Angel Of Greenwood

Angel Hill is one of the novel’s two protagonists. Angel is a 16-year-old Black girl who resides in the idyllic community of Greenwood. From the beginning of the text, Angel is kind, generous, compassionate, and believes she was put on earth to help others. She’s sometimes bullied at school by kids like Muggy and Isaiah, but most adults love Angel. In part because of her compassion and kindness, Angel prefers the philosophies and methods of Booker T. Washington to W. E. B. Du Bois; she wants to create slow progress without risking peace. Her views link to the theme of The Struggle for Justice and Equality because, although she and Isaiah are both deeply committed to this cause, they initially have different ideas about how to accomplish it. However, by talking to each other and opening their minds, they both come to understand the value of both writers. They ultimately take a collaborative, rather than an individual, approach to social change.

Angel and Isaiah fall in love despite the tension, segregation, and violence around them, which illustrates Love and Friendship During Turbulent Times. Far from being a distraction from the serious matters at hand, the love between Isaiah and Angel helps them both be kinder people and better serve their community in a time of crisis. After the massacre, although she lost her father and other community members, Angel maintains her goal of helping the girls in the part of Greenwood that didn’t have formal education even before the massacre. Angel, along with the rest of the community, demonstrates Resilience in the Face of Racial Violence.

Isaiah Wilson is the novel’s other protagonist and Angel’s love interest. He’s a 16-year-old Black boy living in Greenwood with his mother; his father passed away fighting in World War I. At the beginning of the novel and prior to its start, Isaiah is mischievous and seems to lack a conscience because he feels like he has to do whatever his best friend Muggy wants because Muggy’s family offered financial help to Isaiah’s family after his father’s death. Despite outward appearances, Isaiah is highly intelligent and interested in reading, politics, and The Struggle for Justice and Equality. His other friends don’t share this interest, but Angel does, although she has a different favorite author and different ideas about the best strategies to achieve justice and equality.

Although Isaiah initially thinks he’s not “allowed” to fall in love given the level of racial unrest in 1921 America, falling in love with Angel changes him into a community leader who can work for justice and equality. This change illustrates the importance of Love and Friendship During Turbulent Times. With Angel, Isaiah becomes kinder, more helpful, and more honest; he stands up for himself rather than doing whatever Muggy wants. His new demeanor earns him respect in the community and allows him to become a leader during the massacre and afterward. A month after most of their community is burned down, Isaiah inspires a group of adult men with an impassioned speech about how, although their buildings were destroyed, their hope and knowledge—which is more valuable—was not. This means that they can rebuild a version of Greenwood, albeit not the exact same Greenwood that existed before, demonstrating Resilience in the Face of Racial Violence.

Mr. and Mrs. Hill are Angel’s parents, with whom she lives in Greenwood. From the beginning of the novel, Angel’s father has an illness that is quickly progressing and impedes his ability to walk or complete tasks independently. He’s certain that he will die soon, and although it’s not the illness that kills him, he is correct in this foreshadowing. Mr. Hill is loving, kind, and resilient, making sure his family feels loved even though he knows he doesn’t have much time left. In fact, this seems to increase his desire to be close to his family and make them feel loved, demonstrating Love and Friendship During Turbulent Times. During the massacre, Mr. Hill sacrifices himself to give Angel and her mother a better chance of escaping and surviving. As the church mothers remark, sacrificing oneself to save a loved one is one of the greatest forms of love possible.

Angel’s mother, Mrs. Hill, is equally important and full of love. Mrs. Hill is kind, thoughtful, intelligent, and talented, making ends meet by fixing local girls’ hair in her home. For a while, Angel helps her mother with her job and with the task of caring for her father until her mother suddenly forbids it, having decided that, as a child, Angel deserves to spend some time doing what she wants rather than what her family needs. This decision also demonstrates Love and Friendship During Turbulent Times, albeit in a different way. Both of Angel’s parents show that love does not disappear during turbulent times, but turbulent times may call for a different sort of love than other times.

Mrs. Wilson is Isaiah’s mother, with whom he lives in Greenwood. She’s smart, capable, trustworthy, and quick to take on a leadership role during a crisis. Having lost her husband in World War I, she’s had to raise Isaiah alone and essentially act as both a mother and a father in their household. For a while, Isaiah didn’t appreciate his mother as much as he could have, instead taking her actions and love for granted. Around the time he ditches Muggy and starts seeing Angel, he changes his approach, telling his mom how much he loves and appreciates her. Springing into action the night of the massacre, he tells her she shouldn’t have had to fill the shoes of two people for so long. In turn, she says he shouldn’t have to become an adult at such a young age. Their relationship illustrates Love and Friendship During Turbulent Times.

Mrs. Wilson also demonstrates Resilience in the Face of Racial Violence when she takes on a leadership role on the night of the massacre. She directs people to the church and designates different areas of it for different purposes, such as tending wounds and childcare. Later, she directs everyone out of the church and toward the field, and after the destruction is over, she continues watching over community members with her makeshift kitchen. All of this shows that, even in the face of adversity, Mrs. Wilson’s resilience allows her to survive and even hope to thrive again.

