Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of rape, sexual abuse, and prejudice.

Cussy Mary, also known as “Bluet” and “Widow Frazier,” is the 19-year-old protagonist and narrator of the novel. Cussy Mary has “blue-jay blue” skin and lips (7); these are later revealed to be due to a rare genetic disorder. Though people in the community assume that she is from an inbred family, she describes her diverse background: Her great-grandfather came from France and settled in the Kentucky hills, “wedding himself a full-blooded white Kentuckian” (8). Her name derives from the village in France where her great-grandmother was born. She considers herself the last Blue of Kentucky, until the birth of Honey proves that she was not the last.

Cussy Mary is primarily characterized by her desire for independence and the larger world. This desire shows up immediately in her chosen profession, as a traveling librarian for the WPA, at a time when many women did not work. In fact, her father’s desire for her to become respectable by getting married is one of the primary conflicts in the book. Cussy Mary does not wish to give up her work or her independence, particularly after her initial, short-lived marriage to the violent Charlie Frazier.