Not Without Laughter · Character

Tempy

Sandy's proper aunt, married to a mail clerk with property, who has climbed so far she barely visits her own family.

supporting

Also known as Aunt Tempy

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Tempy collects rents, buys houses, and measures her distance from the washtubs and back doors of her mother's world. Harriett sneers that when niggers get up in the world they act just like white folks, and Tempy is the proof she offers. Her respectability is both an achievement and a wound, and her occasional appearances remind Sandy that the family's story is also about the price of getting out.

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Character Web

24 connections

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Relationship types

Other

Character groups

Core family and close community
Protagonist

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Falling action.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

The emotional and psychological peak occurs when Wim Dogberry’s profound shame over wetting the bed drives him…

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In the story

Tempy appears across 11 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

Storm
Tempy is mentioned as being safe after the storm, according to Aunt Hager's conversation.
Note to Harriett
Takes charge of the household after Hager falls ill; sends Sandy to deliver a note to Harriett and to send a telegram to Annjee.
Beyond the Jordan
Organizes the funeral and takes charge of Sandy; writes to Annjee about Hager's death.
Tempy's House
Tempy is Sandy's aunt and new guardian. She is obsessed with respectability, social status, and distancing herself from her family's past. She admires white culture, rejects blues and spirituals, and insists on proper speech and behavior. She manages her own and her husband's rental properties and takes pride in being the only colored woman with a charge account at Wertheimer's.
A Shelf of Books
Tempy provides Sandy with books, encourages his education, and buys him a long-trouser suit when he enters high school. She disapproves of Booker T. Washington and admires Du Bois.
Pool Hall
Mentioned as being away at a convention of the Midwest Colored Women's Clubs, allowing Sandy freedom to visit the pool hall.
XXVI: The Doors of Life
Tempy is busy with Red Cross and Liberty Bond clubs, believing the war will bring democracy and better race relations. She scolds Sandy for his late hours and lack of reading, and gives him a book called 'The Doors of Life'.
XXVII: Beware of Women
Sandy's aunt who advises him to stop seeing Pansetta; Sandy later resents her interference.
Chicago
Sandy's aunt who packed his lunch and expressed concern about Chicago's influence on him.
Elevator
Referenced as having a house Sandy admires, but he rejects her husband's dullness and shame about being colored.
Princess of the Blues
Mentioned by Harriett as having behaved coldly after Aunt Hager's funeral.

Chapter companion notes

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