Midnight Without a Moon

Hallelujah Jenkins is Rose’s best friend and the son of the family’s reverend. Hallelujah and Rose are the same age and attend the same school. Rose cares deeply for Hallelujah, but she resents the ease of his lifestyle compared to hers. Hallelujah, as the son of a religious figure, enjoys a position of status in their community, and he does not have to work the way Rose does. He helps his aunt for a few hours a week at her store but is content to avoid responsibilities. Rose is often frustrated when he appears at her house in his sophisticated clothes, well-groomed with no evidence of exertion as he watches her toil in the heat. He either refuses to acknowledge or fails to perceive the tone that Rose uses whenever she insinuates that he should show more humility, as his idleness is not a virtue. Hallelujah is Rose’s source for news; Ma Pearl refuses to allow Rose to read Jet magazine, but Hallelujah shares every issue with her, and together they explore their humanitarian and political beliefs as they discuss issues related to the Civil Rights Movement.

Hallelujah shares many characteristics with Emmett Till, including their remarkably similar physical appearances. Emmett plays a role in the story tangentially, in that he is never depicted in a scene with any of the characters, but the reader can imagine what he was like through Hallelujah as a conduit for a young man of the same age who was similarly extroverted, charming, and the opposite of a threat to others.

Aunt Belle is Rose’s aunt and the most rebellious of Ma Pearl and Papa’s daughters. She left home at age 19 against her mother’s wishes, moving in with her Great Aunt Isabelle in Saint Louis. There, she trained for a career as a cosmetologist, and when she visits Stillwater, Mississippi, in the summer of 1955, the 24-year-old is an accomplished stylist and owner of her own successful salon. Rose looks forward to Aunt Belle’s visits; unlike the other women in her family, Aunt Belle is always nurturing, supportive, and encouraging in her interactions with Rose and has never criticized her niece’s appearance. Since she last saw her parents, Aunt Belle has become engaged to Monty, a kind, protective partner and fellow member of the NAACP who shares her passion for activism. Unlike most everyone else in Ma Pearl’s life, Aunt Belle is unwilling to tolerate her mother’s mockery of human rights advocates as “foolish” and “stupid” and engages in frequent arguments with Ma Pearl whenever issues of importance to Aunt Belle arise. Rose is dismayed when Aunt Belle spends most of her visit engaged in civil rights efforts but does not consider that Aunt Belle’s absence may have as much to do with her inability to withstand her mother’s animosity as it does her motivation to have an impact while she is back in her hometown. Aunt Belle is angry that Rose is being denied the opportunity to continue attending school and refuses the first time her niece asks, but after conferring with Monty, she extends the invitation to bring Rose back to Saint Louis to live with them.

Ma Pearl is the foil to Rose’s protagonist in Midnight Without a Moon. Vicious, judgmental, and spiteful, she shows warmth only to Queen and Mrs. Robinson, the white woman who employs Ma Pearl as her housekeeper. Ma Pearl imagines herself as the head of the Carter household, insisting that her demands be met with immediate compliance and that her children, grandchildren, and guests never question her opinions. Rose describes Ma Pearl as corpulent, a tall, robust woman whose presence is physically intimidating. Rose appreciates the irony of her grandmother’s nickname; “Miss Sweet” is entirely antithetical to Ma Pearl’s personality, and Rose believes that those who use it recognize the sarcasm contained therein. The only force strong enough to stem the tide of Ma Pearl’s tirades is Papa’s quiet authority; she complies each time he instructs her that she has gone too far and needs to remove herself from the situation at hand.

Ma Pearl was born in 1899 to parents who were once enslaved. Though Rose has little to share about her grandmother’s childhood, in one of her arguments with Aunt Belle, Ma Pearl indicates that she has seen acts of racial violence her daughter cannot imagine. Her insistence that Black people should be grateful to white people who show them kindness, and deferential to white people in general, is an anathema to her daughter, her pastor, and her grandchildren. Even Ma Pearl’s peers are shocked and offended by the condescension and smugness with which she suggests that Emmett and his mother are responsible for his death. Aunt Belle calls Ma Pearl “crazy,” and the vehemence and violence with which she asserts her opinions and her failure to demonstrate appropriate emotional regulation may indicate a lack in her ability to think rationally.

Papa is Rose’s grandfather, a quiet, reserved man who is passionate about farming and his Baptist faith. He has lived on the Robinson’s land since before Rose was born, having worked for Mr. Robinson’s father before him. He is an accomplished horticulturalist; his ability to ensure a high yield of healthy crops with few losses is unmatched, and he is lauded as an asset to Mr. Robinson’s operation. He is given “privileges” that other farmers in similar arrangements are not granted. He is “allowed” to keep several species of animals on the property, and his living situation, though lacking in many of the amenities other Americans in 1955 would consider essential, is considered superior to the arrangements in which many other Black Mississippians find themselves. Despite the value that Mr. Robinson claims to place on Papa and his skills, he is forced to enlist his granddaughter and grandson with picking cotton, as he cannot afford to hire all the assistance he needs without sacrificing funds the family needs.

Papa shares Ma Pearl’s opinion that increased activism is likely to result in an escalation of violence toward people of color, but he does not criticize or undermine the efforts made by his daughter and others like her to enact change. He does not want to register himself to vote because to risk being killed would mean leaving his family without the ability to fend for themselves. He disagrees with the climate of racial violence, hatred, and inequality in Mississippi but believes there are “good” and “bad” white people and that the distinction is an important one.