Summary of The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers
The Glory Field
1864
p. 11-23
The Lewis slaves were made to work on the fields even though is was Sunday. It was a year ago since they worked the fields on a Sunday.
Joshua Lewis, Moses Lewis' brother had run away because he had heard that his wife, Neela might be sold, and Lem Lewis, Mose's son, was described by Grandma Dolly as being like her grandfather Muhummad and “did things differently”(p.15), and Grandma Dolly also says, “If you born with a taste for freedom in your mouth, you got to satisfy it.” Lem had escaped and run away too.
There were patrollers out looking for Joshua and Lem. Everybody was wondering what happened to them. Master Lewis, his family, his overseer Mister Joe Haynes and his workers, and Moses Lewis, his family and the other slaves all wondered if they would be caught.While they were working in the fields, Moses sees Lem off at a distance because he starts singing a spiritual referring to the lost lambs, “The young lambs must find the way...” and eventually the slaves see what Moses had seen, Lem being dragged behind a horse.
Saran, Lem's mother, grandma Dolly, Moses and the other slaves back in their quarters, rely on their faith and call on God to keep Lem safe.Miss Julia, Master Lewis' daughter comes to get Lizzy with the excuse that the kitchen is dirty, in order to manipulate Lizzy into telling her what she knows about Lem and Joshua. She acts so high and mighty when she says to Lizzy that it's thanks to her that Lem is still alive, “They should hang him from a fruit tree...and they would have, too, if it hadn't been for me...I told them not to hang him because I knew you were sweet on him.”(p.23)
...............
The Glory Field
1864
p. 24-34
Miss Julia and Lizzy drink tea
and Miss Julia sweet talks Lizzy even telling her that one day she is going to buy Lizzy from her father and set her free so that they can walk hand and hand in pretty dresses in Johnson City.
Lizzy is told by Master Lewis to return to the quarters, and she listens for a minute behind the door to see if she can hear anything about Joshua and Lem. When she arrives to the quarters everyone asks her questions about what she heard. She tells them that Lem is tied to a tree out in the woods and tomorrow they are going to talk to the slave trader Mister Oakes and see if he can sell him to Foster.
Moses doesn't trust Miss Julia and he has no qualms in telling Lizzy that Miss Julia is just sweet talking her, and Grandma Dolly says, “And don't think you overheard nothing they don't want you to know. Anything you know is what they want you to know so they can use you.”(p.30)
Everybody in the slave quarters is wondering if Joshua is going to come back for Lem. Everybody knows that Joshua knows what tree Lem is tied to only they don't know if he is going to come back for him. Moses tells a story of two boys and how they couldn't take the abuse from the master anymore and they end up being hung for fighting with a white man. He tells this story to remind them that Lem and Joshua are not safe.
We find out how Lizzy came to live with Moses Lewis and his family. Lizzy's mother died because of all the hard work in the rice plantations, therefore, Lizzy came to live with Moses and his family. Lizzy lying in bed remembers a coachman from Savannah, Georgia and how fine he looked in his fine clothes and how he talked about how the white people treat the blacks in Savannah, and how he doesn't understand why the blacks aren't just happy with their situation and should accept it instead of fighting it. He says, “And be like them folks that call themselves free?...they ain't doing no kind of good...they were better off being slaves. Least they had something to eat and knew how to behave themselves.”(p.33) Moses did not agree with the coachman from Savannah, and he shows his repulsion by spitting on the ground and saying “...a poor excuse for a man...”(p.33)
Lizzy keeps pondering about Lem and turning her thoughts over and over again about him, and asks herself if Lem had a freedom dream and that's why he left. Lizzy wants to go and say bye to Lem and “say something good to him so he wouldn't feel so all alone,”(p.34)
...............
The Glory Field
1864
p. 35-44
Lizzy was lying down in the cabin when she decides to go out to see Lem and bring him water. She is surprised by her Grandma Dolly on the porch. Lizzy listens to her Grandma's advice that Grandma Dolly's father told her. “He used to say they keep us in between the whip and the North Star. One hand holds out freedom and the other holds out a whip. Long as we sitting there turning our heads which way and that...If they can't turn your head, they can't turn you at all”(p.37). The whites offer the blacks the North Star in one hand, but have the whip in the other. The North Star representing freedom and the whip representing the south and slavery.
Lizzy goes off to see Lem and brings a clay jug of water with her to give some water to Lem. She is hesitant about going and at times stops on the way wondering if she should have brought Lem something to eat, if he is going to ask her to cut him loose, how will she find Lem, and if they find her there with him if she would be whipped? She remembers seeing Bill being whipped just because Old Master Lewis thought that Bill was being disrespectful to young Master Lewis. All that Bill had done really was to drop a bolt of fabric by mistake in the mud. A small thing made into a bigger problem for no reason really.
Lizzy finds Lem tied to a tree and his face is swollen and there was blood on his cheek. She decides to clean Lem and offer him some water. While Lem was drinking water all of a sudden Lizzy was whipped by Mister Joe Haynes! He whipped her three times! Once across her back, once on her ankles, and once across her hip even tearing her thin dress. Mister Joe Haynes accuses Lizzy of trying to free Lem. Mister Joe Haynes justifies himself with this excuse to whip Lizzy.
While Mister Joe Haynes was occupied by Lem and Lizzy, and he whipped Lizzy one more time, he did not see Joshua come through the bushes. “Joshua's body crashed into the overseer's bent frame and sent him backwards.”(p.44) Lem urges Lizzy to grab the rifle that “...still lay across the bush.”(p.44)
...............
