The Saints of Swallow Hill

Content Warning: This section of the study guide discusses a suicide attempt as well as assisted suicide. This section also includes discussion of themes and depictions of racism, enslavement, misogyny, and anti-gay bias, as well as references to racist and outdated language, attempted sexual coercion, domestic violence, and sexual assault.

Rae Lynn’s, Del’s, and Cornelia’s resilience and determination amid the Great Depression and the brutal conditions and environment of Swallow Hill are central to the novel. Rae Lynn proves herself to be an emotionally strong woman who makes the difficult decision of killing her dying husband at his behest, an action with which she struggles greatly. Disguising herself as a man is difficult in its own ways, as she trades one set of oppressive gender norms for a set that she finds it equally difficult to navigate. After starting at Swallow Hill, and despite not being quick enough to complete her daily quotas, she is determined to survive and make the best of her life at the camp. Even when she is put in the sweatbox, she survives for three days, sustaining herself with memories of Warren and her mind to cope. Del and Cornelia find her survival impressive, with her saying earlier in her recovery that “[I]f she makes it, it’ll be a wonder, as much as I hate to say it” (201).