Paradise: Seneca Summary & Analysis

A few years later, Dovey Morgan worries about what she can make for dinner that will satisfy her “picky” husband. She is married to Steward Morgan, and her sister Soane is married to Deek. When Dovey thinks of Steward, she always thinks of him in terms of his losses. Contrary to the town’s assessment of him (and his own assessment of himself), “the more Steward acquired, the more visible his losses.” He has had success in business, but his contempt for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s ended his political aspirations; his decision to drill for natural gas cost the Morgans’ ranch its beauty; and after 15 years of marriage, he and Dovey learned they could never have children. Now he is losing a fight with Reverend Misner about the words on the Oven.

The conflict over the Oven is worsened by Ruby’s young people “acting up,” though no one is willing to acknowledge the problem openly. Arnette is home from college and won’t leave her bed, Roger Best’s granddaughter Billie Delia has disappeared, a young man named Menus Jury has become an alcoholic after serving in Vietnam, Sweetie Fleetwood’s mental health is worsening, and K.D. continues his relationship with Gigi. Dovey discusses these issues, and the general disrespect of the youth, with other prominent women in town.

Reverend Misner holds an assembly to discuss the words on the Oven. A fragment has worn away, leaving only “…the Furrow of His Brow.” The older generation believes the message originally read “Beware the Furrow of His Brow,” but the young people insist that no freedman would advocate for cowardice. They believe the initial engraving was “Be the Furrow of His Brow.” Deek and Steward, along Harper Jury (another Ruby founding father) and the conservative Reverend Pulliam, argue that the young people should respect their elders’ history. The young people argue that Ruby’s history belongs to them as much as it does the older generation. Steward ends the debate by threatening to shoot anyone who tempers with the Oven.

Dovey does not know which side of the debate she supports, so she resolves to bring the matter to her “Friend.” The story flashes back to Dovey’s first encounter with her Friend, which is preceded by a mass of orange butterflies taking flight from a garden. Gardens became popular in Ruby in the early 1960s, when women had the time and prosperity to devote their attention to purely decorative plants. She believes the butterflies to be a sign, and later, Dovey sees an unfamiliar young man walk through the same yard. They exchange a brief conversation, and after he leaves, Dovey forgets to ask anyone if they know him. After a while, she decides to keep the young man her secret. They continue to see each other in the garden where they met, and with her Friend, Dovey feels free to “talk[] nonsense.”

Meanwhile, Steward rages about the younger generation’s disrespect. He believes they have no idea what their elders have done for them, unlike Steward’s generation, which respected their elders and met their high expectations. Steward recalls an incident his brother Elder told him about: in 1919, in Hoboken, Elder witnesses two white men harass a Black sex worker. At first he relates to the men, since he holds contempt for sex work, but when one of the men attacks the woman, Elder’s mindset shifts to one of racial solidarity. He defends the woman, driven by the normalization of violence he experienced in the military, but when a crowd calls for the police Elder flees. He regrets running away, and he prays for that woman for the rest of his life. Steward likes this story, but he feels a connection to the white men and can imagine himself punching a “whore.”

Steward arrives at home and thinks of the story his grandfather Zechariah told him about founding an all-Black town. One of the driving reasons was the humiliation the men felt at being unable to protect their wives, sisters, and daughters from racism. When the Morgans and the other founding families went West in search of land, Zechariah saw a small man with heavy footsteps walking along with them. The man appeared intermitted, and when he set down his pack, he disappeared. That is the spot where Zechariah chose to found the town, though he had to negotiate for over a year with the Native American family who owned the land. In this place, freedom becomes “a test” that “a man ha[s] to take for himself every day.”

Meanwhile, Soane secretly steeps a tonic that Connie has prepared for her. The tonic eases the grief that has threatened to consume Soane since both her sons died in the war. She had been proud when they enlisted; they carried on a family legacy, and she believed war overseas was safer for her boys than any American city. Soane thinks about the Oven, which has recently been graffitied with an image of a black fist with red fingernails. No one has claimed responsibility for painting it, but no one removed it, either, until several days later, when two local women––Kate Golightly and Anna Flood––did so themselves. 

Soane recalls the first time Connie made her a tonic, 19 years ago, after she miscarried due to a “sin.” She reflects that the Oven has “no real value,” since Ruby does not need a communal place to cook the way Haven did. When the men brought the Oven to Ruby, the women “privately resented” the prioritization of a symbol over something practical. At the meeting that night, the young people suggested giving the Oven an African name. Soane has little interest in Africa, but the young people discuss Africans as if they are family. One young man implies that the old way of dealing with white people is weak and unmanly. He advocates for confronting white people rather than avoiding and outsmarting them.