The Glory Field
1864
p. 45-51
Joshua gets Mister Joe Haynes pinned to the ground, and Mister Joe Haynes begs for his life. “...But don't kill me. I got a wife and family.”(p.46) Lizzy begs Joshua not to shoot Mister Joe Haynes too. Joshua says that Lizzy has to run away with them otherwise Master Lewis will whip, and probably kill her. Lizzy can't believe that she has to go and won't be able to see Grandma Dolly or the rest of the family again. Joshua decides that she can run back to the quarters to say good-bye, but that she has to hurry. “If you get back in a short while, I won't kill him...If you don't, I'm going to have to break his neck...”(47)
Lizzy runs back to the quarters and tells everyone what happened. Lizzy wished that this would had never happened. Saran takes Lizzy's face in her hands and says, “When folks take your freedom, and the only way for you to get it is to risk dying for it, then dying comes when it wants to. You go on, you'll be all right. You young. You got plenty to live for...”(50) Saran tells Lizzy that Miss Julia came to get Lizzy to take her back to the big house, but Saran told Miss Julia that Lizzy was in the field because she was sick. Saran urges Lizzy to change her dress because Miss Julia would be back and if Miss Julia saw her dress she would know that something was wrong. Every one agrees that Lizzy has to get back to Joshua and Lem to run away.
Miss Julia comes to the door and wants Lizzy to come to the big house, but Lizzy pretends that she is sick and Miss Julia says, "Well you do look a sight"(p.51).
...............
The Glory Field
1864
p. 52-58
Miss Julia wants to bring Lizzy to the big house, but Lizzy convinces Miss Julia that she will come in the morning. Everybody at Lizzy's house are frantic because they know that Lizzy has to get going to meet Lem and Joshua. Lizzy says her goodbyes to everyone and Saran says, “If you get caught, act like you ain't right in the head”(p. ). Saran tells Lizzy not to turn back.
Lizzy meets up with Joshua and Lem away from the tree. As they head out Lizzy keeps asking," where are we going?"(p54) Of course Joshua doesn't really know where they are going and so is his frustration Joshua just says , “Just going.”((p.54) Lizzy wonders if Lem and Joshua killed Mister Joe Haynes and that's why they were not talking much. Joshua wants to take them to an abandoned smoke house, but when they get close they realize that they are not going to make it to the house so Lem and Lizzy hide up in some trees. Lizzy was feeling exhilarated at the thought of herself being free, and she contemplates these thoughts as she watches some white men out with children playing in the fields.
Joshua leaves them and Lizzy and Lem sleep in the trees. Lizzy realizes that something profound has happened to her...”It was what had happened to her. She was free. It was a scary free, and it was a hungry free and a tired free, but it was free.”(p.58)
...............
The Glory Field
1864
p.59-70
Lizzy woke up and all of a sudden remembered where she was and she felt scared. She couldn't see Lem, and she heard sounds in the distance that sounded like booms. She climbs down the tree and Lem calls out to her. They decide that the sounds must be coming from the fighting of the civil war, and that they have to keep moving because Mister Joe Haynes and the dogs are probably after them.
They hear the dogs drawing closer and closer! They see some lights and head to the lights running, and walking when they get too tired. They are afraid because the riders on horses point in their direction, and Lizzy and Lem are not sure if they are pointing at them, but then they realize that they are pointing at the fires. The riders call off the dogs and the dogs circle one more time and they ride away. Lem and Lizzy are relieved and head towards the fires when someone comes
up behind them and they can't believe their eyes! The soldier is black! “You're black!” she said. Glad you noticed it,” the soldier grinned. I had just about forgot it.”(p65)
They find out about the Yankee army and how there are many black soldiers and how the army is going to start a black regiment. And they find that Joshua is at the camp too!! The soldiers feed Lem and Lizzy and put them to work.
Lizzy has an important decision to make: follow some people who are trying to escape North, or follow the regiment and help out...Lizzy “...ran as fast as she could, her feet slapping against the hard road. When she got around the bend, the men were still in sight, tall and proud. She followed them, never looking back.”(p.70)
Mr. Chase, a scout from "State" University invites Tommy and Tommy's girlfriend, Mandy, over for refreshments and Mr. Chase talks to Tommy about a scholarship. "States looking for some good people" (p.219). Tommy was thrilled with the idea of missing the last year of high school to go straight to college, but Tommy was uneasy about going to an all white university. "More important, though, was that it would be a challenge in which he wouldn't be at all sure who was on his team" (p.222).
Tommy is talking to his parents about the talk he had with Mr. Chase about going to a white college. "I still don't see how can go to college if you don't finish high school, his mother said" (p.223). His mother doesn't want Tommy going to a white college. Tommy's dad is ok with the idea of Tommy going.
Later on in the night, Skeeter Jackson came to Tommy's
house. Skeeter had gotten bit by a rattle snake and he needed someone to take him to the hospital because his parents were up in North Carolina.
"Oh, man, the pain is something else" (p.226). Tommy's dad took Skeeter to the hospital and the nurses took him to examine him.
While Skeeter was being examined, Tommy and his dad talked about Tommy going to a white college. "It's nice being around white folks" (p.230), his dad said, but "what was not said, was what Tommy knew was on his father's mind, was that it could also be dangerous being around white folks" (p.230).
One of the nurses came out to tell Tommy and his dad that they could see Skeeter. He was doing better, than when he first came to the hospital.
No comments:
Post a Comment