Gertie: Appalachian Anomaly

Harriette Arnow's novel The Dollmaker is a story about women, about families, about religion and ethnicity, and about poverty -- but most of all it is a story about people.  The book follows Gertie Nevels, a native Kentuckian who has lived in the same place her whole life.  She takes care of her five children and runs the family farm while her husband, Clovis, looks for work.  Really, all she wants in life is to own her own piece of land -- she and Clovis rent a farm from someone else, meaning they have to give half of what they make to the owner.  Gertie is intensely smart and practical -- in the very first scene of the book, we witness her cut her son's throat open and fashion a breathing apparatus out of a tree branch when he is sick and desperately needs help breathing on the way to the hospital.  Most of what Gertie knows she has learned from experience -- she can tell what time of day it is simply by looking at the sky, she can dig potatoes faster than most other people she knows, and she can tell what kinds of crops will grow in a certain type of soil just by looking at it.  She has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible and some other texts -- "Th Bible's about th only thing I've ever read" besides learning by heart "poetry an th Constitution an a heap a th Bible" (23, 24).

When Clovis leaves for his army examination, we get to see how Gertie stands out among the rest of the women in the area in terms of her independence.  In fact, she realizes that "It was as if the war and Henley's death had been a plan to help set her and her children free so that she might live and be beholden to no man, not even to Clovis" (139).  Gertie is physically large, standing taller than most women and men she comes across, with a wide frame and big bones.  She helps the other women in town whose husbands are also gone: she "...picked up the hundred-pound sack of feed, and tossed it lightly to her shoulder," then said, "'I recken I'll have to be th man in this settlement'" (102).

However, despite the fact that she is so strong in so many ways, she is also so unsure of herself that she often becomes incredibly submissive.  When it comes to confrontations with others, Gertie often backs down and chooses to let the other person win the argument.  Early in the book, Clovis does not get selected for military service, but moves to Detroit instead to work in a factory.  Gertie takes this opportunity to buy a piece of land she has always wanted, but her mother insists she must move to Detroit to support her husband.  Gertie's son Reuben protests, saying that she has tried to make a better life for them there in Kentucky, and looks to Gertie for support: "The trouble grew in his eyes, but still he waited, watching Gertie, hopeful, unwilling to believe she would not speak up for their farm.  She continued silent.  Gradually the hope in his eyes died.  His glance, fixed on his mother's face, was filled with the contempt of the strong for the weak" (143).

It was often really hard for me to reconcile the fact that here was this woman who was so self-sufficient and so tough and yet who could not stand up to her mother, her husband, or even young kids who make fun of her.  Despite her amazing experiences and worldly knowledge, she is still so sure that she is less important than almost everyone else around her.  This is what makes her such an anomaly to me, but also such an interesting and tragic character.