Take My Hand

Tyrell, or Ty, is Civil’s ex-boyfriend, who got her pregnant in 1972. His parents are the Townsend family’s friends, and Civil had grown up with him. After her abortion, Civil emotionally distances herself from Ty, but he continues to reach out to her. His character is kind but immature when the novel begins, but his character immediately begins to evolve, as the novel’s conflicts move him to be accomplished and strong. Civil realizes, when meeting him in 2016, that she had always underestimated him and mistook his “good-naturedness for silliness” (128). He, on the other hand, “never had any problem picturing [her] as a surgeon” (126).

In addition to supporting Civil emotionally, Ty becomes an ally in her mission to stop the clinic from its injurious practice of administering birth control that has not been FDA approved. His role in combating the Systemic Racism in the US Healthcare System and his personal connection to Civil make his character an important one, even if he is a fairly minor character in the novel.

Alicia, like Ty, is a minor character with an important role. Alicia is Civil’s best friend at the clinic, and she stands with Civil to change how the clinic treats its patients. She is a foil for Civil because her lack of privilege makes Civil’s privilege stand out: While Civil can lose her job because of her family’s financial security, Alicia has no such choice. Knowing this provides context for her decision to tell Mrs. Seager about their stopping the Depo-Provera injections.

Alicia’s character arc is most obvious in the 2016 passages in the novel. She is the first person Civil visits on her pilgrimage, and Alicia’s life reflects an upward movement in class standing. She lives in a gated community, does not work, has successful, college-educated children, and is married to a successful man with whom she shares a life that allows time for charity work.

Civil’s successful visit with Alicia allows her to move forward with her journey. Their meeting is the least emotionally fraught, and it breaks the ice for Civil to face the greater challenges of meeting with Ty, Eugenia, and the Williams sisters.

Mace is the 33-year-old father of India and Erica. After his wife Constance’s death, Mace struggles to provide for his family, which lives on Mace’s white employer’s farm in a one-room shack, in a situation reminiscent of both slavery and the sharecropper eras of the Deep South. Mace regains his confidence when Civil finds housing for the family and a new job for Mace where he is valued.

Mace’s relationship with Civil reflects the class differences between Black people in Jim Crow South, and while there is some sexual tension between them, Civil knows she needs to tread carefully lest she hurt him. It is never assumed that they could become a couple, in large part because of their class differences.

Constance’s death shapes Mace’s character. Although Constance is never present in the novel, the family’s grief is ever-present. For Mace, her death creates a hole in his life and is the beginning of his and the family’s lives falling apart. It also creates a hole that Civil tries to fill, and her attempt to mother the Williams girls and nurture Mace leads her into emotionally and psychologically complicated territory.

Mace’s character grows throughout the novel from being a down-trodden, illiterate, and defeated man to someone who finds the strength to give his family a new start and is remembered at his funeral for his love of reading. His self-regard evolves even as he faces tremendous challenges, and when he last sees Civil, he speaks with authority and confidence.

Mace’s mother, who is primarily referred to as “Mrs. Williams,” is a minor but important character in the novel. Her character arc is similar to her son’s, in that she is defeated when she is introduced in the novel, but she finds her way to strength through the conflicts and tragedies she endures. She is the glue that binds the Williams family together, doing her best to keep them fed and cared for. Her love for Mace and her granddaughters supports them through the hard times that followed her daughter-in-law’s death, and she creates a home for them as best she can. When Civil moves the family into their new apartment, Mrs. Williams, in a symbolic gesture, takes almost nothing with her. This is the turning point for Mrs. Williams, and although she occasionally falls into despair, her despair is tinged with anger rather than defeatism.

Mrs. Williams’s strength is evident near the end of the novel when the family and Civil return to court to hear the verdict. She tells the reporters, “What happened to my grandbabies was a sin against God and the whole world know it” (303).

The novel is filled with absent mothers and surrogate mothers, and Mrs. Williams is a surrogate mother for both the girls and Civil. In mothering Civil, Mrs. Williams tells her what she doesn’t want to hear. When the trial ends, she tells Civil: “I want you to move on with your life, […] But you got some things in your heart to work out” (336). It takes Civil over 40 years to work through her guilt, but she heeds Mrs. Williams’s advice in the end.

Minor but crucial characters, Erica and India are the two sisters around whom the story unfolds, providing the main conflicts and the driving force of the narrative. They are almost always together whenever they appear in the novel, only appearing separately when Erica goes missing after the trial. Their story illustrates the horrific treatment Black women and girls received because of overwhelming Systemic Racism in the US Healthcare System. Their characters are based on the real-life girls, Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf, aged 12 and 14, who were sterilized without consent in 1973. The sisters are targets for the systemic racism because of their economic status, and in India’s case, because of her disability. Civil’s pilgrimage in 2016 is motivated by India’s sickness, so the sisters’ welfare drives the action in both timelines.

India, 11 years old in 1973, is nonverbal and developmentally challenged. She is pre-pubescent, which motivates Civil to question the practices of the clinic. Being nonverbal does not fully restrict her character, and her emotions are represented through sounds and actions, making her a dynamic character even as she is minorly represented—she squeals with joy when she rides a mechanical horse at Kmart, and she fades into an almost catatonic state when Erica goes missing. The adult India whom Civil meets after 40 years still conveys deep affection for Civil, as evidenced when she rests her head on Civil’s shoulder.

Erica, 13 years old in 1973, is India’s caretaker and voice. She speaks for India and ensures the younger girl is safe as well as she can. Erica is a strong young girl, and the family’s final action to leave Montgomery is prompted by her desire to move away to escape the girls’ image as a prime example of all that is wrong with the system. When Erica appears in 2016, she is still the solid, stable, and loving caretaker who loves her sister and Civil. She mothers both of them—India completely and Civil in small ways. In the last scene during Civil’s visit, Erica invites Civil to “take off [her] shoes and make [herself] comfortable,” and Civil leans back in her chair, feeling relief for the first time since 1973.

Having lost their mother and being parented by a father and grandmother who are dealing with their own grief, the girls find refuge with each other. They are isolated from community when they first appear in the novel, and it is only when Mace and Mrs. Williams begin to heal and they move to a new community that they begin to flourish. These elements of family and community remain with the sisters as the 1973 timeline closes—they move closer to their extended family, and both Mace and Mrs. Williams have healed enough to give the girls the love and support they need. In 2016, Erica’s happiness and equanimity and India’s peaceful affect convey a life that has been lived in a supportive and loving environment.