Girl, Woman, Other

by

Bernardine Evaristo

Morgan is Julie and Chimongo’s daughter and Hattie’s great-grandchild. Morgan, who was born Megan, was always a tomboy but their mother forced femininity onto them. Morgan’s fraught relationship with their mother illustrates how women can go against their best interest and become enforcers of the patriarchy’s gendered expectations. Hattie, who Morgan calls GG, is the only one who accepts them for who they are. Morgan’s struggles with their gender lead them to drop out of high school and experience drug addiction. Morgan later gets clean and moves out of their parent’s house. No longer behold to their family’s expectations, Morgan explores and invents their own identity for the first time. Morgan retreats into chat rooms where they eventually meet Bibi, the transgender woman who introduces them to the transgender community and eventually becomes their romantic partner. Morgan is shocked when Hattie decides to leave Greenfields to them and Bibi, suggesting that they turn it into a refuge for the trans community. With the farm, Morgan inherits land and power typically reserved for white men, creating a future in which marginalized communities have access to both the refuge and empowerment that land ownership provides. Morgan’s Twitter account launches them into internet activist fame, which allows them to make their living as a writer. Morgan meets Yazz at a guest lecture at Yazz’s university, encountering her again at the premiere for The Last Amazon of Dahomey, which Morgan is reviewing for work. Morgan’s unconventional path to success without a high school or college degree, suggests that assimilation into the mainstream isn’t the only path to success.

Megan/Morgan Malinga Quotes in Girl, Woman, Other

The Girl, Woman, Other quotes below are all either spoken by Megan/Morgan Malinga or refer to Megan/Morgan Malinga . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Diaspora, Culture, and Identity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4: Megan/Morgan Quotes

Megan wondered aloud how she could put her gender-free identity into practice when they were living in a gender-binary world, and that with so many definitions (sane and insane, she refrained from saying), the very idea of gender might eventually lose any meaning, who can remember them all? maybe that was the point, a completely gender-free world, or was that a naïve utopian dream?

Bibi replied that dreaming wasn’t naïve but essential for survival, dreaming was the equivalent of hoping on a large scale, utopias were an unachievable ideal by definition, and yeh, she really couldn’t see billions of people accepting the abolition of the idea of gender completely in her lifetime

Megan said in which case demanding gender-neutral pronouns for herself from people who’d no idea what she was going on about also seemed utopian

Bibi said it was a first step towards changing people’s minds, and although yes, like all radical movements, there’d be much resistance and Megan would have to be resilient

Related Characters: Megan/Morgan Malinga (speaker), Bibi (speaker)
Page Number: 326-327
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: Hattie  Quotes

after Joseph died, Slim broke open an old library cabinet when he couldn’t find the keys, said that as the man of the house he needed to know what was in it

he found old ledgers that recorded the captain’s lucrative business as a slave runner, exchanging slaves from Africa for sugar in the West Indies

came charging like a lunatic into the kitchen where she was cooking and had a go at her for keeping such a wicked family secret from him

she didn’t know, she told him, was as upset as he was, the cabinet had been locked her entire life, her father told her important documents were inside and never go near it

she calmed Slim down, they talked it through

it’s not me or my Pa who’s personally responsible, Slim, she said, trying to mollify her husband, no you co-own the spoils with me

she wrapped her long arms around his waist from behind

it’s come full circle, hasn’t it?

Related Characters: Hattie “GG” Jackson (speaker), Slim Jackson (speaker), Megan/Morgan Malinga , Joseph Rydendale , Captain Linnaeus Rydendale
Related Symbols: The Greenfields Farmhouse
Page Number: 368
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Girl, Woman, Other LitChart as a printable PDF.
Girl, Woman, Other PDF

Megan/Morgan Malinga Quotes in Girl, Woman, Other

The Girl, Woman, Other quotes below are all either spoken by Megan/Morgan Malinga or refer to Megan/Morgan Malinga . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Diaspora, Culture, and Identity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4: Megan/Morgan Quotes

Megan wondered aloud how she could put her gender-free identity into practice when they were living in a gender-binary world, and that with so many definitions (sane and insane, she refrained from saying), the very idea of gender might eventually lose any meaning, who can remember them all? maybe that was the point, a completely gender-free world, or was that a naïve utopian dream?

Bibi replied that dreaming wasn’t naïve but essential for survival, dreaming was the equivalent of hoping on a large scale, utopias were an unachievable ideal by definition, and yeh, she really couldn’t see billions of people accepting the abolition of the idea of gender completely in her lifetime

Megan said in which case demanding gender-neutral pronouns for herself from people who’d no idea what she was going on about also seemed utopian

Bibi said it was a first step towards changing people’s minds, and although yes, like all radical movements, there’d be much resistance and Megan would have to be resilient

Related Characters: Megan/Morgan Malinga (speaker), Bibi (speaker)
Page Number: 326-327
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: Hattie  Quotes

after Joseph died, Slim broke open an old library cabinet when he couldn’t find the keys, said that as the man of the house he needed to know what was in it

he found old ledgers that recorded the captain’s lucrative business as a slave runner, exchanging slaves from Africa for sugar in the West Indies

came charging like a lunatic into the kitchen where she was cooking and had a go at her for keeping such a wicked family secret from him

she didn’t know, she told him, was as upset as he was, the cabinet had been locked her entire life, her father told her important documents were inside and never go near it

she calmed Slim down, they talked it through

it’s not me or my Pa who’s personally responsible, Slim, she said, trying to mollify her husband, no you co-own the spoils with me

she wrapped her long arms around his waist from behind

it’s come full circle, hasn’t it?

Related Characters: Hattie “GG” Jackson (speaker), Slim Jackson (speaker), Megan/Morgan Malinga , Joseph Rydendale , Captain Linnaeus Rydendale
Related Symbols: The Greenfields Farmhouse
Page Number: 368
Explanation and Analysis: