Quote 1

You were supposed to be safe in Mallard . . . hidden amongst your own. But even here, where nobody married dark, you were still colored and that meant that white men could kill you for refusing to die. The Vignes twins were reminders of this, tiny girls in funeral dresses who grew up without a daddy because white men decided that it would be so.

This passage occurs in Chapter Two of the novel, after Leon Vignes’s funeral. It comes just after a description of how Leon was nearly stabbed to death by racist white men while his daughters watched, and was then murdered by the same men while he lay recovering in a hospital bed. Throughout her life, Stella remembers how Desiree stayed close to her during the funeral and answered for Stella when someone spoke to her, as though they were a single person. Despite their bond, their father’s death is the reason Stella ended up leaving her sister. In Stella’s mind, becoming white will grant her freedom from fear and protection from the suffering and bewilderment of her father’s death.

This passage encapsulates the theme of white privilege and violence that is integral to the novel. Stella wonders again and again why her father was killed—a sentiment that is echoed later by Kennedy when she finds out about her grandfather’s murder. Desiree seems to have a preternatural grasp of the logic around her father’s death: there was no why, outside of the random, brutal will of racist white men. Stella spends her life trying to be a person who gets to decide what “would be so.” Stella’s deepest experiences of whiteness occur when she uses her perceived status as a fragile white woman as a weapon against Black people who she believes might pose a threat to the life she has built.

Quote 2

All there was to being white was acting like you were.

This line occurs in Chapter Three, as Desiree and Early search for Stella in New Orleans. They go into the Maison Blanche, the department store whose name means “white house.” In the past, Desiree once nervously entered the store knowing that she didn’t belong there because she is Black, and a security guard quickly asked her to leave. Early now coaches Desiree on playing the role of somebody who gets whatever they want: a white woman. When Desiree goes into the department store a second time, the only thing that has changed is her state of mind. As she pretends to be white, she is welcomed into the department store and is treated well by the store’s employees.

This sentence encompasses one of the central themes of the book: that whiteness is a performance, and there are no inherent traits or qualities linked to whiteness other than skin color. From speaking with certain intonation to being numb to Black suffering, whiteness is a collection of societally agreed-upon ideas that those in power decided were prerequisites for having power. Here, Desiree gets a taste of what Stella experiences her entire adult life: by changing the way she thinks about herself, she opens doors to privileges she has never had access to. The novel casts whiteness as an empty performance created to protect wealth, status, and a freedom that is predicated on Black suffering.

Quote 3

There were many ways to be alienated from someone, few to actually belong.

This line comes in Chapter Fourteen after Kennedy tries to tell Frantz that she is part Black. Frantz, looking at Kennedy’s white skin and blonde hair, thinks she is kidding, and the idea of Kennedy having Black heritage becomes a running joke in their relationship. Kennedy internalizes the truth of her heritage as a joke, because if it were true, it would mean she had gone through her whole life not knowing something fundamental about herself. Kennedy struggles to connect with others because of her self-absorption, but the root of her alienation seems to be a sense of foreignness as she grows up. Kenedy senses that something is missing, and she later traces this feeling and her alienation to her mother’s constant performance.

The novel explores many ways that people can be alienated from each other. Often, that alienation is the result of a character trying to protect themselves or playing a role that makes authenticity and connection impossible. Jude and Reese struggle with belonging in the beginning of their relationship as they both try to protect themselves. Jude has been taunted her entire life for her dark skin and hides herself when Reese tells her she is beautiful. Reese responds with anger when Jude attempts to see him without his binding on. Though they love each other, they struggle to find true belonging together. Happily, in the end, they are able to stand together in admiration and love of their fully revealed selves.