Nothing to See Here

Madison and Jasper embody Southern ideals of gentility and civility inherited alongside the material legacies of their families. The maintenance of these ideals requires a perpetual performance of extreme politeness, but it also relies on the construction of an uncivilized “other.” Bessie and Roland’s (literally) fiery outbursts make them the most obvious example of this: The language used to describe the twins paints them as wild and even animalistic at times.

However, Bessie and Roland’s “condition” is in part symbolic—code for the raced, classed, or sexual outsider. As a working-class queer woman, Lillian embodies the latter two. Conversely, it is significant that Madison (who is presumably not straight given her ultimate declaration of love for Lillian) presents an image of not only heterosexuality but heteronormativity: She appears to be the perfect political wife and mother. The novel’s racial politics are subtler, but it is no accident that Jasper and Madison place the twins in the mansion’s former slave quarters. The Roberts’ money and power clearly derive from their days as slaveholders; if it is now gauche to point this out, it is equally gauche to remark on the modern-day othering of the twins and the political function that this serves.

As the novel progresses there is a reversal of these roles, and the twins are humanized while the brutishness of Madison and Jasper is exposed. In doing so, Wilson critiques upper-class civility by uncovering the ugliness that often lurks behind this veil. The descriptions of the children as chaotic, untamed, and unreasonable have an element of projection: These are descriptors that would comfortably fit Madison, who is willing to physically injure her opponents to win a basketball game. The same is true of Jasper, a family values candidate whose serial philandering suggests he is far from tamed or gentile. Perhaps no character is guilty of a more fraudulent performance than Mr. Cunningham, whose financial scheme based on deception and literal fraud brought his family to ruin.

By the novel’s conclusion, the notion of civility is merely a myth: one that generally protects the interests of the powerful, even if (like the Cunninghams) they at times run afoul of it. In fact, the events that follow Timothy’s combustion at the press conference suggest that those in power often do not need to maintain even the pretense of “decorum.” The moment Jasper’s political career seems threatened, the media rushes in to explain away the gaffe and maintain the myth.