Mama
Ivy narrates, “I told her (Mary Ella) we couldn’t have another baby in the house and she gave me that hollow-eyed look like I was speaking a foreign tongue. Couldn’t get through to Mary Ella when she gave you that look. She was seventeen-two years older than me- but you’d think I was her mama trying to keep her on the straight- and-narrow path to heaven. Some days I felt like I was everybody’s Mama.” The emblematic Mama underscores Ivy’s extraordinary sense of responsibility. She is very motherly towards Mary Ella notwithstanding their age difference. Using mama surmises that Ivy is more sensible than her older sister.
Tobacco
Ivy recounts, “I headed home down Deaf Mule Road where it ran between two tobacco fields that went on forever and ever. I couldn’t look at them acres and cares of tobacco we still had to get in. My fingers was still sticky with tar from that day’s work.” Tobacco farming is the prime commercial activity; the acres of tobacco affirm that it is a profitable crop which provides substance to the residents.
Lies
Henry Allen tells Ivy, "They check on me all night long, Ivy. It's like I'm in jail. I told them I got a new Girlfriend at school, so if you hear anyone say that it's not true. Okay?" Here, Henry Allen deliberately lies about a new girlfriend so that she parents would not find out that he is seeing Ivy. Henry Allen adds, "I can't push them. If they knew we was here right now, they'd kick you and your grandma and sister off the farm to get you away from me." In this case, Henry Allen's lies are ‘necessary’ for they are intended to protect Ivy and her family.
