A Year Down Yonder Themes

In A Year Down Yonder, Mary Alice has to leave one branch of her family (her mom, dad, and brother) to live with another (Grandma Dowdel). Even though she's still with family, the transition isn't...

When Mary Alice first arrives at Grandma Dowdel's house in A Year Down Yonder, she feels far away from her Chicago roots and homesick. She doesn't feel like she'll ever settle in—even the house f...

One trait that Mary Alice shares with her grandmother in A Year Down Yonder is that they're both pretty competitive ladies. Grandma Dowdel never lets anyone get the best of her—even the rich folk...

Beyond the straightforward romance that blossoms between Mary Alice and Royce, A Year Down Yonder is peppered throughout with stories of love. No, it's not directly expressed by any of the characte...

When A Year Down Yonder opens, Mary Alice is making the sacrifice of leaving her beloved Chicago and going to stay with her grandmother because her family is too poor to afford an apartment with tw...

In A Year Down Yonder, Mary Alice unflinchingly exposes readers to the harsh realities of the recession, and how it affects the people in her life. We know how hard up the Dowdel family is from the...

The main characters in A Year Down Yonder are women to be reckoned with—Mary Alice Dowdel and her larger-than-life grandmother, Grandma Dowdel. Though the story takes place in the late 1930s and...

Mary Alice Dowdel is fifteen years old when she goes to live with her Grandma Dowdel in A Year Down Yonder. In other words, she's primed for some serious teenage angst. Being in the middle of this...

Despite the fact that she can sometimes bend the rules to suit her own way, Grandma Dowdel in A Year Down Yonder is a woman who sticks to her moral code and principles. She may not be a terribly re...

When Mary Alice Dowdel comes to live with her grandmother in A Year Down Yonder, she's an outsider in this small town. The other kids at school consider her a "Chicago girl," and snub her because t...