Main Character Comparison in "Tumbling"
Main Character Comparison in "Tumbling"
Throughout Mckinney-Whetstone’s Tumbling, it is often stated how different two of the main characters, Noon and Ethel, are. In Tumbling, Noon is a housewife coping with her family’s, church’s, and community’s challenges. Ethel also soon becomes an indirect part of Noon’s tumultuous life because of Herbie, Noon’s husband, and his clandestine relationship with Ethel. Not only does Herbie have a secret connection with the mysterious and soulful singer Ethel, but both of Noon’s adopted daughters, Fannie and Liz, are also related to her as well. Ethel has twice placed these two girls on Noon’s doorstep, knowing that they would be bathed in Noon’s maternal instincts and nurturing warmth and not corrupted by her fast and hard entertaining lifestyle. While there are many contrasts between the two women, the differences are found upon the surface in the way that they live their lives. However, the way in which these two women carry on with their own secret burdens and how they thrive on warmth and love can be considered quite similar.
Many things about Noon and Ethel’s lives are different. From Ethel’s racy “low ruffle of her red blouse”(Mckinney-Whetstone 67) to Noon’s demure “seersucker button down dress”(Mckinney-Whetstone 98), there is no question their chosen lifestyles vastly counter one another. Noon is a caring mother who keeps her house clean and makes sure there is a warm dinner at the table every night. She chats with the neighbors, goes to church every Sunday, and relies on her community for comfort. Ethel is a singer of the blues who lives her life jumping from city to city and finding solace in consoling the men who come to her in a provocative and promiscuous manner. In this way, Ethel provides for Herbie’s own sexual needs while Noon in the meantime cannot because of her own traumatic past. However, both know how to tend to another love that Herbie cannot resist.
A great similarity between Ethel and Noon is that there is no question that they both love Herbie, Liz, and Fannie with great abundance. It is greatly apparent that they each have a romantic love for Herbie. Noon was moved to marry him after a long period of coolness from men during her time as a young woman and Ethel has a special interest towards Herbie out of a flock of pursuers....