Summary Of Luvenia 1930
Summary Luvenia 1930
The Glory Field
1930 Chicago
p. 141-154
Luvenia Lewis lives in Chicago, and she does not want to move back to Curry South Carolina with her parents Elijah, Goldie and her brother Richard. Luvenia is doing her Godmother Miss Etta's hair and talks about her reasons for staying in Chicago. The whole time Elijah was in Chicago he had been working and “every spare dollar went to Curry, holding the Lewis family together even when white females in the area failed. Elijah was their bank...their emergency fund”(p.150). It was Elijah's dream to return to the Glory Field.
Luvenia wants Miss Etta to help her to write a letter to her father to convince him to let her stay in Chicago. Luvenia works in a house as a live-in maid for the family Deets. The Deets family has a daughter, Florenz Deets who is about Luvenia's age and when “ 'I clean her room I look at her books. They're not that hard. Once I read a chapter in her history book and at the end there were these questions and I answered every one of them.' ”(p.147). Luvenia has dreams of going to University to get an education. Luvenia needs money to go to University. She went to the bank to get a loan to go to school, but the bank manager told her she needed a letter of guarantee that she will have a job until she pays back all of the money. “I have to make at least eleven dollars a week too”(p.144). Luvenia wants to ask Mr. Deets if he will sign the guarantee.
Luvenia's brother Richard was content to return to Curry South Carolina, but Luvenia says, “Daddy's got to realize that there are city folk and then there's country folk. I was raised in Chicago and I'm a Chicago girl”(p.143). Luvenia “felt for a long time , that there were two distinct kind of coloured people in Chicago...country type people...the other kind of coloured people, the kind that usually referred to themselves as 'Negroes' and spoke as proper as white people, and sometimes even more proper(p.153).
The Glory Field
1930 Chicago
p.155-164
Luvenia went to church with Miss Etta. Reverend Bradley preaches about the Prodigal son. Luvenia is in the choir and she sings a solo at church. Luvenia decides to go the Deets' house to “clean it real good and then talk to [Mrs. Deets] about what the bank said”(p.164).
The Glory Field
1930 Chicago
p. 165-171
When Luvenia arrives back to the Deets' house on Sunday she talks to Mrs. about Mr. Deets signing the guarantee so that she can go to college. Mrs. Deets says, “And why would you be interested in college?...It doesn't work...You are a maid. Reaching beyond yourself will just be a disappointment...I never went to college... [I] found my place in life...here I am(p.167). Luvenia decides that she is not going to be able to talk to Mrs, Deets about so she decides that she will talk to Florenz. Luvenia contemplates how and what she will say to Florenz.
Luvenia's “dreams were tortures”(p.168). She had one where a car kept running over Precious, Mrs. Deet's dog no matter how she tried to protect Precious. In the other dteam, she was at a rent party where there were more men than women just like the real rent party that she had been to at Miss Etta's. In the dream the women just seemed to be getting bigger and bigger and dancing and singing and snapping their fingers to the rythm and showing off to the men. And she was in the middle of the dancers, tryng to keep up with the other women and then trying to get off of the dance floor and away from the rent party. When she finally woke up she “sat up and, taking the bible Mrs. Deets had left in her room, read from Leviticus”(p.171).
The Glory Field
1930 Chicago
p.172-182
Luvenia knew that Florenz never got up before ten, she would often have her friend, Katie Hornung come over and they would have a lunch together in the parlor and talk. Luvenia was busy doing choress to get them done because Florenz had invited her to drink tea with them. Luvenia is invited to sit with Florenz and Katie in the parlor and drink tea. Luvenia like Florenz “despite the older girl's annoying explanations of why 'the coloreds,' were inferior to whites...there was a real vitality to her, a kind of bubbly air that Luvenia had always liked”(p.174).
Luvenia talks to Florenz and Katie about a book by Dr. Du Bois and articles by Mr. Locke on the new negro. “ 'A Negro who can do anything that he wants to do,' Luvenia said.(p.175). Florenz gets annoyed with all the talk about Negros and says, “ 'You can not make people socially and politically equal by noisy rallies or those radical labor unions.' “(p.176). Katie seems to understand more what Luvenia is trying to ezplain about the possibilities of the new Negro.
