A Calamity of Souls

DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago. She is extremely intelligent, having gone to college at age 16 and graduated from Yale Law School after six years. She has a vast array of experience working with the NAACP and the Legal Defense Fund to fight against racist legislation, including, mostly recently, the Loving case, which allowed Black and white people to marry. She initially comes to Virginia with the intent of taking over Jerome’s defense from Jack, but after seeing how committed he is to the case, agrees to be his co-counselor.

DuBose contrasts with Jack. She is very different from him on the surface level: She is a woman, Black, has served as a lawyer in dozens of murder trials, and recognizes the importance of Jerome’s trial to the larger picture of civil rights. However, like Jack, she is a dynamic character in that she changes throughout the text. After Jack asks her to stop focusing on mistrials or appeals, she brings her full effort to the courtroom, fighting back against the admission of the murder weapon instead of utilizing it as a chance for appeal. At the novel’s end, she succeeds in Overcoming Personal Bias by putting aside her fear and hesitancy to be involved with Jack.

Jerome is a Black man on trial for the murder of a wealthy white couple. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War and is described as “large” and “strong,” standing at 6’5”. He is dedicated to his job working for the Randolphs before their death, riding his bike five miles each way, never missing a day of work. He is also dedicated to his wife, Pearl and three children; he is willing to go to prison for life if it means that Pearl is able to be acquitted, then is willing to accept a plea of five years, despite the overwhelming evidence in his favor.

Jerome is a flat character in the novel, meaning that he doesn’t change. He serves primarily as a plot device and a way to illuminate the systemic racism and injustice of the time. The narrative offers little information about him. Jack and DuBose repeatedly choose not to put him on the stand to speak even in his own defense. This reflects his status in 1968 in the American South: He has little control of his own life, and is at the mercy of the white people around him and the racist system that he lives in.

Hilly is Jack’s mother. A homemaker, she cares for her developmentally disabled daughter, Lucy, well into adulthood while blaming herself for Lucy’s disability. Jack sees his mother as “complicated.” Hilly is upset by Martin Luther King Jr.’s death and helps the Black men who work with her husband, yet is vocal about her belief in segregation. DuBose initially thinks of her as a “typical racist” who perpetuates the idea that she is somehow superior to the Black people around her.

Hilly is a dynamic character who changes throughout the text. As the text progresses, she reverts back to who she originally was prior to the events of the novel—a kind, nonracist woman. After Lucy’s death, she gets to know DuBose and invites her into her home, even lending her clothing. She then reveals that she used to love a Black man, but was forced apart from him. Additionally, she was told by a preacher that Lucy’s disability was a punishment from God in return for loving a Black man. These experiences, and the society in which she lived, led to years of acceptance and eventual perpetuation of racism.