Arriving just a little late, she walks directly into the long-standing squabble between the church ladies and JoHanna, the town's free spirit. Then lightning strikes. Duncan is hit, but survives, somewhat scathed. As the only one there to step in and take action for Duncan and her mother, Mattie is seen to be aligned with them. In this town, where the ladies pass the communion grape juice as the men pass Tommy Ladimer's hooch, and where they hang a woman for getting back at her husband for a lifetime of beatings, herd mentality can eclipse reason.
Innocents best beware the barber's tools.
Narrator Mattie's role as the naive outsider allows the reader to discover bit by bit just how nasty small, '20s-era Mississippi towns can be. We knew that. But Mattie didn't. Then there's Mattie's husband Elikah, handsome but good with both the razor and the strap. Mattie has the same initial reaction to Floyd, the village idiot, as everyone in Jexville except Duncan's family.