Men We Reaped

In Chapter 5 Ward is seven years old and her family has moved once again. Her father purchases a motorcycle with money set aside to purchase land. He seeks adventure and entertainment as his marriage becomes increasingly fractured. Within the year, the family moves again, this time into her mother’s childhood home populated with her mother’s extended family. The house belongs to Ward’s maternal grandmother Dorothy who, abandoned by her husband with seven children, “took what my grandfather left her with, and she built it into something more, and she survived” (83). A total of 13 family members reside in the home. Ward’s youngest sister Charine is born during this time.

Fueled by a desire to escape her tumultuous reality, Ward falls in love with reading. She feeds her imagination by creating an imaginary world named Kidsland in the woods for herself, her siblings, and her cousin. She proclaims, “I wanted to be my own heroine” (86). As she grows and observes the tireless efforts of the women around her to work and care for the family, Ward becomes increasingly aware of the inequality between men and women, realizing “that what the world expected of us and allowed us would differ” (88).