Cora Unashamed

“One by one, the girls left too, mostly in disgrace. ‘Ruinin’ ma name,’ Pa Jenkins said, ‘ruinin’ ma good name! They can’t go out berryin’ but what they come back in disgrace.’ There was something about the cream-and-tan Jenkins girls that attracted the white farmhands.”

This line carries multiple layers of meaning and relevance to the concept of shame. Its euphemistic implication about white farmhands impregnating Cora’s sisters glosses over the possibility of rape. Sexual exploitation of Black women by white men is an acknowledged historical reality. Pa’s comment demonstrates how women may be revictimized as they are judged for what happened to them, even by their own community and their own family. This helps set the tone for the story and serves as social commentary.

“Cora didn’t go anywhere to have her child. Nor tried to hide it. When the baby grew big within her, she didn’t feel that it was a disgrace. The Studevants told her to go home and stay there. Joe left town. Pa cussed. Ma cried.”

Also relevant to the thematic concept of shame, this line demonstrates how everyone besides Cora sees the birth of her baby as a shameful thing. It sets Cora apart as unique and positions her as the hero of a story that critiques society’s values.

“Of course, she hadn’t expected to marry Joe, or keep him. He was of that other world, too.”

Cora’s acceptance of Joe leaving and the fact that marrying him was never a possibility helps shape and contextualize the reality of life for African Americans in this society. The taboo against interracial relationships is so strong that a man abandoning his child is expected. Cora’s gentle submission to this reality is a form of docility.

“Her mother was always a little ashamed of stupid Jessie, for Mrs. Art was the civic and social leader of Melton, president of the Women’s Club three years straight, and one of the pillars of her church.”

Mrs. Studevant’s social position and perceived moral stature highlight the hypocrisy of her actions toward her daughter. In this story, Mrs. Studevant represents white society. Therefore, Hughes’s portrayal of her is an assessment and criticism of white society, whose hypocrisy toward African Americans is a prominent theme in his oeuvre.

“In the kitchen Jessie bloomed. She laughed. She talked. She was sometimes even witty. And she learned to cook wonderfully.”

Jessie’s family sees her as a disappointment and a source of shame. To them, she is stupid and untalented with little hope of making a good life for herself and reflecting positively on them. In contrast, this line establishes the possibility of a bright future for Jessie. When she is with Cora, away from her family’s negative influence, she becomes a different, better person. This source of hope for her future evokes more pathos when she dies.

“And Cora was happy. To have a child to raise, a child the same age as her Josephine would have been, gave her a purpose in life, a warmth inside herself.”

As the protagonist, Cora’s characterization and motivation must be effectively developed to make the story engaging and the messages compelling. This line characterizes Cora and establishes her motivation. The one thing that gives her life meaning and purpose—raising a child—is the thing that is cruelly taken from her, twice.

“‘She ain’t in trouble neither,’ Cora insisted. ‘No trouble having a baby you want. I had one.’ ‘Shut up, Cora!’ ‘Yes, M’am…But I had one.’”

When Cora says, “no trouble,” she means “no shame.” Jessie’s untimely death epitomizes the consequences of society prioritizing shame over love. Cora’s rejection of shame’s power is portrayed as heroic, demonstrating Hughes’s attitude and the story’s intended message. The fact that Cora repeats herself after Mrs. Studevant tells her to shut up may seem like a small act of defiance, but its relevance in her character arc is significant.

“And there ain’t no reason why you can’t marry, neither—you both white. Even if he is a foreigner, he’s a right nice boy.”

This line demonstrates that society’s resistance to interracial relationships is deeply entrenched. Interracial mixing is so unthinkable that any other obstacle seems to pale in comparison. Cora turns out to be wrong about this, however. She is perfectly aware of white society’s bigotry toward Black people but underestimates how racism applies to other ethnicities and foreigners—to anyone different or other.

“But before the boy came back (or Mr. Studevant either) Mrs. Art and Jessie went to Kansas City. ‘For an Easter shopping trip,’ the weekly paper said.”

The social context provided in this line helps explain the powerful influence of shame. Announcing their trip to Kansas City and its purpose in the weekly paper portrays a society in which everybody knows everybody else’s business. Such enmeshment results in a community that empowers shame over love.

“‘She had an awful attack of indigestion in Kansas City,’ she told the neighbors and club women. ‘That’s why I stayed away so long, waiting for her to be able to travel. Poor Jessie! She looks healthy, but she’s never been a strong child. She’s one of the worries of my life.’”

Mrs. Studevant is considered a pillar of her church. It can be assumed the community sees her as an example of morality and a law-abiding citizen. Her lies to her neighbors and friends to cover up her daughter’s pregnancy and abortion belie this facade, demonstrating her hypocrisy. Beyond being hypocritical, Mrs. Studevant’s lies diminish her daughter, shaping her in her image.

“Indeed, his father had lost his license, ‘due to several complaints by the mothers of children, backed by the Women’s Club,’ that he was selling tainted ice cream.”

This line demonstrates Mrs. Studevant’s bigotry and the destructive effects of bigotry on people’s lives; Mrs. Studevant has used her social influence to start a rumor that drives Jessie’s Greek lover’s father out of business. Her actions, and those of the other women in the Women’s Club, support the idea that white people in this society don’t mind hurting minorities because they don’t value their lives or see them as equally human.

“The choir sat behind the coffin, with a special soloist to sing ‘He Feedeth His Flocks Like a Shepherd.’ It was a beautiful spring afternoon, and a beautiful funeral.”

The two lines in this quote are packed with verbal irony. The hymn “He Feedeth His Flocks Like a Shepherd” serves as one example. The lyrics of the first stanza are: “He feedeth his flock like a shepherd, / And gathers the young lambs with care; / He carries them safe in His bosom, / And shelters them tenderly there” (“He Feedeth His Flock.” Hymnary.org). Yet the people singing this hymn did not gather Jessie with care or shelter her tenderly. Cora did. Calling it a beautiful spring afternoon and a beautiful funeral is another example of verbal irony, given the tragic circumstances of Jessie’s death.

“They killed you, honey. They killed you and your child. I told ’em you loved it, but they didn’t care. They killed it before it was…”

Much of the story’s thematic message about shame centers around race, but its relevance to pregnancy and abortion cannot be overlooked, especially since race has historically been tied to questions of reproductive justice. Mrs. Studevant forces Jessie to have an abortion because she can’t tolerate the idea of Jessie marrying a Greek person. In this line, Cora imbues Jessie’s fetus with humanity and emphasizes that the child was wanted, reinforcing the story’s anti-abortion ethos. With this, Hughes links the lack of value Mrs. Studevant attributes to Jessie’s fetus to white society’s dehumanization of Black people.