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In contrast to her twin, Stella Vignes is a calm, practical, studious child who often accepts the ways she’s duty-bound to her mother and her town. Because she is quieter than Desiree, she is a bit more difficult to know and is often overshadowed by her louder sister. Stella dreams of being a schoolteacher rather than an actress, a dream that’s thwarted when she has to leave school to help her family earn money. When Stella and Desiree witness their father’s lynching, it’s Stella who nearly cries out in terror, and in that moment, Desiree has the first inkling that her sister might be unknowable, that she might do something that Desiree couldn’t predict. Their father’s death is what sets into motion Stella’s impulse to separate from her sister. While Desiree convinces Stella to leave their mother and Mallard, it’s Stella who decides to disappear entirely, metaphorically killing her Black self to live her life as a white woman.
In passing as white, Stella finds herself filled with homesickness, fear of being discovered, and a profound sense of alienation. Though she believed that there was freedom in whiteness, her performance of whiteness in many ways constricts her life. She is unable to connect authentically with those closest to her—her daughter and her husband—and she longs for the life and sister she left behind. Stella often wields the power of white privilege as a means of protecting her false self, such as when she attempts to prevent the Black Walker family from moving into her neighborhood, when she accuses Reggie Walker of being inappropriate with her, and when she slights her niece Jude to her husband, Blake, in attempt to discredit her. These acts fill her with shame, but it’s these acts of betraying other Black people that make Stella truly feel white. After living as a white woman her entire adult life, Stella is unable to return to Mallard. While it was her sister who wanted to be an actress, Stella is the one who becomes stuck in a performance, one that costs her any chance of an authentic life.
