Character Analysis
Meg is Ben's wife, and she'll have you know it ain't easy. At first Meg understands why Ben wants to defend people who can't afford a lawyer or can't get one because of racism, but after a while, she gets sick of waiting around for her hubby and decides to leave him. When she does, she writes Ben a letter:
"I doubt this will truly come as a surprise to you. You know that we have not been in love, as husband and wife must be, for some time now." (44.24)
It isn't that Meg's against Ben's work, per say, just that she's sick of the toll it takes on their life together. Her hubby is fighting the good fight, and his work is important and necessary, but his relationship with Meg consistently falls by the wayside. She's not even on her husband's radar when he makes his decision to go down South, which has got to hurt. She winds up giving him a second chance, though, so when he comes home to her at the end of the book and promises he'll never leave, we sure hope he means it.