Form and Content
Christy, in a prologue and forty-six chapters, recounts eleven months in the life of naïve, untried nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston. Through a first-person narrator, Catherine Marshall has set out a young woman’s coming-of-age, the struggles and triumphs of her first year on her own.
In the novel’s prologue, Marshall explains that her purpose is to describe a pivotal year in her mother’s life. The facts are true; the characters are drawn from real people, and the locale is identical to that of her mother’s youth—only names are altered. Without its prologue, Christy is fiction—with it, Christy takes on the reality of a biographical account. The straightforward narrative unfolds through the eyes of the nineteen-year-old protagonist. With her parents’ reluctant consent, Christy responds to a call for volunteers to teach school in the remote mountains of Tennessee. Although no one greets Christy at the railroad station when she arrives, she finds her own way to her destination of Cutter Gap. When she finally reaches the Cove, she discovers that the man sent to meet her train has been seriously injured on his way there and she witnesses a crude surgical operation under primitive conditions that saves his life. Christy moves into the mission house under the watchful eye of Alice Henderson, the Quaker missionary-teacher in charge of Cutter Gap school, where Christy discovers that she is expected to teach sixty-seven children, ranging in age from three to seventeen, in a one-room church building with no running water and heated only by a pot-bellied stove. After her first few days, Christy falls prey to discouragement and finds herself unsure of her ability to live and teach in the harsh conditions of Cutter Gap, where the students are unwashed, foul-smelling, and unkempt—some with their underclothing sewed on for the winter. With few textbooks, no blackboards, and no writing materials, Christy has only her native ability and intuition upon which to draw.
Alice Henderson, in her quiet Quaker manner, explains that Christy must find within herself the strength that God will provide to meet her challenges. As Christy overcomes her initial fears, she wins over her students. With the school year well advanced, and at their request, she also begins to teach some of the mothers to read. In doing so, she makes fast friends with Fairlight Spencer and Opal McHone, each of whom are important in different ways to Christy’s passage into adulthood. Opal McHone’s husband, Tom, is murdered in a senseless blockade feud, and the beautiful Fairlight falls victim to a typhoid epidemic and dies. After weeks of nursing typhoid patients, Christy contracts the dreaded fever herself and recovers after a near-death experience.
Threaded through the narrative are the stories of two very different men, the preacher and the doctor, both of whom love Christy. Their competing loves, along with various events, births, and deaths among the people she has come to love deeply, place her faith in a fiery cauldron from which it emerges strong and whole.
Literary Techniques
Marshall skillfully employs various techniques to vividly depict the daily life and heritage of the mountain community in Eastern Tennessee. Throughout the novel, she captures the authentic speech patterns and idiomatic expressions of the mountaineers. She also incorporates elements of their cultural heritage, such as folk ballads and tall tales. The novel describes many customs of mountain society, including aspects of daily life and unique traditions associated with mountain weddings and funerals, which are distinct expressions of the community's heritage. Stories from the family histories of characters like Neil MacNeil are included to explain why...
(This entire section contains 288 words.)
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the ancestors of the mountaineers originally emigrated and why they chose the mountains of Eastern Tennessee as their home.
The cultural heritage of Alice Henderson, a Quaker missionary, is similarly revealed to the reader. Through the use of Quaker speech idioms and theological expressions important to the Friends, Marshall provides insight into the society from which "Miss Alice" originates and the core values of her Quaker religious background. Alice Henderson's life story, as she shares it with Christy, illustrates the ways of the Quaker community and the principles by which they live.
Marshall's depiction of the mountain region's landscape emphasizes the nature of the mountaineers' lives. Just as the mountains possess a rugged beauty, so do the people who inhabit them. The character portraits drawn by Catherine Marshall reflect the inner qualities of these individuals. For instance, Alice Henderson is portrayed as a dignified and composed woman, embodying the nobility of spirit and spiritual calmness that "Miss Alice" has achieved.
The novel is narrated from Christy's perspective in the first person, which adds a sense of intimacy to the storytelling. This approach helps the reader connect with the young teacher's conflicts and struggles.
Literary Precedents
Conflict and struggle in North America's frontier regions is a common theme in many novels. Christy aligns with the Western genre's focus on the lawlessness and rugged individualism that defined American pioneer life. Ole Edvart Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth (1927) and Willa Cather's novels have explored life in areas that are isolated and largely untouched by the norms of civilized society.
Christy also incorporates several elements traditional to the romance novel genre. It tells the tale of a young girl leading an adventurous and somewhat vulnerable life in a setting that seems exotic compared to her upbringing. As with many romance stories, the heroine finds the man she is drawn to difficult to understand. The plot thickens when she is compelled to choose between the man she thought she loved and another who unexpectedly captures her heart.
