Leonie: Guilty or Innocent? YOU Decide.

For starters, I wanted to let everyone know that in this blog post, I'm going to give some of my opinions on Leonie's actions.
But, I'm really interested to hear what y'all think!

I think we can all agree that Leonie is a dreadful parent! Not only does she hit her children for no apparent reason (not that she should hit them at all!), but she also neglects them. In my eyes, neglect can negatively affect children just as much as (if not more than) physical abuse. 

An example of her irresponsibility: One of the few times Leonie is charged with watching Jojo, she takes off, and he ends up getting injured. Her parents take care of her children for her, and she can’t bother to take over for one night!

Despite Leonie's immoral behavior, Jesmyn Ward decides to make Leonie a narrator so that we can understand her character on a deeper, more emotional level. The reader learns that Given’s death sends Leonie into a downward spiral. In a way, Given was the glue that held Leonie, Mam, and Pop together. As we discussed in class, once Given dies, the family begins to crumble; instead of unifying to deal with their pain as a unit, they isolate themselves and never fully recover. They handle their pain in solitude.

To an extent, Ward justifies Leonie’s actions. She conjures (some) empathy for Leonie. Leonie abuses drugs, but she gets high to escape her pain. As tempting as it may be to shame Leonie for her drug use, it’s impossible not to feel bad for her. The despair she feels every day is so extreme that she feels she must use drugs to counter the effects. Furthermore, Mam mentions that Leonie lacks “maternal” characteristics. I understand what Mam means, but I don’t exactly agree. Ok, I acknowledge the fact that not every woman is “maternal”; each parent’s situation is unique. But to me, it’s not about being maternal. It’s about having respect for other human beings. You don’t need a “knack” for kindness or basic human decency. Leonie was “raised right”; Ward indicated throughout her novel that Mam and Pop did their part to teach Leonie good values and morals. Leonie doesn’t need to win any sort of “Parent of the Year” Award. She just needs to recognize that children are impressionable and innocent, and they need maternal love (because we know Jojo and Michael are not going to get any sort of genuine paternal love). Of course, Jojo and Kayla are lucky to having such strong, loving grandparents, but having a mother who’s in your life but at the same time not really present is undoubtedly confusing. 

Leonie obviously doesn’t understand the distinction between adults and children. When she is forced to “grow up” too quickly when Given dies, I think she loses sight of the meaning of childhood.

The last thing I wanted to mention was the connection between Leonie’s relationship with Michael and the way she treats her children. When Michael and Leonie are together, she completely forgets about her children. Ward portrays Leonie’s love for Michael as borderline obsessive. Leonie becomes enslaved by her passionate love; it completely envelops her, and she never changes. Instead of focusing on bettering herself, she focuses solely on Michael. At times, she lets Michael define who she is—perhaps because it’s easier than forging a unique identity. Another of way of looking at it involves recognizing that Leonie feels inferior to Michael. In my opinion, race is a factor that plays into her feeling of inferiority. Because he’s white and she’s African American, she often feels like she has to prove herself “worthy.” I think there may be some racial insecurity involved in her “addiction” to Michael. He is by no means a more respectable or capable person than she is, but she lacks the courage to define herself.

Still, Leonie’s traumatic upbringing and obsessive relationship with Michael give her no excuse to treat her children the way that she does. At some point, actions are no longer excusable.