Jennie Dixiana
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“Jennie Dixiana”
In “Jennie Dixiana or the secret to the Spin of Death”, author Cathy Day talks about how children that suffers from a broken childhood will most likely have a hard time recovering from it in their adulthood. Day shows that it is almost impossible to recover from childhood trauma through the story of Jennie Dixiana and her Spin of Death. It is without a doubt that children gravitates and learn what they see from their parents in their early years and will start to act like them whether it is a good or a bad thing. Jennie did have a great and loving family but everything fell apart the day her mother passed away during childbirth. Jennie grew up thinking that she was responsible for the death of her mom because she had told Sister the wrong name, which was why the bible verse couldn’t save her mom. In addition, she was also raped by her father who uses her as substitute for sexual pleasure. At age 12, she murder her father and joins the circus as Jennie Dixiana in search of a new and fresh beginning. She becomes a vindictive and accomplished woman who often likes to seek revenge for power towards the men that she encounters at the circus through her multiple personalities and identities.
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Jennie develops multiple identities at a young age due to the effect of an awful and rough relationship that she has had with her father, Slater Marchette. Slater, who
was a loving father, became a shattered man after the death of his wife. Instead of being the the father that he vows to be to Jennie, he starts drifting away and grows an uncontrollable obsessions towards alcohol. After a while, her father began to see Jennie as his wife and sexually abused her. Because she was sexually harassed when she was so young, she had no choice but to “[keep] her eyes screwed shut, [holds] onto the image of her mother smiling”(34). Jennie’s way of coping with her father’s act is to think of her mother because her mom holds a very special place in her heart. Every time she thinks of her mother, it brings back good memories even if they were very limited. The good memories that she has with her mom is like a sanctuary in her head which helps her escape the reality for a brief moment, enough to numb out her feelings during the act. Aside from being her father’s substitute towards his sexual act, she has to grow up at a very young age. Because of the neglect that she receives from her drunken father, Jennie became the “man and woman of the house: cook, farmer, laundress, barterer”(35). Farming and bartering are mostly male jobs, but because Jennie was on her own, she had to do both the man and the woman’s job herself. During the time period that Jennie grew up in, cooking and doing the laundry are done by a grown woman, perhaps the mom. However, because Jennie’s mom has passed, she has to step in and be both the man and woman of the house. Most six years old children spend their time playing with dolls and friends but unfortunately, it is not the same for Jennie
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because she is the doll that is being played by her father. As a consequence, she becomes emotionally damaged from being a substitute wife, mom, woman and man of
the house. With the absence of her mom, the next closest person to Jennie is Sister, a conjure woman.The early death of her mom has left her with no relative other a drunken father and Sister.
Through her interaction with Sister, Jennie learns to utilize manipulation to survive and also revenge. Sister deceives the Marchette family that day by telling them that “there is a verse in the bible that can stop blood” (33). Because there were little knowledge about hemorrhage back then, they had no choice but to believe Sister. Thinking that Sister has magical powers, they see her as a very holy, god like person. Growing up, Jennie develops a relationship with Sister who soon became a mother figure to Jennie, giving her food when she is hungry and checking up on her from time to time. At age 12, Jennie has finally opened up to Sister by telling her all the horrific things that Slater has done to her. That night, Sister “picked up a shovel, swung it over her shoulder like a spike-driving hammer, then handed it to Jennie” (40). Sister encourages Jennie to take revenge towards her father for all the damage that he has done to her. The shovel symbolizes change because when Jennie decides to strike the shovel down on her father, she felt more powerful than ever because for the first time she is the one taking action, not the one submitting to it. Although killing Slater was satisfying, it does not erase all the bitter and dreadful memories because they have become scars that will forever haunt her in the future. Sister encourages Jennie to join
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the circus because after all she is “a pretty little white girl”(40). Sister implies that a women does not have to be talented