The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

Hattie gives birth at age 46 to her last child, Ella. While August has never had steady employment, they’ve somehow survived on his patchy income from odd jobs at the docks. Recently, however, August hasn’t been working, so Hattie has been housekeeping for white women. Distressed by her children’s lean faces and worn-out shoes, Hattie goes to the relief agency. Although everyone on her street is poor, they shun Hattie after she applies for benefits because “the dole was too shameful” (120).

Hattie’s sister Pearl returned to Georgia long ago, and her husband makes good money operating a funeral parlor. Although they have “a big house with a wraparound porch” (118), their efforts to have children have failed. When Pearl learns of Hattie’s recourse to the dole, she writes, offering to adopt Ella. Hattie throws the letter away but keeps the enclosed money.

Hattie blames August for their financial plight and thinks, “Mama was right to call him my ruin” (110). Only 15 years old when she met August, Hattie found him so irresistible that she was soon pregnant. They married but then the twins died, and between his lackluster work habits and his womanizing, August proved a great disappointment. So bitter is Hattie that she can hardly speak to August, but their physical passion continues undiminished, as her many pregnancies testify.

After Hattie reluctantly agrees Ella will fare better with Pearl, Pearl and her husband Benny drive from Georgia to Philadelphia. Their dinner at a roadside picnic table is interrupted by four swaggering white men who threaten them with violence for sitting at “a white folks” (117) table. They escape unharmed, but once on the road again, Pearl scolds Benny for “shucking and shuffling” (119) before the men. Benny counters that, what with her “afternoon teas and garden club” (119), Pearl forgets that blacks cannot keep their dignity and remain unscathed.

Meanwhile, Hattie regrets her decision to surrender Ella. As a child in Georgia, Hattie knew she was seen as unremarkable, like all the other blacks. While fleeing to Philadelphia on the train, however, she suddenly “felt herself a single red flower in a field of green grass” (113). Hattie fantasizes about running away with Ella to someplace where “they could be like […] two red poppies” (113).

Pearl and Benny arrive, and Hattie declares she won’t give up Ella. When August concedes that losing Ella is painful but not comparable to losing the twins, Hattie relents. After Ella is gone, Hattie angrily lashes out at August.

Hattie’s daughter Alice is 25 and married to an affluent doctor, Royce Philips. Ever mindful of her underprivileged background, Alice is insecure in her role as an upper-class wife. Her unspoken fears “about how to be” (157) make her anxious, so Royce routinely gives her pills and advises rest.

At 6:30 a.m. Alice is already overwhelmed at the prospect of preparing for the party she is hosting that evening for her brother Floyd. Alice’s mother will be among the guests. Hattie always wished to own a house, believing that “[r]enting made them poor and common” (150). Alice thinks, “It must gall Mother to come here […] All of these bedrooms and parlors and not a child in sight” (150). Although Royce wants children, Alice secretly takes contraceptive pills.

At 7:00 a.m. Alice goes out to walk off her loneliness. She misses her brother Billups, who until recently frequently visited her after having “a night of terrible dreams” (139). As children, Alice and Billups went to the house of a man named Thomas for lessons. He would lock Alice in the parlor with her school workbook while he molested Billups in the kitchen. They never told anyone, but Alice understands it traumatized Billups. Because Billups is too broken to work, Alice devotes herself—and Royce’s money—to supporting him. Lately Billups has been out of touch.

As Alice approaches her church, she sees a man on the steps. Recognizing his “rodent skittishness” (141), she gasps with horror, certain it is Thomas. She flees.

Returning home, Alice discovers that despite her careful management of the party details, the caterer has arrived too soon. She vents her frustration to the maid, Eudine, whose formidable competence intimidates Alice. After Eudine explains that “Dr. Philips” cancelled Alice’s caterer and made other arrangements, Alice walks away in humiliation. She “could feel [Eudine] smirking” (144).

Billups appears at 12:30. Although overjoyed to see him, Alice quickly pivots to the subject of Thomas. Billups grows impatient with Alice, as her frequent Thomas “sightings” tire him, and he leaves.

When Alice wanders into the kitchen at 3:00, the sight of Billups and Eudine embracing scandalizes her. Billups tells Alice he has a new job, and he wants “to be normal […] to get married” (153). Alice insists Billups is “not thinking” (152) and needs her, but he counters that while he has put the past behind him, she keeps dragging him back there. He leaves, and Alice fires Eudine.

Billups returns at dusk, just as Alice glimpses Thomas outside the window. When Alice shrieks, Billups gently tells her it is Royce she sees. Alice cringes at the truth: She had thought “Thomas was their shared affliction, but […] it was just her, just Alice, ruined all by herself” (157).