Deek comes home and expresses his frustration at the financial stagnation of Ruby, prompting Soane to silently wonder why he doesn’t simply help his friends who need help. Deek also voices concern that Soane is too partial to the women who live in the Convent.

Every day, Deek drives a short distance in his black sedan, which he is overly proud of. On one occasion, he remembers a day in 1932 when his father brought young Deek and Steward on a tour of all-Black towns. By this time, many of the towns were failing, but Haven and some others still prosper. In one of these prosperous towns, Deek and Steward watch 19 delicate and beautiful Black women pose for photographs in light summer dresses. Deek still holds the image of these women in his mind.

The morning after the meeting about the Oven, Deek drives to the bank, taking in the prosperity of Ruby, which in his mind justifies moving the Oven from Haven. He worries about Soane, and wonders whether the body bags which contained his sons’ body parts might have held any parts of white soldiers. Their deaths leaves K.D. the sole Morgan heir. Deek misses K.D.’s mother Ruby and regrets that he and Steward failed to protect her in her final moments––she died because every hospital they visited denied care to a Black patient. Deek wonders if they should have supported K.D.’s relationship with Arnette, who later visited the Convent and returned no longer pregnant and without a baby. Deek arrives at the bank and sees Sweetie Fleetwood walking alone without a coat. Though she has not left the house in years, Deek doesn’t go after her. Instead, he opens the bank on time.

From inside Anna Flood’s general store, Richard Misner and Anna watch Deek’s car circle the Oven. Anna complains that the Morgans get credit for founding the town when 15 families, including her own, helped found Ruby. Misner points out that the Morgans’ bank has allowed Ruby’s citizens to prosper, but that prosperity is built on credit. Anna argues that she owns the store, which she inherited from her father, but Misner insists that other people in town are in more precarious financial situations. Anna declares that Ruby is different from other places, and that its problems don’t concern money. She worries about Deek’s obsession with the Oven and the limited opportunities for the town’s youth. She is also worried about Billie Delia, who has gone missing. Anna loves Misner, but she doesn’t know if she could be a minister’s wife.

A white family parks in front of the store and comes inside to ask for directions. Their infant child is sick, but they refuse Anna’s help, though the husband accepts some aspirin from Misner. They leave, despite Anna’s warnings of a blizzard, and Steward comes inside to ask about the white visitors. Anna raises her concern about Billie Delia, prompting Steward to mention that Deek saw Sweetie on the street. He is surprised when Anna and Misner suggest that Deek should have offered Sweetie help.

The story flashes back to that morning. Sweetie leaves the house, exhausted from six years of constantly watching over her children. She believes if she carries out her routine one more time, “she [will] never wake up.” Sweetie walks out into the street, and a man in a pickup truck stops her. He asks if she needs help, but she ignores him. A girl (Seneca) is hitchhiking on the back of the truck, and the sight of Sweetie “broke her heart all over again.” The girl jumps off the truck and walks behind Sweetie.

When Seneca was five years old, her older sister and guardian Jean abandoned her. Seneca believed she could bring Jean back with good behavior until she found a note written in lipstick, which the girl will keep for the rest of her life. She introduces herself to Sweetie, who looks back at Seneca and sees her as “sin.” The two women continue walking through a growing blizzard until they reach the Convent, where the women take Sweetie in and try to treat her fever. Sweetie hears children crying and leaves the Convent. Anna Flood is outside with Jeff. Sweetie falls into her husband’s arms, crying that the women “snatched” her and asking to return home to care for her children.

Seneca lies uncomfortably in the Convent, trying to make herself as agreeable as possible to Mavis and Gigi. She has always tried to please, including in her relationship the abusive Eddie Turtle, which continued even after he went to prison. She only stopped seeing him when Eddie’s mother told her to. In a flashback, Seneca leaves Eddie’s mother’s house. A wealthy woman in a limousine stops her and offers to pay Seneca to stay with her in a controlling relationship, which the woman implies will be sexual in nature. When the woman’s husband returns, she pays Seneca and sends her away. Seneca leaves with no plan and impulsively hides in a truck. Through a combination of hitchhiking and walking, “traveling resolutely nowhere” and keeping to herself, she makes her way to the Convent.