41 pages • 1 hour read
De'Shawn Charles WinslowIn West Mills
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 3, Chapters 19-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3, Chapter 19 Summary
In the summer of 1976, Knot cares for Pratt, who has gout, in the mobile home he installed on Pleasant’s old property. Knot is about to go home for a drink—which Pratt still disapproves of—when he tells her that he saw Milton Guppy at the gas station the day before, and that Guppy told Pratt to ask Knot about the pox she had.
After Pratt asks about the pox, Knot finally tells him that Fran is his daughter. Pratt is angry that she didn’t tell him sooner, and she leaves. As Knot hurries away, she falls, and Pratt helps her back up. She tells him that she is “so sorry” (212). Together, they go see Fran, who once asked Knot who her biological father was shortly after Phil died, but Knot told her that it didn’t matter. When they arrive, Knot asks whether Fran should send her daughter away, but Fran tells her that she hides nothing from her children. After Pratt is revealed as her father, Fran admits that she suspected as much but never worried much about it. Knot wonders if she should have told Eunice more about her father, whose full name she never learned.
Life in West Mills changes little over the next few years. In 1982, shortly after returning from Iris’s husband’s funeral in Ahoskie, Knot goes to Fran’s house looking for a ride to the store. Fran and her daughters, both of whom now have driver’s licenses, refuse, but Fran soon relents. As they leave the house, Eunice arrives and confronts Fran, whom she accuses of working to remove her from her position as choir president. Fran, who is the choir’s pianist, denies doing so but complains that Eunice ignored her requests to have the piano tuned. As they argue, Cedar and Coy emerge from the house to intervene. Knot yells at Fran and Eunice to stop fighting, but Eunice accuses them, along with Breezy who is not present, of being “full of the devil” (221). Fran tells her to leave, and Knot agrees. Eunice turns on Knot, calling her a “drunk bitch,” and Knot slaps her in response. Eunice leaves.
Valley, who is staying at Knot’s house since his house is infested with possums, joins Fran and Knot on their trip to the store. On the way, Knot asks Fran to drop her off at Eunice’s house so that she can apologize. Fran refuses. At the end of their trip, Fran drops Knot off at Pratt’s house, where she spends most of her time, though Pratt is currently out of town. As they part, Knot begs Fran to let Eunice have Breezy to herself; Fran asks Knot when she will stop drinking.
Knot lies on Pratt’s couch and has a shot of rum. Valley, who was dropped off at Knot’s house, appears and tells Knot that she should let her daughters do as they please. She knows he is right.
Part 3, Chapter 20 Summary
In 1987, 79-year-old Otis Lee sits outside and worries about Knot who is in the hospital, as is Valley. Pratt, who now uses hearing aids, joins him. Otis Lee tells Pratt that he will leave soon to meet with a lawyer in New York about an inheritance, including two houses and some money left to him by Essie, who died recently. Otis Lee never saw her after her visit in the 60s. When Otis Lee first received the news, Cedar, now the mother of twin boys, offered to drive him, but he insisted on booking a flight. He still hasn’t told Pep, and he plans to leave with Cedar and Coy while she is out and leave a note behind.
Otis Lee reminds Pratt of Essie’s history, and Pratt asks Otis Lee how his mother ended up with two children from White men; Otis Lee responds that Essie’s father was White, but his father was Black. Pratt apologizes for jumping to the wrong conclusion based on Otis Lee’s light skin tone. Otis Lee says that he, Brock, and Phil went north to look for better work, but Otis Lee also wanted to find Essie, despite Noni’s objections. Eventually, Essie offered Otis Lee a job. He recalls working for Essie’s husband, Thomas O’Heeney, who referred to Otis Lee using the n-word as well as “half-breed.” Pratt reflects that Otis Lee was lucky Essie treated him well in New York since she might have viewed him as a threat to maintaining her identity.
Part 3, Chapter 21 Summary
Several days earlier, Fran took Knot to the hospital after she collapsed. Over the next two weeks, Knot receives dialysis five times. Most of Knot’s friends and relatives come to visit her, but not Eunice. After slapping Eunice years ago, Knot only spoke to her once on the telephone to apologize. Knot is surprised to receive a visit from Eunice’s son, La’Roy, who passes along his mother’s well wishes.
13 days after being admitted, Knot asks the nurse whether she missed a visit from Valley. The next day, Pep visits and asks Knot whether she knew that Otis Lee was going to New York. Knot tells her that she did not know; the two women apologize to each other for how they acted over the years. Pep also reveals that Valley had a stroke—not his first—and may not emerge from his coma. Knot wonders how she can get by without Valley who, unlike Otis Lee, “never asked her to be anyone other than who she was” (245). She thinks over her life and relationships and feels confident that her children will be okay. Not knowing if she will get another chance, Knot finally decides to tell Pep that Essie is Otis Lee’s mother.
