Chapter 4 "Becky" Summary

This chapter describes a white woman named Becky who is shunned from the community for having two 'Negro' sons. At the opening of the chapter, Becky is already dead. The narrator tells her tale in hindsight.

Becky is a white Catholic, who is physically sunken. Her physical weakness is the result of the judgment and criticism of the townspeople. The whites call her shameless and God-forsaken. The blacks say she is poor and crazy. She will not divulge who the father of her child is. While pregnant, Becky lives off of the charity of others.

Becky's child is born, and she is turned away completely by whites and blacks. A man in charge of the railroad secretly tells Becky that she can live on the strip of land between the railroad and the road. John Stone gives lumber and...