Ninth Ward

In Chapters 1 through 3, the storm’s early stages are only briefly and subtly mentioned; Mama Ya-Ya knows a storm is coming and tells Lanesha, followed by Lanesha hearing the forecast on TV in the background as she enjoys the activity and comfortable noise of an evening in her neighborhood. Everything changes at the start of Chapter 4, as Mama Ya-Ya’s dreams and feelings become impossible for her to interpret—but equally impossible to ignore. Up to this point, Lanesha handles conflicts in her life well; for example, her Uptown family’s dismissal of her is bothersome, but she loves and appreciates Mama Ya-Ya and her life in the Ninth Ward so much that it’s easy for her to push aside any frustrations about them. Lanesha also handles the unaccepting treatment from peers in a way that is mature and kind; it can make her sad, but she still loves learning and her teachers, and she agreeably helps Max and TaShon, though others do not treat her with the same kindness. The approaching storm, however, throws Lanesha’s Ordinary World into a chaotic and emotional environment that she does not like.

A lot of the chaos and fear Lanesha feels is a result of Mama Ya-Ya’s behavior and anxiety; Lanesha rarely sees Mama Ya-Ya vary from her routines, and her uncertainty regarding her dreams is unsettling. From the start of this second section (when Mama Ya-Ya sits at the breakfast table for the serious talk) to the end (when she sits on the porch looking for butterflies in the dark), Lanesha observes her caretaker’s actions and feelings with an uneasiness that is compounded by the worsening weather reports. The result is a slow build of tension for the reader, too, who knows the history of Hurricane Katrina. Another interesting dynamic emerges from this dramatic irony: The reader knows exactly what the “dark shroud” is that Mama Ya-Ya can’t quite see but is powerless to tell her or to stop it. In this way, the reader is just as powerless as the characters of the book and the citizens of New Orleans.

Lanesha, for all her maturity, strength, and appreciation for others, cannot accept that this storm is a potential threat to everything she knows and loves. She somewhat stubbornly concentrates on drawing bridges as Mama Ya-Ya obsesses over weather reports, and when TaShon announces the cancelation of school, she refuses to believe him. Her only reward for going to school to see for herself is more ghosts than usual and a brief conversation with Miss Johnson. Lanesha’s complex ideas about her own interests and skills dovetail with her paranoia about the storm as the two of them talk; Lanesha can’t help but tell Miss Johnson, “I could be you” (77). A classic example of a mentor archetype, Miss Johnson immediately tells Lanesha that her path forward must be chosen based on her own skills and interests, and that Lanesha should pursue engineering if she wants to because she is highly capable. Lanesha takes the pre-algebra book as if it is a talisman against danger—and indeed, she will use it Saturday morning to ward off fear.

By the time Lanesha finally acquiesces to the possibility that she and Mama Ya-Ya might need more supplies if the storm really does approach the “unfathomable” level predicted, it is too late: Mr. Ng at the market is gone, and everyone else has already emptied the shelves of food and water. Lanesha does not run home but walks slowly, struggling to comprehend and process the changes around her: “Everything is topsy-turvy, like in Alice in Wonderland. Except it’s a white cloud’s fault, not a rabbit hole’s” (86).