Rinthy Holme

Rinthy Holme is a nineteen-year-old woman in rural and rustic Appalachia around the turn of the century. She is not well educated and is socially isolated. When Culla tells her to talk to no strangers while he is gone, she responds that strangers are the only people in the world that she could talk to—she know no one. The story begins with Rinthy about to give birth in the remote and rustic cabin in the woods that she shares with her older brother, Culla. Rinthy defers to her brother in most cases as he is the man in the family. There is a reference to a father who died sometime ago. Her brother has no sympathy for her as she goes into labor. Rinthy begs for the help of a midwife, but Culla refuses to get her this assistance. He fears the midwife will "talk...