The Downstairs Girl

The action speeds up in this section, with Jo’s discovery of her parentage constituting the first climax of the book, tying into The Power of Secrets and Social Etiquette. With Jo’s parentage at the center of events, it is befitting that a key preoccupation of these chapters is who constitutes a good parent. Jo dearly loves Old Gin, but sometimes feels he is looking after her out of a sense of duty. She feels obliged to him, and thus tends to perceive all of his concerns as demands. Added to this sense of obligation is the fact that Jo is a teenager for whom rebelling against authority figures is natural. Old Gin represents to her frailty, timidity, and a quotidian way of life. She is, furthermore, angry at him for keeping secrets from her.

It is the reveal of her parentage that makes Jo question all her assumptions about Old Gin. At first she is angry at him for deceiving her, but slowly she begins to realize that Old Gin did the best he could to raise her. An early sign of the depth of Old Gin’s love for Jo is the fact that he knew about Jo’s Miss Sweetie identity all along. Despite all he has told Jo about staying quiet to escape detection, not only does Old Gin recognize and acknowledge Jo’s voice, but also celebrates it. Further, as the incident at the streetcar stop shows, Old Gin is not the passive figure whom Jo sometimes assumes him to be. He protests segregation in his own, quiet manner, refusing to sit in the streetcar since he is neither white nor what “colored” implies.

Jo recalls a past incident when Old Gin had behaved similarly, walking “with the same quiet dignity as the kings of old” (238). The streetcar incident is also important because it shows Old Gin and Jo are sensitive to the fact that while they face their unique challenges, they may still be more privileged in some ways than Black Americans, reflecting The Importance of Intersectionality for Political Change. Jo, for instance, is light-skinned to the extent that she is white-passing. Chinese people are also not strictly required to sit in the colored section at the back of the bus. They also do not share the historical experience of enslavement in America.

Apart from his quiet protest at the streetcar stop, Old Gin shows the depth of his character in other ways as well. It becomes clear to Jo that Old Gin brought her close to the Paynes so she could forge a sisterly bond with Caroline, one which would outlive him. After she finds Old Gin injured, Jo reflects that “Old Gin […] did the work of two people” (289) in raising her. Though Old Gin is not the mother Jo had fantasized about, he is a good parent who has allowed her to be herself.

Mrs. Payne, on the other hand, emerges as a more complex parental figure. Though it is obvious she has a soft spot for Jo, it is also undeniable that she has let Jo down in many ways, letting her be a lady’s maid to her own sister. As Jo reflects, some of Mrs. Payne’s deception has caused ethically grey situations for Jo, and even Merritt. Merritt has flirted with Jo for years, oblivious that she is his sister. In her desire to preserve the status quo, Mrs. Payne has performed selfish actions. Jo’s growth as a character depends on her accepting Mrs. Payne’s flaws and moving on from her.

This section continues the idea of language and writing being a source of courage and comfort. Jo discovers that she shares with Shang a love for words. Mr. Buxbaum tells her, “[Shang] liked practicing his English on me, especially the big words like glockenspiel…a German xylophone” (283). Jo notes that this is a word beginning with G, something which she always favors as she finds their hard-g plosive sound inviting and intoxicating. Jo’s love for words has always been tied into her desire to be heard, but here it becomes clear that words are also communication between generations. Even though Shang is not around, a word he used comes to Jo like a missive from her father.

The text’s theme of The Importance of Intersectionality for Political Change in feminism is highlighted through the chapter in which Jo attends the Suffragist meeting. The language in the chapter sensitively tracks the class difference between Jo and Noemi’s group and the middle-class white women, capturing the discomfort the majority group create for the minority. Mrs. Bullis, the leader of the Suffragists, tells Jo she is there to further the cause only of “American women” (243) and finds it hard to see how someone—like Jo—fits in, as she claims Jo is “not an American woman [who] can help in that effort” (243). Though Jo is, of course, American, here American is code for “white.” Later, when Noemi raises the discrimination Black women face as feminist issues, Mrs. Bullis dismisses them as “colored concerns” (248). The meeting ends with the Suffragists throwing out Noemi, Jo, and the other non-white women. Just as Jo had astutely gauged in previous chapters, the white women are not ready to accommodate other non-white women. However, as Noemi’s feistiness in the face of rejection shows, the answer is not to give up and cede space. Space has to be created and defended.

As foreshadowed, Miss Sweetie’s strengthening voice has led to her identity becoming more obvious, speaking to the theme of Being Heard Versus Being Invisible. Her growing popularity also creates a backlash against her. Mr. Payne, upset at his son’s broken engagement, is convinced Miss Sweetie is a “Yankee” (a progressive from the North) and calls for her to be unmasked. Others who appear more sympathetic—such as Lizzie—also discover Jo is Miss Sweetie, though Lizzie promises to keep the information to herself. The fraying of Jo’s disguise shows her life can no longer accommodate as many secrets as before. Jo now has to deal with the consequences of having opinions, but those consequences are much better than the consequences of keeping secrets and maintaining silence.