, these kinds of violations will cause Jane to lose her job.

“[Nurse Ann] leaned over and took my hands. ‘Ivy, you’re not a bad girl. You help Nonnie remember to take her medicine and test her urine. She told me that. You know how to take care of other people. Now just take care of you, okay? Take care of yourself because it’s not just you anymore. It’s that little baby, too.’”

Though others insist that Ivy is unintelligent, Nurse Ann’s words reveal Ivy’s maturity in her ability to care for others. In contrast to Mary Ella, Ivy does her best to care for William. However, because the family depends on her to work, she does not have the luxury of resting to allow her baby to develop properly, reflecting the far-reaching implications of The Cycle of Poverty.

“So, Mary Ella wanted five children, I thought, remembering her happiness over Ivy’s pregnancy. It was her dream and she had no idea it was impossible. Maybe it was right to prevent her from having more, but it wasn’t right that she had that dream. I didn’t care if she was deemed feebleminded. I didn’t care.

I felt angry as I turned the key in the ignition. I wouldn’t deceive these girls I’d come to care about.”

Though she has debated revealing the truth of her surgery to Mary Ella for some time, Jane finally decides that this is what she must do. Ethically, she feels that Mary Ella has the right to know what has happened to her, even though it is too late to change the outcome. Jane feels a sense of obligation to Ivy to prevent her from undergoing surgery, as Ivy has come to trust Jane.

“How I wished I could talk to [Robert] about [the Harts]. There was really no one I could confide in these days. Charlotte was the natural candidate, but she was way too judgmental. Lois was too ill for me to bother with my problems and I didn’t want to worry my mother. I missed college when I’d been surrounded by Gloria and my other girlfriends. Now we were all scattered to the winds.”

Jane’s conflicting views about the best course of action for the Hart family have ostracized her from her fellow social workers. She finds herself further isolated as none of her peers can understand her passion for helping Ivy. This isolation parallels the feeling Ivy expresses in carrying the burden of caring for her family.

“‘It’s the other one I worry about now,’ [Davison Gardiner] said. ‘You’ll get Ivy fixed after she has this baby, right?’

I was suddenly uncomfortable talking about Ivy with him. Here we’d talked about the most intimate details of people’s lives, and we’d certainly spoken about Ivy before, but there was something almost desperate in the way he asked the question, and I felt like saying ‘What business is it of yours, really?’ I felt protective of the little bit of privacy she had left.

But he was the one who controlled their lives, who could snatch their house right out from under them.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It’ll be taken care of.’”

This quote points to the power that Davison Gardiner holds. Though he expresses care and kindness toward the Harts throughout much of the novel, his position as William’s father complicates matters. This is a secret that Gardiner does not want to come to light and thus he will likely take any steps necessary to maintain it. Jane’s desire to protect Ivy’s privacy illustrates how a lack of Personal Agency and Autonomy manifests in a lack of privacy; this lack of privacy mirrors the state’s ability to make personal reproductive decisions on behalf of others without their consent.

“‘I’ll help you make sure [the baby] has the care he needs so that doesn’t happen,’ I promised, not believing the promise even myself. I’d told them I’d try to get them visitation rights with William, and I’d failed. I’d told Ivy I’d try to arrange for her to continue school at home, and I’d failed there, too. Why should she trust me this time?”

Jane experiences great guilt for her inability to help the Harts. Her thoughts highlight how Ivy and Mary Ella both lack Personal Agency and Autonomy. Because they are poor, they have little control over their lives or their futures.

“The last time I’d watched a coffin being lowered into the ground, it had contained the body of my sister. Did both of them [Theresa and Mary Ella] die because of me? I would never be able to shake that guilt.”

Jane repeatedly notes how Mary Ella physically resembles her own sister. Though readers are aware that Theresa has died, the circumstances of her death are not revealed until late in the book. This indicates the difficulty Jane has in facing the accident and confronting her feelings of guilt. The shared loss of a sister, however, draws Jane and Ivy closer, creating common ground.

“‘You don’t know nothin’ about them.’ Eli bit off every word. ‘Or about me and my kin, neither. You only know what we let you know.’ He looked down at my neatly pressed dress, my black pumps, my leather purse, and my nylons. ‘And you sure don’t know nothing about being poor.’”

