Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Downstairs Girl, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism
Women and Social Progress
Debt and Economic Oppression
Marriage, Family, and Choice
Summary
Analysis
Jo and Noemi go to Billy Riggs’s “cathouse.” Noemi gets furious with Billy about beating up Old Gin, but Billy says he just sent a man to scare him a little, and the man came back bleeding heavily. Jo accuses Billy of blackmailing Old Gin earlier, but Billy says Old Gin came to him first. Noemi argues that, regardless, Billy is still treating Old Gin unfairly.
Billy Riggs’s story suggests that perhaps he is deluded and is trying to make himself sound better than he actually is. Still, the fact that Old Gin seemingly put up a good fight speaks to the old man’s tenacity.
Themes
Jo offers to provide Billy Riggs with valuable information in exchange for a peach-shaped snuff bottle that Old Gin gave Billy for the debt (which used to belong to Jo’s grandmother). Jo reveals that she is going to be in the horse race, and that, while there aren’t official odds on her, it would be possible to set up unofficial bets. Billy is intrigued—more than anything he wants to see Merritt lose the race. He hates Merritt simply because he thinks Merritt is spoiled. He agrees to return the bottle if Jo wins the race.
A snuff bottle can be an important status symbol in Chinese culture, and so this passage shows how Billy Riggs is trying to isolate Old Gin by separating him from his culture. Although Jo hopes that by stepping into Old Gin’s shoes for the horserace, she can reclaim what he lost, Billy Riggs has already proven that he might not keep his word.
Themes
