Chapter 17 Summary and Analysis

At home, Herb is the only one who remembers Florence is supposed to earn her Master's degree, but when he asks to see it, she flippantly tells him she got bored with the academic life and became a writer. Although everyone except Mama is distraught at first, Herb comes around when Florence explains how she feels about writing, and Granny and Jensy accept her career path when they see her checks. Unable to readjust to sharing a room with Granny, Florence acquires an efficiency apartment in the Mount Pleasant district and manages to support herself, though she returns home every Sunday evening for dinner. Growing lonely, she decides to find someone but is unsure whether she is straight, gay or both, so she decides she needs more female lovers to figure it out. Unfortunately, her hesitant searches in D. C. museums...