Though Jane attempts to empathize with the Harts, Eli is quick to point out that her ability is limited by her life experience. Because Jane is wealthy and privileged, he insists that she cannot know what the stress of The Cycle of Poverty is truly like. He resents Jane’s sympathy, finding it demeaning.

“I never felt so un-fine in my life. How could I be fine? Everything was wrong. William was gone. My sister was in the ground. I couldn’t see Henry Allen and it felt like maybe I’d never see him again. Nonnie’s pee turned orange in the tube this morning and Nurse Ann told her she’d have to get the shots if she didn’t eat right, which Nonnie wasn’t ever going to do. And Mrs. Forrester, I thought she was wonderful but turned out she was the worst person ever to come into my life. I didn’t believe her that she’d stop the operation. She promised, but why should I believe her when she already hurt us so much?”

The stress of Ivy’s situation mounts as she faces the death of her sister, her grandmother’s deteriorating health, and other difficult situations. She feels alone, without anyone to whom she can turn. Though she has grown to trust Jane, she now doubts Jane’s sincerity and feels she cannot depend on her.

“This was a side to Nonnie I’d never seen before. This weak, soft side. I knew all of a sudden this was the real Nonnie. It got covered up by her yelling and hitting, and it scared me more than anything to know she wasn’t as tough as she seemed. I needed somebody in my life to be strong.”

Though Ivy has a tough relationship with her grandmother, who is at times physically abusive, Ivy feels that Nonnie does indeed have her best interest in mind. She realizes Nonnie hides her fear and softness with anger and violence. However, this softer side of Nonnie scares her because it makes her feel even more alone in shoring the emotional load of the family’s stress.

“I looked at the picture another minute. Mrs. Forrester and her sister was both smiling. Both of them happy girls. Maybe happier than me and Mary Ella ever was. ‘You and me,’ I said, ‘we both got the same kind of hurt inside us.’ She nodded, and suddenly, just like that, I knew I could trust her with my life.”

Ivy wavers in her ability to trust Jane, in part because Jane has not been able to keep all the promises she has made. In the end, Ivy realizes that she and Jane share a similar experience, having both lost a sister unexpectedly. This cements Ivy’s trust in Jane, highlighting how solidarity and mutual understanding are foundational to relationships of care.

“‘They’re trying to erase us,’ I said. “Erase my whole family. Like we was never born.’”

Ivy recognizes that the true motive of the eugenics movement is not to pursue the best interest of those who are disadvantaged but to instead further the control of those who already possess power and privilege. Though Ivy has been deemed unintelligent by social workers, her clear understanding of the dangers of eugenics highlights her natural intelligence.

“They was going to take me and cut me open. And when Mary got old enough, they’d do the same thing to her. They’d erase us. Right now, though, me and Mary was alive and together. I took the fork and dug our names into the wall of the closet. ‘Ivy and Mary was here,’ I wrote. I dug so deep into the wall, no one would ever be able to erase the words. Not ever.”

This moment circles back to the present-day scene that opens the novel, proving that Ivy indeed was able to symbolically prevent herself from being “erased.” Her words remain into the future. Later, readers will learn that Ivy has survived to tell her tale.

“‘How is Brenna doing?’

‘Adjusting.’ [Gavin’s] smile was sad. ‘She’s more resilient than I am.’ He looked through the bars thoughtfully, then back at me. ‘I’ll never forget how she went to you after Lois’ funeral that day,’ he said. ‘She’s a very intuitive little girl and that moment told me something about you.’

‘It did?’ I asked.

He nodded. ‘It told me you’re someone worth fighting for,’ he said.”

Gavin’s words about the connection between Jane and Brenna foreshadow the important role Jane will later assume as Brenna’s stepmother. In this way, Jane will indeed become a mother, though not in the way that Robert deemed socially acceptable. Her bond with Brenna will be reminiscent of the connection she has to Ivy.

“‘You did what you had to do,’ Ivy said firmly. She touched my knee. ‘Jane, I never blamed you for anything. Maybe a little back then, but the more I grew up, the more I could see why you had to do it.’”

As she ages and matures, Ivy comes to understand the difficult position Jane was placed in, having to choose between her personal ethics and the protocol of her profession. In the case of William, there was no easy solution to ensure that he received the care that he needed while remaining in the care of his family.