The Downstairs Girl

“Perhaps whites feel the same way about us as they do about ladybugs: A few are fine, but a swarm turns the stomach.”

White people are less particular about Chinese following rules not out of a sense of fairness, but because the Chinese in Atlanta are too few in number. Right now, the Chinese can exist as harmless oddities, because most of them have left Georgia and don’t constitute a threat. Jo’s pithy summation of white insecurity shows a wisdom beyond her years, and her witty use of the ladybug metaphor showcases her felicity with language.

“At least we have a home. It’s dry, warm, and rent-free, one of the perks of living secretly in someone else’s basement. As long as you have a home, you have a place to plan and dream.”

Jo is sensitive enough to know that even in her poverty, she is not at the bottommost rung of society. Her comment about private physical space being essential to introspection and plans is something women of the 19th century were beginning to realize.

“I have been blacklisted. Servants are routinely blacklisted when their services come to an end, even when they have done nothing to deserve it, except working their fingers to the breaking point each day, coming in early, leaving late, cleaning up other people's messes.”

Stacey Lee uses historical research to enrich her fictional world. Jo’s observation here about the state of servants in her milieu are close to historical truth. The South in 1890s was a highly hierarchical society, with class biases stronger than ever. Domestics and other employees fell at the bottom of the social ladder and had little work rights. Their disenfranchisement speaks to the theme of Being Heard Versus Being Invisible.