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Objectively speaking, Tillie is a hooker who killed her own daughter by corrupting her life with heroin and prostitution. How could readers possibly have empathy or respect for a character like that? And yet, Tillie is one of the most nuanced and understandable people in the novel.
Firstly, Tillie represents the cyclical nature of existence. Tillie’s mother was a prostitute, and so is her daughter, so Tillie claims that hooking is in her blood. However, just as Tillie’s mother had regret, Tillie deeply regrets making her daughter’s life a continuation of her own. When we can finally hear Tillie’s narrative from her own mouth, we understand that Tillie has only ever tried to protect Jazzlyn, even if that’s not how things look. To Tillie, it’s safer that her daughter shoots up heroin in her own arms than in the arms of a stranger. Interestingly, the best way Tillie could protect Jazzlyn as a prostitute is by being a prostitute with her. And any bystander would never assume they’re a mother-daughter duo, because Tillie has expertly created a work dynamic that allows her to protect Jazzlyn, while allowing her to be her own person. Although Tillie thought that her tactic would help Jazzlyn in the long run, she was unable to break the cycle and give her daughter a better life than her own. That’s why she has an obsession with meeting her babies in jail, because they are her only hope in redemption as a good mother.
However, what really allows the reader to connect with Tillie despite any prejudice against her work is her self-awareness. She considers herself a screw up, saying she should’ve swallowed handcuffs when she was pregnant to warn her daughter about what an awful life she would lead. Even when she tries to absolve some of her guilt by taking the legal blame for her daughter, she sets off a chain of events leading to Jazzlyn’s death. Her solution is to commit suicide, which she sees as the only way to repay Jazzlyn and see her again.
It’s interesting to see Tillie as a woman and not as a mother as well. Tillie often uses her humor and sweet talk as a facade, which can please men during sex but downplay her own intelligence. In 1970’s NYC, Tillie’s place as a black, female, sex-worker is always to placate others and dumb herself down. Even in court, she addresses Solomon as “babe”, hiding behind informality to push down her fear.
In another life, Tillie could’ve been what society views as “successful”, she could’ve spent all her free time reading Persian poetry, working a different job, raising her child and grandchildren in a different area. And yet, at the same time, Tillie is already a strong successful woman, just one who has had to fit the role society wants her to play.
A question– what is the author’s validity in writing from the perspective of Tillie as white man?You make an interesting argument regarding Tillie’s position in the novel. I agree with your analysis of Tillie’s approach to motherhood. I think it’s interesting to note that her approach is similar to Corrigan’s. Just as Corrigan drinks alcohol and suffers beatings by pimps in order to empathize with the homeless and prostitutes, Tillie shoots heroin and prostitutes herself to bring herself close to Jazzlyn–putting her in a position where she can protect her daughter directly and indirectly.
I also found your analysis of Tillie’s facade fascinating. Tillie’s private persona is a soft and caring mother, but her public persona is a cheeky prostitute. I believe her public persona to be a defense mechanism against the judgment of the world. By pretending to be a stereotypical colored prostitute, she can hide behind the stereotypes surrounding blacks and prostitutes, as opposed to exposing her insecurities to the world. To avoid drawing attention to oneself is a defensive behavior that evolved in humans over generations. That is why I find your analysis intriguing. It makes me believe that Tillie is shouldering the weight of the “black sex-worker stereotype” so that Jazzlyn develops her own unique personality.
On a tangential note, I think McCann may unintentionally fall into stereotyping as he creates backgrounds for the characters. It is notable that the parental figures are basically exclusively mothers. Corrigan and Ciaran’s father was absent from their entire youth and never reappears in the novel after the funeral. Tillie is a single mother raising Jazzlyn. Claire and Solomon are both parents to a child who died during the Vietnam war, but Claire is the only one that openly expresses grief. Solomon is reserved with his grief, which paints Claire as the more “parental figure”. From this, it almost seems as though McCann is falling into the stereotype wherein mothers are responsible for caretaking, and fathers are simply incapable of raising children. I can’t say much on the topic of McCann’s experience with colored narratives, but Wikipedia states “In 1988 he moved to Texas, where he worked as a wilderness educator with juvenile delinquents”. I presume some of his experiences with troubled youth may have inspired stories in his novel, but can’t really extrapolate much beyond that.
Overall, your analysis was a super interesting read. While writing my comment, your analysis brought a new question into my mind. Judge Solomon doesn’t really see Tillie as a person until she exits the courtroom. However, his attention is focused on how she is beautiful. He essentially objectifies Tillie as a sexual object, as opposed to seeing her as someone beyond a criminal. Based on my thoughts on McCann’s stereotyping of the “female mother” and his approach to humanizing Judge Solomon, I’m interested in what you (or anyone) thinks of McCann’s approach to writing women.
Chris, I just found McCann answering questions about writing in Tillie’s voice here. I was also really interested in your point about McCann falling into the stereotypes of single motherhood. Almost every main female character in the novel is a mother, apart from Lara, despite all their varied ages and backgrounds. However, Solomon is the only father, and not a great one as you said. The female character arcs therefore revolve a lot around motherhood, from Gloria and Claire’s losses, to Adelita’s kids, to Tillie and Jazzmyn’s relationship. But the male perspectives are more uninhibited by the restraints of parenthood.
Your assessment of Tillie is perfect. I also totally agree that Tillie’s best trait is her self-awareness. She knows she is a “bad character” and her knowledge of this makes her one of the most relatable characters in the novel. Stemming from her self-awareness, she is also brutally honest, often times in humorous ways. Even when being honest could put her in harm, such as when she sees her tricks while not working or after doing the deed and cracks jokes about them to their face. Especially with her weatherman trick, the fear of exposure is extremely strong with people soliciting prostitutes, so Tillie revealing that she know their profession and name could easily lead to violence. Violence and sex work constantly go hand and hand, and yet Tillie and fearless when confronting tricks, even with the risk of bodily harm or death.
I would agree with the idea that Tillie was of some wicked cycle, whereby her mother was a prostitute, her daughter was and, had it not been for the crash, her grandchildren would have been prostitutes too. However, I think the reader finds empathy with her not because she acknowledges that by many standards she’s a screwup, but because we get to see, face to face, how pre-determined her life would be, how essentially impossible it always was to break out of the family business. Recalling her life, you can tell most of the time she’s on auto pilot, just going through the motions of a woman who didn’t have any other options in life besides sex work. This is only possible if you get her full, unbridled perspective, which is something Solomon cannot get, which explains his, Ciaran’s and likely many readers (initially), anger and hatred towards her who, to them, just saw her at that point in her life, and not burdened by all of the soul crushing context that led her to that point.
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