Would things have played out differently for Sylvan and Claudie if they had been men?

Do you think things would have played out differently for Sylvan and Claudie had they been men?

I kept wondering about this as I read the book. Would the opportunities for Sylvan and Claudie been more varied and diverse? Would they have been able to make their own lives -- especially Sylvan? To her credit, Claudie does manage pretty well without a man but I think she might have had more choices even if she were a black man than a black woman.

I don't think so. They are from different worlds, different walks of life which made a big difference in Brownsburg. One of them was an employer and had money, and the other one was an employee and did not have money. They needed each other in a sense, but they were both loners by nature.

That's certainly true, Terri! yet a part of me wonders what would have happened to Sylvan if she had been born a man? Would she have been "sold off" as a liability? Would her life be so controlled and manipulated? Even in a small town like Brownsburg, I think she would have had more opportunities to break free as it were, if she had been a man. Claudie's situation is complicated by race. I am not sure she would have had that many more opportunities as a black man than as a black woman. In fact, I suspect she probably "got away" with more precisely because she was a black woman. Did anybody else think so?

Then there wouldn't have been a story......