Celia has the opportunity to torpedo the mayor’s career but she chooses not to. Why do you suppose she refrained? What do you think the consequences might have been if she’d proceeded? What do you think you might have done in her place?
I think Celia was incredibly naive thinking her baby’s father would return, and that she saved his father’s career so as not to hurt him. On top of that, they knew her secret as well, so she - and Pearl - would no longer be able to pass as white.
In her place I think I would have too angry to have refrained and would have broadcast my baby’s parentage, and damn the consequences.
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I think she would have “lost.” She was below their station in the hierarchy of social classes.
I think it was a combination of two things. (1) It showed a lot about her character in taking the high road, especially after what he and that family did to her. (2) I agree about her social standing impacting her decision. Even with proof, it would have been a challenge coming from a woman and of a lower socio-economic background.
She was in a no-win position–there’s no way anyone would have believed her.
Celia was a very intelligent woman who understood the ramifications of such an undertaking. She was not willing to do anything that would harm her daughter’s ability to make it in the world they lived in.
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I think she refrained because the consequences were too great. She would have been sent away and discredited. She also did not want to hurt Pearl’s chances of being acknowledged by the Bettencourt family in the future.
I think she realized that she could not buck the system. Shealso was naive.
There was no way Celia would win a fight against the mayor. Better not to engage.
I wonder if Celia was also worried that the mayor might take his anger out on
the women she lived with too? They had become her “family” and friends.
The Bettencourts would have savaged her, denied her claims, and perhaps would have had her killed. They would not have accepted a half Chinese child into the family.
All of the above rings true for me, too.
I think Celia was a romantic. She still believed Stephen would return to her so she didn’t want to destroy his family