Much of Lanesha’s character arc and subsequent coming-of-age experience results from her desire to live with fortitude, a vocabulary word from Miss Perry’s English class meaning “strength to endure.” She learns the word shortly before the storm. Lanesha loves words and learning new ones; she keeps a pocket dictionary with her so she can look up an unfamiliar word when she needs to. She’s excited to bring the new word “fortitude” home to Mama Ya-Ya and tell her about it. The focus on fortitude as a defined word, and especially as an applicable concept, strongly foreshadows the extent to which Lanesha is going to need every ounce of fortitude she can muster when the storm and flood hit.

For a while, as the forecasts get worse and the weatherman looks more and more unkempt and sweaty on TV, Lanesha allows fear and apprehension to win out over fortitude. On Saturday morning, she stays in bed with her algebra book to distract herself from what is coming; she then spends much of the day drawing bridges to self-comfort, in denial about everyone’s increasing nervousness. She becomes aggravated at the storm for hurting Mama Ya-Ya’s nerves, sleep, and dream-sense.