Chapter 40 Summary: Dishwashing the Mammy Salt & Pepper Shakers by Accident
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
In a short poem, the narrator describes washing two Mammy salt-and-pepper shakers—porcelain figurines with stereotypical Black features: black faces, housecoats, red mouths, and white eyes. While cleaning them, the shakers are accidentally broken. The final line notes the shakers are “into forgetting,” suggesting the act of breaking them leads to the erasure of the racist object from daily life.
Key Events
- The narrator is washing two Mammy salt and pepper shakers.
- The shakers are described in detail: black faces, housecoats, overly red mouths, and white eyes.
- During the dishwashing, the shakers are broken by accident.
- The broken shakers are “into forgetting” — either they are forgotten or their destruction initiates a process of forgetting.
Character Development
- The narrator: By handling and then breaking the shakers, the narrator takes a passive but definitive action. The accident implies an unconscious or deliberate rejection of the racist artifact. No direct emotions are stated, but the act carries weight as a refusal to preserve the object.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Racist memorabilia as symbol: The Mammy shakers represent the persistent, domestic presence of racist stereotypes in everyday life. Their porcelain material suggests fragility, yet they have endured as household objects.
- Accidental erasure: Breaking the shakers by accident removes the object without a conscious decision. This mirrors how some painful histories are sometimes “forgotten” through neglect rather than deliberate confrontation.
- Domestic labor: Dishwashing is a routine, intimate task. The setting of the kitchen adds a layer of gendered and raced labor, as the narrator performs care work that leads to the destruction of a racist item.
- Duality and repetition: The poem repeats the number two and the word “too” (“too-red mouths”, “too-white eyes”), emphasizing the exaggerated, caricatured features of the shakers and the paired nature of the salt-and-pepper set.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 40 is a pivotal moment of resistance through accident. Breaking the Mammy shakers is not a grand protest but a quiet, physical rejection of a degrading object. The poem transforms a mundane household chore into an act of cleansing memory. It challenges readers to consider what everyday relics of racism we tolerate and how their removal—intentional or not—can begin to heal.
Study Questions and Answers
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What does the description “too-red mouths” and “too-white eyes” suggest about the shakers?
The exaggerations highlight the grotesque caricature of Black features that was typical of Mammy iconography. The word “too” signals excess, making the stereotype feel both absurd and offensive. -
Why is the accident significant rather than a deliberate break?
An accident implies that the rejection of the racist object comes not from a planned political statement but from a natural, even subconscious, refusal to preserve it. It suggests that the object’s presence is so untenable that it cannot survive ordinary handling. -
How does the final line “into forgetting” function in the poem?
“Into forgetting” has a dual meaning: the shakers are literally broken and thrown away (forgotten), and the act itself allows the narrator—and perhaps the reader—to begin forgetting the painful history those objects represent. It is an ambiguous closing that leaves room for both relief and loss.