Character Analysis
Like Taylor, Lou Ann is a small-town Kentucky girl living far from home—a romantic who fell in love with a rodeo hand, married him, and followed him to Tucson, Arizona. Which if you ask us should set off some alarm bells along with those wedding bells…
Perhaps it seems mean-spirited to say that Lou Ann's defining qualities are that she's a worrywart with low self-esteem. But hey, at least it's honest. In the months that she and Taylor live together, Lou Ann proves herself to be a total bundle of nerves. She has a never-ending list of fears concerning her baby boy, Dwayne Ray: what if he chokes? Or gets poisoned? Or dies in any one of an endless number of ways? Like we said, someone's taken too big a dose of the paranoia pills.
Lou Ann also tears herself down 24/7. As Taylor puts it:
"She despised her looks, and had more ways of saying so than anyone I'd ever known.
'I ought to be shot for looking like this,' she'd tell the mirror in the front hall before going out the door. 'I look like I've been drug through hell backwards,' she would say on just any ordinary day. 'Like death warmed over. Like something the cat puked up.'" (7.69-70)
Aw. Gross. Poor Lou Ann.
Although Lou Ann can't see it, Taylor knows perfectly well that her friend's dismal self-esteem is due to the influence of her crotchety old cantankerous grandmother, Granny Logan, who never once had a nice thing to say to her grandchild. In fact, it's a miracle that Lou Ann hasn't grown up hating everyone else around her, besides herself: not only does Granny Logan see fit to insult Lou Ann all the time, but she's firmly racist too. It's a testament to Lou Ann's good heart that she doesn't grow up spewing the same prejudices she's been taught.
Stronger Than Yesterday
Having Taylor and Turtle around does wonders for Lou Ann, and not just because Taylor sets a strong example of what independent womanhood can mean. It's Taylor who encourages Lou Ann to get a job, and, once she does, Lou Ann's confidence starts to float right up. Even more importantly, Taylor and Turtle give Lou Ann an opportunity to take charge when things get tough. Yup, it's pretty inspiring.
After Turtle is attacked in Roosevelt Park and Taylor sinks into a swamp of despondence and self-pity, Lou Ann takes over with more guts and determination than anyone could have expected. Not only does she take time off work, "putting her new promotion at risk," but she takes the criminal justice system into her own hands too:
"[...] she stalked the neighborhood like a TV detective. 'We're going to catch this jerk,' she kept saying, and went knocking on every door that faced into the park, insisting to skeptical housewives and elderly, hard-of-hearing ladies that they must have seen something or somebody suspicious. She called the police at least twice to try and get them to come take fingerprints off Edna's cane, on the off-chance that she'd whacked him on the hand." (12.78)
Way to go, Lou Ann! We all know that the attack in Roosevelt Park is a terrible situation for everyone involved, but in its aftermath, Lou Ann becomes a true pillar of strength for Turtle and Taylor. In the short time that the two mothers live together, Lou Ann goes from being a nervous, self-deprecating woman with no sense of her own capabilities and strength, to an avenging fury who's ready and willing to fight for her friends. Quite the switcheroo!
Although Lou Ann never does get over her tendency to tear herself down, by the end of the novel, she's proven that she has more strength and spirit than most people have given her credit for. And if you were looking for a definition of "character development," that about sums it up right there.