First Impression

The very first sentence of the novel, told within the prologue, immediately conveys a sense of intense trauma:
"I lost my arm on the last trip home." For a novel that seems to offer a racial struggle as the basis of its plot sequence, hearing these words--as well as the seemingly unnatural cause of the injury--gives the reader an unexpected shock that forshadows Dana's severe conflicts in the story, but still leaves questions. The first chapter opens new ones as Dana experiences the first "trip" to the past. Who was the boy she saved? How is he connected to her, and what new struggles will she confront as she experiences more backward pulls? The relationship between Dana and her white husband establishes a sense of the ethnic integration within contemporary society, and the reader can predict conflict because of the juxtaposed viewpoints of the times.

The appearance of the gun made me think of the ignorance that once lived in America's southern culture because of superstition and fear, and I couldn't imagine the carrier of the weapon having seen Dana appear out of nowhere. If he'd been on the scene with the drowning boy, he would have been there with the mother trying to save him. She'd just saved the boy's life, so what prompted him to threaten Dana? The event makes little sense so far, but the man's irrational fear that thrived in the bible-belt region of America's past, seems to present itself here. My guess is that Dana will confront this ignorance and make a change within this culture, and it will strengthen her as it did the black slaves of that time. She'll have to adjust; there is no other option, unless she meets death.

I'm sure that her relationship will be challenged, as well, but it seems just as likely that her husband's love will preserve the value of freedom and integration in her perception. He'll anchor Dana to her home, and to the concept of racial integration.