Behold the State I'm In begins a series of allegorical novels that chronicle the lives of the Christianson family - Patience, Temperance, Goodness, Sister, Soldier, Heart, and Ernest. God's presence in the book through His Word and through the main character, Patience, who fights to cleave to Him, opens new territory in the story of the migration of many African-Americans northward. The unfolding of Patience's life-her grim determination to escape the evil of her father's wife Mumzy, the flowering of her love of God in marriage with Will B. Done, and her confrontation with injustice and cruelty-becomes both a spiritual parable and a profound and enriching glimpse into a human soul.