The character of Clare Savage struggles to attain her identity and to gain the notion of home and belonging. She is torn between her dad’s “whiteness” and her mom’s “blackness.” Clare is of a lighter skin and can be considered white. However, “whiteness” in Jamaica is seen as complicit in terms of class socially and economically (20). Yet, accepting the advantage of having a lighter skin color in Jamaica also meant accepting injustice and social exclusion. Thus, Clare rejects this imposed identity and chooses to be black like what her mother Kitty Savage wanted her to be, which is depicted throughout her migration from Jamaica to America and to England. The novel clearly demonstrates the danger of social construction of “whiteness” because …show more content…
In this essay, I will demonstrate how Clare reclaims her true identity and the sense of belonging through migration to America and England. When Clare is growing up in America, her father, who is committed to be one of the Americans, tells her she is an American (102) and advises her to accept this imposed identity through blending in, self-effacement and invisibility: “the uses of camouflage” (100). This indicates that an identity is imposed to her without her willingness or full acceptance even though she can be regarded as one of the White Americans because of her lighter skin color. In addition, when her uncle writes to her, he never fails to tell that her home is England and not Jamaica (110); She has the opportunity to abandon Jamaica behind her and “by chance he meant light skin” (110). Clare’s sister …show more content…
Clare’s reading of the morning newspaper demonstrates the deciding point of her self-identity. Another significant event in the novel that justifies her self-identity is her confrontation with her dad, Boy. Her father says, “I suppose you have more feelings for niggers than for your own mother” (104). Clare disregards her father’s persuasion that she is white and utters, “My mother was a nigger”, “And so am I” (104). This is the moment where she has finally accepted her own identity that she wanted instead of the imposed identity. She voyages across Europe only to come back to Jamaica: “I returned to this island to mend … to bury … my mother … I returned to this island because there was nowhere else… I could live no longer in borrowed countries, on borrowed time” (192-193). This tells the readers that she has finally accepted who she is and has found the notion of home and belonging. Her ability to embrace her mixed racial heritage, which triggered a sense of alienation and lack of identification with her native Jamaica, American society or England, results into the realization that she can only achieve self-identity and a sense of belonging by means of acknowledging her “black” Jamaican roots. The novel ends by illustrating the identity Clare establishes for herself. She calls herself Jamaican but at the same time having “African, English and Carib” in her (189).
In the short story “Blackness” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator’s consciousness develops through a process of realization that she does not have to fully embrace the ideology imposed on her by the colonizers nor fully deny her authentic heritage. First, the narrator utilizes the metaphor, “blackness,” representing the colonization of her country that simultaneously envelops her own being. Her consciousness then is unaware of her own nature; she is in isolation and “all purpose… as if [she] were the single survivor of [her] species” (472). This annihilation of her ancient culture shows how “blackness” replaced her own culture with the ideology of the colonizers. Then, the narrator’s understanding shifts along with the influence of the colonizers
Lily’s idea of home is having loving parent/mother figures who can help guide her in life. Because of this desire, she leaves T. Ray and begins to search for her true identity. This quest for acceptance leads her to meet the Calendar Sisters. This “home” that she finds brightly displays the ideas of identity and feminine society. Though Lily could not find these attributes with T. Ray at the peach house, she eventually learns the truth behind her identity at the pink house, where she discovers the locus of identity that resides within herself and among the feminine community there. Just like in any coming-of-age story, Lily uncovers the true meaning of womanhood and her true self, allowing her to blossom among the feminine influence that surrounds her at the pink house. Lily finds acceptance among the Daughters of Mary, highlighting the larger meaning of acceptance and identity in the novel.
The novel The Garies and their Friends is a realistic examination of the complex psychology of blacks who try to assimilate through miscegenation and crossing the color barrier by “passing as white.” Frank J. Webb critiques why blacks cannot pass as being white through the characters Mr. Winston and Clarence Jr.
Clare struggles with her identity throughout this whole book. She knew how restricted the gender roles and norms were in the society she was growing up in, but that did not stop her. She was determined to gain power and independence because she did not like knowing that other people had power over her when she was just as capable as they were to perform and partake in certain actions. By Clare taking the gun and having the intention to kill the wild pig, she was trying to find her (agency-?) and identity while also challenging patriarchy. However, Clare’s actions made her parents and family question who she was and what she may be becoming.
Hodes article places itself in the theoretical framing of Fields, Holt, and Stoler to argue “the scrutiny of day-to-day lives demonstrates not only the mutability of race but also, and with equal force, the abiding power of race in local settings.” By examining Eunice’s day-to-day experience, Hodes seeks to show how even though the identifiability of race may change from place-to-place and period-to-period, the power of race to effect lives is not challenged. Eunice’s story is an interesting one to highlight the changing nature of race construction. After the death of Eunice’s first husband, she found herself forced to do work she previously saw as work of black women. This helps strengthen Hodes’ argument of the power of race because just as Eunice was forced to work these jobs to survive, so...
Although society advocates believing in a ‘sameness’ between people who are black or white, individuals are still organized by race, class, gender and sexuality into social hierarchies. These hierarchies essentially formulate stigmas that suppress certain races and discriminate against them. Caucasia written by Danzy Senna is focused around a young mixed girl, Birdie, who encounters obstacles in her life that help her form her own perceptions about issues regarding class, race, and sexuality. These obstacles fundamentally shape her to have a unique outlook on society where she begins to question white privilege and also sympathize towards the mistreatment of black individuals. Senna explores the fundamental problems that are associated with race, and the struggles that a diasporic individual faces due to the restrictions set by society. Although Birdie is a mix of both black and white, she is overlooked as a “white” girl, which has its fair share of benefits as well as hardships.