Muggy is Isaiah’s best friend, although they have a falling out during the novel. At first, Muggy seems like a straightforward bully who delights in ridiculing others for anything that brings them joy. He’s mean, silly, and anti-intellectual, shutting down all of Isaiah’s attempts to discuss books, politics, or other serious topics. Instead, Muggy prefers getting up to mischief and terrorizing various classmates and adult townspeople, even random neighbors who have never harmed him. He also bullies his best friend Isaiah, whom he makes fun of for reading, wanting to play the flute, getting a summer job delivering books to underserved neighborhoods, and having a crush on Angel. He encouraged Isaiah to bully Angel for years, which caused Isaiah and Angel’s relationship to have a rocky start. Through his relationship with Angel, Isaiah gains the courage to stand up to Muggy and be honest about his feelings and preferences, resulting in a temporary falling out after Muggy steals Isaiah’s secret journal.

Despite Muggy’s past misdeeds, he illustrates the power of redemption during the massacre, complicating the theme of Love and Friendship During Turbulent Times. During the massacre, Muggy suddenly seems to realize the error of his past ways. Seeing the community terrorized by intruders, he feels guilty for terrorizing members of the same community with his bullying, pranks, and rude comments. To atone for this, he first mends his friendship with Isaiah, then tries to save Mrs. Edward, whom he had wronged in the past. Lastly, he sacrifices himself to save countless townspeople, who were still sleeping when he rang the church bell tower, unaware of the impending bomb from the plane. As the church mothers point out, this is an act of great love. Muggy’s transformation suggests that it’s never too late to mend a broken friendship or do right by members of the community whom one wronged in the past. Muggy’s past actions do not make his final sacrifice less valuable but rather make it even more significant. Muggy also illustrates Resilience in the Face of Racial Violence because, in spite of the horrors unfolding around him, he still musters the courage and love to do the right thing.

Miss Ferris is Angel and Isaiah’s English teacher. She’s intelligent, politically inclined, and kind. Throughout the text, she contributes to the theme of The Struggle for Justice and Equality because she is constantly fighting for justice and equality using whatever strategies are most appropriate at the moment. Before the massacre, Miss Ferris fights for justice and equality by educating her students in a sincere, responsible way, even amending the curriculum to include more Black authors, and taking time outside of class to read Isaiah’s poetry. Furthermore, she starts a mobile library, lending her books out to kids in underserved areas of Greenwood and paying both Isaiah and Angel a generous amount to deliver the books for her. It’s not explained how a public school teacher makes enough money to employ two of her students for a summer, but this gesture is meant to demonstrate her kindness and generosity.

During the massacre, Miss Ferris continues demonstrating her commitment to the community when she appears with water for Truly’s mother, whom Angel has just rescued from a burning building. She also provides Angel with a change of clothes and a bike to ride so she can wake up more people and save more lives. Her actions illustrate Resilience in the Face of Racial Violence because, instead of giving up or accepting the carnage, Miss Ferris teams up with other community members to temper the damage as much as possible. They may not be able to prevent fire from spreading, but they save more lives due to their teamwork, care, and resilience.

Mrs. Nichelle, Vice Principal Anniston, and baby Michael are a family who live near Angel. Anniston is the vice principal of Washington High School, which both Angel and Isaiah attend. Because baby Michael has colic and cries incessantly, Mrs. Nichelle does not get a lot of sleep or peaceful time to herself. To help out, Angel frequently goes over of her own accord and tends to Michael or takes him to her own house so Mrs. Nichelle can rest. Angel’s outreach illustrates her commitment to her community, which is related to The Struggle for Justice and Equality. Angel knows that the reason her community thrives is not just because the businesses are lucrative; it’s also because the people look after each other, practicing love, empathy, and teamwork.

Mrs. Nichelle is kind and grateful, but she’s also uncertain what to do in a crisis, especially the massacre at the novel’s end. During this time, she turns again to Angel because she’s always been helpful in the past. Angel directs everyone to the church, and although this ends up being the wrong place to go because it’s later bombed, Angel helps Mrs. Nichelle by comforting her and giving her directions before returning to the church to warn everyone about the bomb. Mrs. Nichelle complicates the theme of Love and Friendship During Turbulent Times because, although she’s older than Angel, she looks to her for advice during turbulent times. This illustrates how roles may shift during a crisis, but love, friendship, and community solidarity can remain.

Dorothy Mae is another girl who lives in Greenwood and is around the same age as Angel, Isaiah, and Muggy. At the novel’s beginning, Isaiah has a fling with Dorothy Mae, although he doesn’t actually enjoy her company much because she doesn’t enjoy talking, especially not about anything intellectual. It turns out that Dorothy Mae is smart and has opinions, but she usually doesn’t share them because of gendered expectations that she should be relatively quiet and focus on finding a good husband. Dorothy Mae complicates the theme of The Struggle for Justice and Equality because she illustrates how one’s position (including one’s race but also gender and other factors) determines how one’s behavior is perceived. When Dorothy reveals her wish to fly, Isaiah acts like he’s shocked that she could have this amount of depth. That Isaiah didn’t see the depth probably says as much about him as it does about Dorothy Mae. Muggy also has a crush on Dorothy Mae, and he convinces her to steal Isaiah’s notebook and give it to him. However, almost as soon as she does this, Dorothy Mae’s conscience kicks in, and she regrets her actions, demanding Muggy return the journal.

Like Muggy, once the massacre ensues, Dorothy Mae no longer worries about high school drama and instead focuses on helping people stay alive. She teams up with Angel, Muggy, and Isaiah, despite the awkward love triangles, to figure out where they should all flee to safety once they realize the church is about to be bombed. In this way, Dorothy Mae’s character also develops Love and Friendship During Turbulent Times. Under such dire circumstances, things like former crushes no longer matter, and the community’s loving core can surface in its individual members.