In her review on The Last Silk Dress, Zena Sutherland states: "Ann Rinaldi, a novelist and newspaper columnist, uses Susan, the innocent adolescent, to convey a message about corruption and discrimination in Southern society."
Perhaps, more than anything else, The Last Silk Dress speaks to a human being's right to be treated decently. The white property holders and slave owners in Richmond appear, in this work, to be eaten alive by the very institution which they swear sustains them; and slavery breeds an inner moral corruption. It divides husband from wife and parents from children.
Susan's mother represents the unfeeling, callous South. She is all show and no heart. What often guides her behavior is her desire to appear a woman of high honor. In a way, she is like a character from a.....
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