Tilly Pruitt

Character Analysis

It might sound like a cliché, but Tilly is the glue that holds this entire narrative—and indeed, the Pruitt/Hutchings family—together. Sounds like the perfect job for a narrator, yes? Yeah, we thought so, too. So, since Tilly is the tie that binds, let's take a look at her doing what she does best—bridging people and bringing them together.

First under our microscope is Tilly's place among her siblings. Between Noah, who's ready to take off for the war any day, and Cass, whose brain and body sometimes occupy two different places, Tilly is the steady child, the one Mama can depend on to call the others in for dinner and keep things humming along. Between Mama's worry for Cass and her ultimate descent into madness over Noah, Tilly is the one who can be trusted not to break her Mama's heart. Does she get showered with appreciation for this? Nope. But so it goes with the reliable kid; sometimes, they fly below the radar.

Tilly's steadfast trustworthiness is what leads Mama to send her after Noah. Though Tilly doesn't trust her own abilities, Mama knows she can accomplish the task. From the depths of her grief over Noah, Mama depends upon Tilly. But while Mama may feel gratitude for Tilly in a moment like this, for Tilly, being the dependable child who looks out for the others isn't always the happiest place to be. When Tilly leaves to find Noah, she says:

I stood there to let her know I was going because she could spare me. (9.53)

Instead of feeling cherished, then, Tilly feels like a castoff. As her brother and sister take turns vying for their mother's full attention, Tilly feels disposable. Tempting though it may be to blame Mama for not making sure Tilly knows how invaluable she is, though, it seems like part of the problem may actually come from Tilly. As we see when she befriends Delphine, Tilly may not just be modest—she's kind of modest to a fault.

In particular, Tilly is quite modest about her own looks, which makes her the perfect friend for Delphine, who likes to be the prettiest girl in the room. However, her friendship with Delphine leads her to greater confidence in herself. She explains:

Now, I stole every look I could get at Delphine's mirror. It was gold, with violets painted on the back. I wasn't overencouraged by what I saw, but it made me so real. I'm not sure I knew that I existed and took up space of my own before I saw me in that mirror. (6.4)

In a lifetime spent tending to the needs of others, Tilly has failed to consider herself—not because she's been put down or told not to, but just because she hasn't. Thanks to the dazzling Delphine, though, Tilly starts to become more aware of herself; she starts to take up space of her "own."

While Tilly will never have Delphine's dazzling beauty or striking personality, her quiet steadiness attracts Dr. Hutchings, who is overwhelmed by Delphine. (And yeah, from a modern perspective, a man who's at least 25 going after a barely 16-year-old girl is a little creepy, not to mention that it's illegal. What can we say? Things were different back in the day.) Check out how Tilly zeroes in on this:

Seemed to me that when it came time to marry, Dr. Hutchings would need a wife with a lighter touch than Delphine's. He looked pretty well whipsawed when he lifted us down at the back of Mrs. Hanrahan's place. (11.7)

Tilly, though she doesn't come right out and say it, seems to be recognizing her own worth here. Who has a "lighter touch" than Delphine if not Tilly, after all?

It's appropriate that Tilly is the one who tells Howard the story. Even as an old woman, she is a supportive friend and sister who uses her words to help Howard get to know the people he will soon discover are his grandmother and grandfather.