As much as race does not matter, it does. Morrison leaves out the race of Twyla and Roberta to inadvertently expose the role of learned racism in the world of “Recitatif.” Upon entering St. Bonny’s, Twyla is placed in a room with a girl from a completely different race and assesses the situation, “And Mary, that’s my mother, she was right. Every now and then she would stop dancing long enough to tell me something important and one of the things she said was that they never washed their hair and they smelled funny.” (Morrison 1). Twyla’s first observation of Roberta, her skin color, is immediately indicative of the environment she has lived in, as the basis for her racial
Lily interrogates the rift between blacks and whites, this time Tiburon. “Staying in a black house with black woman….it was not something I was against….I thought they could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white,” (Kidd 78). Lily is taken aback when August is so refine considering everything she determined about black women
Irene considers Clare to be "selfish, cold and hard" (Larsen 144). Irene also feels that Clare does not have "even the slightest artistic or sociological interest in the race that some members of other races displayed. [She] cared nothing of the race, she only belonged to it" (Larsen 182). Although there may be some truth to this statement, it does not diminish Clare's own pain at having to deny her African American heritage, and her desire to return to it. Irene represents a po...
Clare longs to be part of the black community again and throughout the book tries to integrate herself back into it while remaining part of white society. Although her mother is black, Clare has managed to pass as a white woman and gain the privileges that being a person of white skin color attains in her society. However whenever Clare is amongst black people, she has a sense of freedom she does not feel when within the white community. She feels a sense of community with them and feels integrated rather than isolated. When Clare visits Irene she mentions, “For I am lonely, so lonely… cannot help to be with you again, as I have never longed for anything before; you can’t know how in this pale life of mine I am all the time seeing the bright pictures of that other that I o...
Tragic mulatto characters such as Clare transport unforeseen horrors when they make the selfish decision to reinsert themselves back into the world they so desperately desired to flee. Larsen makes this point clear through the diction she uses when describing the self-esteem destruction Irene undergoes once Clare has reinserted herself into Irene's life, and the situations Irene finds herself as a direct result of Clare. Prior to Clare’s reentrance into her life Irene is a self-assured, independent, and confident woman; however, she soon turns self-conscious, dependent, and hesitant. Upon viewing Clare at the hotel Irene is struck by Clare’s ...
Fauset’s conduct concerning gender issues differs from Larsen’s. In Passing, it is obvious that Clare’s marriage to John is repressive. It may or may not mean to Larsen that marriage is, in the end, oppressive to the woman. However, it is clear that Larsen critiques women on, somewhat, deceiving themselves via devoting themselves to a marriage that stands broken and ultimately, overpowering. Clare’s marriage to John is very repressive, it ensures that her passing is a permanent act and prevents any chance of Clare being able to ultimately return to the black community or establish an identity. In contrast, Fauset zealously, encourages marriage. In Plum Bun, Angela, merely passing as white is unable to achieve social and financial success on her own, she also requires a white husband, “She was young, she was temporarily independent, she was intelligent, she was white. She remembered an expression ‘free, white and twenty-one,’—this was what it meant then, this sense of owning the world, this realization that other things being equal all things were possible… To accomplish this she must have money and influence; indeed, since she was so young, she would need even protection; perhaps it would be better to marry a white man. People would say ‘I’m going to have my portrait done by ‘Mory.’’ But all this would call for position, power, wealth. And again she said to herself… ‘I might marry—a white man. Marriage is the easiest way for a women to get those things, a white man have them” (Fauset 88, 111-112). Furthermore, one should stay aware of the fact that in Plum Bun, Fauset distinguishes that African Americans cherish marriage, whereas certain white characters, such as Paulette Lister and Roger Fielding endorse free love. As soon as Angela regrets and renounces her fling with Roger, and acquires a sense of financial independence when she immerses herself in her work, she then
A color can say more than a thousand words… In the story of Russell Banks ‘Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat’ there is a clear correlation between colors in the story description and their influence on the way we perceive the environment of the plot. Every color has an immediate effect and a gradual effect. The immediate effect depends on social experiences that the individual has lived, and the gradual effect is based on cognitive processes. The immediate effect that will have on us ‘readers’ is that we are going to relate those colors with our own experiences.
When Zora Hurston wrote this novel, she wanted to explain how a young women search for her own identity. This young woman would go through three relationships that took her to the end of the journey of a secure sense of independence. She wanted to find her own voice while in a relationship, but she also witnessed hate, pain, and love through the journey. When Logan Killicks came she witnessed the hate because he never connected physically or emotionally to her. Jody Starks, to what she assumed, as the ticket to freedom. What she did not know was the relationship came with control and pain. When she finally meets Tea Cake she was in love, but had to choose life over love in the end.
The novel follows the protagonist, Celie, as she experiences such hardships as racism and abuse, all the while attempting to discover her own sense of self-worth. Celie expresses herself through a series of private letters that are initially addressed to God, then later to her sister Nettie. As Celie develops from an adolescent into an adult, her letters possess m... ... middle of paper ... ... bservations of her situation and form an analysis of her own feelings.