The Role of Mary Whitney

I believe that Grace is incredibly strong-willed for dealing with her incarceration and the rumors created about her guilt. However, I think that she gained many of her positive attributes from the influence of Mary Whitney.
When Grace begins working at the Parkinson’s, she meets her friend and confidant, Mary. Mary serves as a guide and protector, acting with a maternal instinct towards Grace. After Mrs. Marks dies on the journey to Canada, Grace was left without a strong female figure in her life. She even says in the novel, “Mary too me under her wing from the very first.” Mary gives her physical care such as clothes and food but also provides as emotional support. She shares her “wisdom” with Grace about their duties of the house. Mary advises Grace that she “should remember that [they] were not slaves, and being a servant was not as thing [they] were born to, nor would [they] be forced to continue at it forever; it was just a job of work.”
Another crucial fact about the friendship between Mary Whitney and Grace Marks occurs after Mary’s untimely death. Grace had to make the decision whether or not to wrap her mother’s body in their family’s finest sheet, and she chose not to. When Mary died, Grace devoted her wage to giving her friend the nicest funeral she possibly could. This parallel shows how Grace chooses to pay her respects to the women who influenced her life. Since she was unable to give her mother the amount of reverence she deserved, Grace was able to pay tribute to Mary Whitney and gain her own sense of closure.