Part 3, Chapter 22 Summary
Otis Lee, Cedar, and Coy arrive at the lawyer’s office in New York City a few minutes early. Coy corrects Otis Lee when he uses the term “colored” to describe the secretary, and Otis Lee is surprised to see that the lawyer is Black. They are stunned to learn that Essie left Otis Lee more $220,000 as well as two houses with paying tenants. Otis Lee signs paperwork to split the inheritance between his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The lawyer also gives him an envelope with letters from Essie.
Back at the hotel, after Cedar and Coy argue about when to read the letters, Otis Lee tells them to get it over with. Cedar reads from the most recent letter, dated March 1987, but Otis Lee asks her to stop and reread it as soon as she reads a line in which Essie apologizes for not telling Otis Lee that she was his mother earlier. Lost in thought, Otis Lee remembers hearing Noni and Rose argue about some lie they told when he was a boy. He also remembers the “sweet look” Essie had when she first saw him in New York (253).
The other letters reveal that Essie met Otis Lee’s father, Otis Meachum, not long after she arrived in New York City. They loved each other, but their relationship disintegrated when Essie’s “looking white” caused problems for Meachum (253). Essie soon discovered she was pregnant, and Rose joined her in New York shortly before Otis Lee’s birth. Feeling the “blues of new motherhood” (254), Essie asked Rose to take Otis Lee back to West Mills for a while. Before long, Essie “had fallen into […] the life of a white woman” (254). Otis Lee calls Pep and is surprised to hear that she already knows about Essie; she tells him to hurry home, as Knot is now comatose.
On the journey back to West Mills, Otis Lee processes his feelings. He decides that he would not have left Rose to look for Essie if he knew how much Rose did for him. Wishing he could talk with Knot, he fights back tears. Upon arriving, Otis Lee, Cedar, and Coy find the lane filled with cars. Recognizing that Knot must have died, Otis Lee instructs Coy to go directly to Fran’s house instead of stopping at home. He stays in the car and cries after his granddaughters go inside.
Decades earlier, a few weeks after Fran’s birth, Otis Lee goes to see Knot, who is parched and hungover. She tells him to leave her alone. He tells her that she is “too special” for him to leave her alone and says that he loves her. “You ain’t gon’ stop, are ya?” Knot asks, and he agrees. She rests her head on his shoulder.
Part 3, Chapters 19-22 Analysis
These chapters continue to explore the significance of secrets. Although previous scenes in the novel suggest that secrets kept or revealed at the wrong time can shatter a relationship or reshape a life, Knot’s revelation to Fran that Pratt is her father has little impact. Perhaps due to her experience watching Knot’s struggles, Fran resolved to live her life much more openly; she doesn’t try to hide her affair with Breezy, nor does she keep secrets from her children. By avoiding the repression and deception that so often accompany secrets, Fran becomes less vulnerable to the kind of disorientation that Otis Lee experiences when he finds out that Essie is his mother.
These chapters also chart Knot’s final development as a character. Shortly before dying, Knot feels at peace. She manages to do so despite having lingering concerns. For instance, she never fully reconciles with Eunice, nor does she have a final chance to speak with Otis Lee. Instead, Knot’s contentment comes from a change of perspective. Whereas she spent much of her life worrying about solving specific problems, she now places her confidence in her daughters, whom she recognizes as resourceful. Towards Otis Lee, she feels an affection that looks beyond his recent trend of becoming “bossier and grumpier by the day” (246); she also tells the secret of Otis Lee’s parentage to Pep, freeing herself of another burden. Though she questions her ability to cope without Valley’s friendship, her passing at approximately the same time negates this concern.
Knot also comes to a new understanding with Pep. Throughout most of the novel, Pep and Knot have different views regarding social responsibility, keeping secrets, and more. Pep prefers openness and urges Knot to fulfill her social obligations to her daughters; Knot prefers to keep secrets and remain independent rather than commit to relationships. In the end, each apologizes to the other, with Pep regretting sharing at least one of Knot’s secrets (when she told Knot’s family that Knot had a baby) and Knot opening up to share a secret she held onto for decades.
Otis Lee’s character also experiences an epiphany after learning the truth about Essie, Rose, and Noni. Although he is hurt by the revelation that he was lied to through most of his life, his admiration for Rose increases, despite learning that she was not his mother. His feelings towards Essie and Noni remain complicated, but he can now begin to work through the truth. Most of all, as the closing flashback illustrates, Otis Lee’s love for Knot makes theirs the book’s central relationship, showing that friendship can be as strong as any familial bond.
