P.S. Be Eleven

Big Ma is the mother of Pa (Louis Gaither) and the grandmother of the Gaither sisters. She is a round, complex character whose forceful personality holds the Gaither family together. She occupies the place that Cecile would occupy if she were a more engaged and physically present mother. Big Ma is primarily defined by her faith and her conservative beliefs, both of which give her a respect for authority and a determination to defend the status quo.

Big Ma’s belief in the importance of Black respectability is a product of living during a historical time frame of virulent racism in which the lack of respect for white authority could lead to negative consequences for Black people, including death. Big Ma’s politics are also a reflection of these beliefs. For example, she votes for the more conservative presidential candidate, Richard Nixon, because she wants him to restore what she sees as the order lost during the cultural upheavals of the 1960s. Those upheavals include the Black Power movement, and her views put her at odds with her granddaughters. Big Ma has never adapted her beliefs to fit the new social changes, and her rigid thinking causes her to ridicule her granddaughters for rambunctious behavior and strike them when they misbehave.

Big Ma’s experiences and beliefs also lead her to place great value on preserving family bonds. She initially rejects Louis’s girlfriend, Marva Hendrix, because she believes that Marva won’t respect those bonds, which come with submitting to Big Ma’s dominant position in the family. Her desire to hold her family close and unchanged makes her vulnerable because change is inevitable. When her son Darnell abandons the family home under the influence of substance use disorder, she is broken emotionally and eventually leaves the family, returning to Alabama, a place she associates with order. Ultimately, Big Ma is a figure who uses her authority to bring stability to the family, but her authority is sometimes stifling.

Louis, known as “Pa” throughout the novel, is the middle-aged father to the Gaither sisters, brother to Darnell, and son to Big Ma. His initial characterization comes when Delphine notes that he has changed from his previously serious and downcast demeanor. Throughout the novel, he both experiences and drives change, as when he marries Marva Hendrix, a younger woman, and brings conflict into the family when he refuses to extend empathy to Darnell. Like Big Ma, he is motivated by conservative beliefs designed to avoid change. He wants his girls to stay young and obedient, and he makes his position clear through many actions, including his disdain for their enthusiasm for the Jackson Five and his desire for Delphine to continue wearing the same childish clothes as she always has.

Although there is a similarity between Louis’s beliefs and Ma’s beliefs, Louis is a source of some change. He marries Marva despite her more modern ideas about women, thereby exposing his daughters to more contemporary beliefs. He initially agrees to feed his daughters’ desire for popular culture by promising to help the girls buy tickets to the Jackson Five concert, but his traditional beliefs also bring conflict into the family. Because of his conviction that men should be the sole earners of the family, Louis pressures Darnell to get a job before Darnell is healed enough to do so.

The last major action of Louis in the novel is his refusal to replace the ticket money that Darnell stole. While he presents this decision as an important life lesson, Delphine sees it as adult hypocrisy and assumes that her father never intended to help buy the tickets. Louis closes the narrative as another adult who loves his children but sometimes oppresses them with his rigid ideas.

Vonetta is the second oldest Gaither sister and is closer in maturity level to Fern than to Delphine. As the novel opens, Vonetta is a headstrong girl who mostly accepts Delphine’s authority over her. She quarrels with her younger sister and also competes with her, all behavior that she contains when under the influence of Big Ma. A major shift in her character occurs when she takes responsibility for saving and tracking the money for the Jackson Five concert tickets. Assuming responsibility makes her feel more empowered to defy her sister, and her conflicts with Delphine force Delphine to gain a greater degree of self-knowledge.

Fern, also known by the African name “Afua,” is the youngest Gaither sister. She initially has the least amount of power of all the sisters and is bossed around by everyone in the family. Despite these powerful forces shaping her every behavior, Fern has her own sense of identity as a “wordster” who initially finds her poetic voice during the events recounted in One Crazy Summer (32). Fern’s world is shaped by words and narratives. For example, she still demands that her uncle tell her fairytales set in the neighborhood, despite Vonetta’s insistence that these stories are childish.

Cecile is the mother of Delphine and her sisters. She is a physically and emotionally distant mother who left the girls’ lives when they were young and is only present in the form of letters to the sisters. She is an artist and a nonconformist who defies societal expectations around motherhood by leaving her daughters well before the events of the trilogy. The most important role that Cecile has in the novel is to be the lone voice encouraging Delphine to enjoy being a child. The most important shift in Cecile’s characterization comes from external forces, namely when Delphine discovers that “Nzila,” Cecile’s African name, means a person born on the road rather than a person who reveals the truth. This moment of revelation is one of several that force Delphine to see adults as flawed.

Marva is a round character who begins the story as Louis’s girlfriend but later becomes his wife. Initially, her role in the family is that of the intruder—a person who consumes Louis’s attention, challenges Big Ma’s authority, and brings more contemporary ideas about women’s place in the world. Her modern, stylish clothes and big, fluffy Afro characterize her as a more modern figure. Delphine resents Marva at first but grudgingly comes to accept her. Marva encourages Delphine and her sisters to step out of the subservient, respectable behavior expected of children in the Gaither house. She serves as an example of the expanded roles available to women in the late 1960s, as is demonstrated by her work on the political campaign of Shirley Chisholm. Ultimately, Marva models constructive ways to be an assertive woman, and her presence serves as a counter to Pa and Big Ma’s heavy-handed authority. Her presence also helps Delphine redefine her relationship to her family.

Darnell is a static character who represents the powerful impact of the Vietnam War on an entire generation of young people. As a traumatized returning soldier, he cries when his family arrives to pick him up and has nightmares about the war. He also fails to live up to the Gaithers’ traditional notions of men’s familial roles, and he steals money from his nieces to fuel his addiction. This defining act leads Delphine and Big Ma to realize that he may not recover from his experiences in the war.