The Glory Field

Part 4 begins in Chicago, Illinois. It is May 1930. Elijah and Goldie are now married and have two children: Richard, who is nineteen, and Luvenia, who is sixteen.

Elijah and Goldie have returned to the Glory Field with their son and want Luvenia to join them, but Luvenia wants to stay in Chicago. She plans to attend college using the money she makes as a live-in servant and hairdresser. She dreams of being a teacher and knows that she is intelligent enough.

The narrative starts as Luvenia is doing Miss Etta Pinckney’s hair and complaining about a recent letter she received from her father. Elijah is once again requesting that she join them at the Glory Field. Luvenia wants Miss Etta, her best friend and her godmother, to write to her father to make him understand her wishes to stay in Chicago. Luvenia has visited a bank to ask about a loan to support her studies but was told she would need to prove a guaranteed income.

Luvenia works as a part-time live-in maid for the Deets family, who are white. She asks Mrs. Deets if she will sign an affidavit confirming her steady income so that she can apply for the loan. Mrs. Deets refuses, as she thinks that Luvenia should know her place: “You have a trade. You are a maid. Reaching beyond yourself will just be a disappointment” (166). Luvenia fights back tears and decides to ask Florenz, the Deets’ seventeen-year-old daughter, for help. 

The next day, Luvenia has tea with Florenz, who attends the University of Chicago, and her friend, Katie. Florenz says she will speak to her father about confirming Luvenia’s job for the loan; however, Florenz wants her father’s permission to drive his second car, and has hatched a scheme involving Luvenia. Florenz plans to call her father saying that she needs the car to take Luvenia to the black hospital on the other side of town. They will then drive to the park, and Florenz will pay Luvenia five dollars for her part. 

When Florenz calls her father, she says that she needs to take Luvenia to the hospital, as she may be pregnant. Mr. Deets allows Florenz to drive the car. When Florenz and Katie meet two male friends, they pay Luvenia and she walks back to her apartment. She is angry and upset, not with Florenz and Katie, but with her own part in the scheme. She is worried about the lie of her being pregnant, and what it implies about her. When she gets back to her apartment, her neighbor, Mr. Parrish, calls with a telegram for her. She has been fired by Mr. Deets.

Upset, Luvenia goes to see her friend Miss Etta, who takes her to a funeral. Thinking about her situation, Luvenia believes that Florenz will come to tell the truth, and that she will be able to get her job back: “There was nothing to worry about. There was nothing at all to worry about” (195).

Learning that Florenz did tell the truth, Luvenia calls Mr. Deets to ask for her job back. Mr. Deets, however, says that he will not have dishonest employees. He will not give Luvenia her job back, but he will give her a good reference. Deciding that she will make her living as a hairdresser, Luvenia asks Etta if there is anywhere nearby she could work. Miss Etta asks her if she is going to try to make it alone, and if she really despises Curry Island, to which Luvenia replies, “No, I don’t. It’s just that Curry isn’t my dream, it’s my daddy’s. You know I really love that place […] Since the first time I saw how my daddy loved it” (198-99).

Luvenia writes to her father. Elijah understands her position and admits that things are not going well at the Glory Field. He himself may have to return to Chicago to earn money to support the land. Miss Etta throws a rent party and the proceeds are given to Luvenia to start her new business. As she walks home the following morning, she meets an old man, who says, “Morning, sister […] You got a nice step to start off the new day. Look like you ready”, to which Luvenia replies, “I am” (208).