Do you think things would have played out differently for Sylvan and Claudie had they been men?

I kept wondering about this as I read the book. Would the opportunities for Sylvan and Claudie been more varied and diverse? Would they have been able to make their own lives -- especially Sylvan? To her credit, Claudie does manage pretty well without a man but I think she might have had more choices even if she were a black man than a black woman.

I don't think so. They are from different worlds, different walks of life which made a big difference in Brownsburg. One of them was an employer and had money, and the other one was an employee and did not have money. They needed each other in a sense, but they were both loners by nature.

That's certainly true, Terri! yet a part of me wonders what would have happened to Sylvan if she had been born a man? Would she have been "sold off" as a liability? Would her life be so controlled and manipulated? Even in a small town like Brownsburg, I think she would have had more opportunities to break free as it were, if she had been a man. Claudie's situation is complicated by race. I am not sure she would have had that many more opportunities as a black man than as a black woman. In fact, I suspect she probably "got away" with more precisely because she was a black woman. Did anybody else think so?

Then there wouldn't have been a story......