Luvenia asks Florenz if she would ask her father to sign the guarantee, and Florenz says that she will talk to her father even though “ '...Daddy does whatever Daddy choses to do.' “(p.177). But Florenz has other plans that “ 'She thinks [is ] a crisis' “(p.178). Florenz wants to use her father's car and convinces Luvenia to go along with the plan. She tells Luvenia that she is going to tell her father that Luvenia is sick and that she needs to be taken across town to the colored doctor's. And that they tried to get the car service to take her, but because she is colored and they wouldn't take her. Luvenia is worried that she will get in trouble, but Florenz assures her that she won't. “Luvenia wasn't at all sure about the adventure, but the idea of it was exciting.”(p.181).
Florenz phones her father and ends up telling him !! “ 'I think she might even be in the family
way...if you don't let me take her there, I'll have to put her out.' “(p.181-182). Luvenia is shocked and confused when she hears Florenz say that. Luvenia swallowed hard. She wasn't “in the family way” and didn't want anyone to think she was. Florenz gets her way and says, “ 'Ladies shall we go?' “(p.182).
The Glory Field
1930 Chicago
p. 183-188
Luvenia did not feel right about the lies that Florenz told her father and Luvenia felt physically ill. “it was what so many whites expected of Negoes: that one day they would show up and announce that they were pregnant...”(p183). And this was why Luvenia wanted to go to college. Luvenia enjoyed the drive and the looks that they got from different people. The young women were enjoying themselves and the Florenz and Katie “pretended to be driving around their plantaions”(p.185).
Florenz wants her father to give her the car or even buy her a brand new car. Florenz spots some young men that her and Katie know and they drive over to the young men. Florenz gets Luvenia to leave them with the offer of money so that she and Katie can be left alone with the young men. Luvenia walked all the way home.
“Luvenia was not angry with Florenz or Katie, but with herself. “She was almost on the verge of tears”(p.187). “They just weren't her friends, and they did not know about her life or about the life of any Negro”(p.187). When Luvenia arrived home there was a telegram waiting for her that read, “YOUR SERIVCES WILL NO LONGER BE REQUIRED –JOHN DEETS.”(p.188).
The Glory Field
1930 Chicago
p. 189-200
What devasted Luvenia most was what Mr. Deets would think of her. Miss Etta seemed indifferent to the situation and said, “ 'Girl, a black woman losing a job ain't no big thing!'”(p.191). Miss Etta was more concerned with the death of an aquaintance, Sister Stovell, and the casket is cracking and the servic eis tonight. Luvenia is still upset and “...somehow stopped the urge to scream”(p.192).
Luvenia and Miss Etta take care of the spilt casket by wrapping it with a sheet and a shawl. The Deacon at the church tells Luvenia that she is “ 'decent young person...that's a rare thing these days...' “(p.195).
Luvenia still has hope of getting her old job back and back home Miss Etta asks her boyfriend, Mr Harrison if Luvenina can use the phone in the basement. When she finally talks to Mr. Deets, he is not pleased that Luvenia was part of Florenz' scheme and tells Luvenia that she can not have her job back, but that he would write a letter of reference for her. Luvenia has the courage to say that she doesn't want to go to Curry, and that she is going to try and make it on her own in Chicago. Miss Etta sees the determination in her face and says, “Girl, just look at your face! You look like you're fixing to fight or something!”(p.199).
Miss Etta decides to throw a rent party for Luvenia to help her get set up with her own hair dressing business. Luvenia writes a letter to her parents in Curry assuring them that she will make them proud. “I promise you that I will never, never do anything that will make you ashamed of me”9p.200).
The Glory Field
1930 Chicago
p. 201-208
Luvenia is having a hard time finding a job that suits her and Katie even tries to find her a position, but Luvenia turns it down. Luvenia tells Katie, “Miss Katie, I think I want to start my own business.”(p.201-202). Katie is in admiration of Luvenia and she hugs Luvenia.
Miss Etta throws Luvenia a rent party, and invites the neighbourhood. The party was a hit and Luvenia enjoyed herself more that she had expected. She thought of Florenz and Katie and contemplated how they would never understand it. “The party...was something that you had to come to at the end of the day of bone-crushing work, of frustration, of despair...that for a few hours the party...would be wonderful”(p.206).
The rent party made some money for Luvenia to start her own hair business. The next morning a man tipped his hat to Luvenia and said, “You got a nice step to start off the new day...Look like you ready!” (p.208) “I am,” Luvenia called back to him. “I am”(p.208).
