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Grace March is a complex figure—both a nurturing mentor and a secretive spy. How do these two sides of her character influence the women around her? Do you see her more as a unifying force or a source of tension?
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“Grace had a way of nudging everyone into helping each other, just by quietly pitching in until everyone else did too.” It’s the nurturing side of Grace and her friendship that allowed all the residents, except Arlene, to rally to Grace the Communist spy and vote to not have her arrested. Nora also points out that on the national side of things McCarthyism will erupt again against innocent people. I see Grace as more of a unifying force and Arlene as a source of tension.
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Absolutely, Grace is a unifying force in my view. She does, however, have create tension for some of the women, notably Arlene and Mrs. Nilsson! In that, I appreciate Grace’s ability to recognize where those women are selfish and mean-spirited and challenge them. I found her strategy to prevent Mrs. Nilsson from making the trip to the bake-off where Mrs. Nilsson would have belittled Lina and ruined the experience for the child very gratifying.
Grace as mentor is what I see in most of the story. Her life as a secretive spy came as a surprise to me. I suspect that experience and her life leading up to that point informed her sensitivity and empathy toward the other women. The Thursday suppers served to unify the residents of Briar House and their friends and neighbors. Ultimately, Grace reunited Pete and Lina with their dad.
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She’s initially a source of tension for Claire, Reka and Arlene who don’t entirely trust her or her motives at the beginning. But because of her skills and kindness she is able to turn their opinions around.
Like you point out Jane, Grace sure is able to expertly manoeuvre the difficult women isn’t she? I too loved her managing to exclude Mrs. Nilsson from the bake off. So glad she took care of that. I caught my breath when she knifed the man endangering Fliss. You see she has a deadly side – it makes her unpredictable. It was this incident that solidified my guess she was a spy. You’d think Fliss would be more wary of Grace after that but maybe she suffered a bit of shock afterwards because she accepts Grace’s explanation?
Overall, I think Grace’s training as a spy actually enabled her to be more of a nurturing mentor because she could use tactics to ingratiate herself and analyze the women and what was troubling them. She’s like this fairy godmother in the story in that she turns the women’s lives around. It’s almost like she instills her courage in them. So I agree she’s a unifying force.
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