A Painted House

Content Warning: This section of the guide describes the source text’s depiction of sexism, ableism, classism, and racism.

Luke and Pappy head into town to hire Mexican workers and Ozark “hill people” to help harvest their farm’s cotton. While in town, Luke goes to the grocer, a woman named Pearl, and buys himself the rare treat of a Tootsie Roll. The Mexican workers have not yet arrived in town, so Pappy and Luke drive on to Jonesboro where they can find “hill people,” Pappy meets a man named Leon Spruill, who, along with his family, is looking to be hired to pick cotton. While the men haggle over wages, Luke meets some of the Spruill children—the beautiful Tally and her brother Trot, who has a physical disability and is also neurodivergent.

Luke and Pappy return to Black Oak. Pearl and Luke are distressed when the Mexican workers arrive in a cattle trailer; they had been told that this year the Mexican workers would be brought by bus. Pappy negotiates the terms of the Mexican people’s labor with a man named Miguel, who acts as the group’s leader. The Mexican workers buy supplies from Pearl and then return to the farm with Pappy and Luke.