The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Moshe Ludlow is Chona’s gentle, doting, and fretful husband and another of the novel’s central figures. He meets Chona when he is 21 and “in full bloom himself” (14). He dotes on her from the early days of their relationship, when she soothed his worried mind with teachings about Moses in the back room of the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: “Moshe listened in rapturous silence, and when she was done, he found himself bathed in the light of love only heaven can deliver” (15). His mild-mannered personality contrasts with his wife’s bold, passionate nature.

Moshe’s temperament makes it easier for his wife to convince him to stay on Chicken Hill. He is prone to worrying, and his concerns increase as his wife’s health declines. In Chapter 18, Chona briefly awakens from her coma and sees how Moshe’s concern for her has aged him prematurely: “He looked ghastly, pale and exhausted, and her guilt was so extreme she wanted to call out, ‘What have I done?’” (222). Moshe’s worries continue after Chona’s death. As much as he loved his wife, he doesn’t challenge Doc Roberts’s erroneous story because he fears drawing public attention and police involvement. Moshe’s meek personality makes him a loving husband to Chona and a devout worrier.

McBride uses Moshe to develop the themes of survival, mercy, and community. When Moshe was only a child, he and his cousin fled their home in Romania and endured hunger and other hardships on their dangerous journey to the United States. This painful past hardened Isaac in ways that it didn’t change Moshe. Nate recognizes the similarities between himself and Isaac and uses Moshe’s example to speak to the value of mercy: “But if I could choose it, if God allowed it, I’d choose Mr. Moshe’s ways over yours and mine, for his ways is the right ways” (283). This shows that people can recover from their pasts and foreshadows Nate’s own eventual healing.

In addition, Moshe builds community across cultures in his personal and professional lives. Moshe opens his theater to Black patrons and performers even though doing so draws the ire of some of Pottstown’s Jewish and white residents, and he later opens his home to Nate’s nephew. Moshe contributes meaningfully to the novel’s themes and offers insight into other characters.

The lonely, bright, and brave Dodo is one of the novel’s main characters. He is deaf due to an accident that occurred when he was nine years old, and he is 12 during the events of the main plot. When Dodo helps his uncle, Nate, at the theater, Moshe makes the following observations about the boy: “He was tall and thin for his age [...]. He had a dark oval face, wide nose, high cheekbones, and the longest eyelashes of any child Moshe had ever seen. Beautiful, expressive eyes” (68).

The people of Chicken Hill call him Dodo due to the ableist assumption that his deafness makes him unintelligent. In actuality, he is a bright child. Chona understands and appreciates the boy’s cleverness after he moves in with the Ludlows: “He was smart. Sensitive. He saw things other people didn’t. Even without his hearing, he understood everything. He was sharp. Bright” (108). One of the most impressive ways that Dodo demonstrates his intelligence is by inventing a form of sign language with Monkey Pants.

Another of the boy’s admirable qualities is his bravery. When Doc Roberts assaults Chona, Dodo leaves the safety of his hiding place and comes to her defense: “Now, without thinking, he jumped off the counter and leaped across the room, knocking Doc into the shelves of cans and crackers behind him” (138). As a result of this courageous act, Dodo is institutionalized. He is a “silent, morose child” (108) when he first comes to stay with the Ludlows, and his loneliness returns with a vengeance during his time in Pennhurst. His friendship with Monkey Pants is his only comfort from the misery and horror of the sanatorium. Dodo is a lonely child whose intelligence and courage belie his insulting nickname.

As one of the novel’s most important and dynamic characters, Dodo plays a major role in the plot and themes. The abuse that Dodo is subjected to stirs the outrage of the reader and the other characters, creating a need for justice. He builds community across cultures in his life-changing relationships with the Jewish Chona and the white Monkey Pants and in the way he inspires characters with different backgrounds to work together to liberate him.

Lastly, Dodo’s character arc touches on the theme of Survival and Recovery From the Past. The epilogue focuses on him, and his healing gives the novel its happy ending. He goes from “a weeping child” (382) cradled in Nate’s arms as they flee to South Carolina to the patriarch of a family who leads a “full and very fruitful life” (386). This transformation is reflected in his name, which he changes to Nate Love II. McBride also demonstrates the character’s healing in the fading of all memories from his first 12 years, except for Chona and Monkey Pants: “All life in Pennsylvania was erased in his mind and his heart and his memory” (385). Dodo’s moving struggle for freedom advances the novel’s plot and themes.

The dependable, secretive, and fiercely protective Nate Timblin is Dodo’s uncle and another of the novel’s central figures. Moshe relies on Nate for his indispensable work at the theater and his friendship and calm, steadying presence. In Chapter 2, Nate is introduced as Moshe’s “always-dependable helper” (9), and Nate’s former employer, Anna Morse, echoes the sentiment in Chapter 28: “Nate was a sweetheart. Dependable. Solid. No matter what hour, no matter the job, he always came” (346).

However, as much as Moshe and Anna admire and rely on Nate, his past is a mystery to them. Chapter 4 describes Nate as “a tall, thin shadow” (40). This metaphor conveys his quiet nature and secrecy about his shadowy past. Not even his wife, Addie, knows that his name used to be Nate Love or the details of his violent history in Hemlock Row. When the state government rips Nate’s nephew from his family, “the evil poison in him” (358) is released again. The outwardly calm man burns with “dark, murderous rage” (166) when he thinks about what has befallen Dodo. While Nate’s friends and loved ones can depend on his help and protection, his quietude conceals dark secrets.

Nate makes significant contributions to the novel’s plot and themes. He and Addie set many of the story’s major events into motion when they entrust their nephew to the Ludlows. The bond between the two couples is one of the strongest examples of intercultural solidarity in the story, and Nate is Moshe’s “best friend in town” (277).

In addition, Nate plays a pivotal role in the theme of The Balance Between Mercy and Justice. Some of his dialogue suggests that he sees himself as an implement of divine justice. For example, in Chapter 26, Nate tells Addie, “[Dodo] is in God’s hands [...]. That’s why I’m meeting the Egg Man at Hemlock Row” (330). Nate later hides in the man’s egg cart to gain entrance to Pennhurst and liberate Dodo. In addition to freeing his nephew, Nate dispenses justice when he kills his father at age 13 to avenge his mother’s murder and when he stabs Son of Man to death in Chapter 28.

Because his history haunts him, Nate develops the theme of Survival and Recovery From the Past. He tries to put his bloody past behind him after he meets Addie, and he feels despair when Dodo’s institutionalization and Son of Man’s death dredge up his capacity for violence. Ultimately, Nate finds healing when he returns to South Carolina.

The final image of Nate in the novel is one of peace. The epilogue describes how he teaches his nephew’s children “how to build a horse-drawn mill to grind sugar cane” (385). This excerpt underlines that he is not the last Love after all. Nate’s dynamic character arc depicts a man who is forced to deal out justice and eventually finds community and healing from his past.