Thursday, January 8, 2009

Caucasia Motif

At first this book was difficult to get involved in, but once i passed page 20, it just flew by. Even though i'm not able to say i've been labeled by my race, i'm able to understand how Cole, Birdie, and their parents feel. They're faced with racism in the grovery store, at Dot's party, and especially at school. It seems more difficult for Birdie and Cole because their parents were an interacial couple. You either had to be all black or all white. The family seems to be torn apart by all of this and can't function normaly. When Birdie and Deck went to the park, they were harrassed because people couldn't accept that there might be a black man with a white daughter. Birdie is realizing race because she's stuck inbetween it all. She gets made fun of from both races.

The Motif that stands out most in my mind, and whenever i'm reading, is hair. It's everywhere in that book! pretty much every chapter has some comment or story about it. Deck's afro, Cole's cornrows, Birdie's straight smooth hair, and Sandy's blonde hair that she always curls in her fingers through it. When Sandy gave Cole the locket for her birthday, all three girls of the family put a strand of hair in it. Cole's was wirey, Birdies was smooth, and Sandy's was long and blonde. It's the authors way of showing race in a different way besides names or the color of these people's skin. And even though there are so many differences in the appearance of different races, if they treat each other like equals, it's not impossible to get along as most people back then thought.

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