Caucasia Study Guide

Caucasia

Caucasia by Danzy Senna

Beauty

Cole and Birdie encounter societal expectations of beauty during their beginning years at Nkrumah elementary school. Cole is made fun of for her dry knees, appearing dry and "ashy" to the other African American children. Sandy attempts to take care of Cole's hair by braiding it herself, ultimately failing. Eventually, Deck pays for Cole to go to a black hair salon. "Cole was splendid, ladylike, suddenly in a whole new league." Also when Birdie is in New Hampshire she has to learn to dress and put on make up like the other white girls in her school. Beauty in Caucasia is closely connected to the identity's of the characters and their culture. When Birdie and Cole learn about lotion, Birdie claims that she feels like she is a part of a secret club, aka black culture. Cole's nappy hair was looked down upon by neighbors on the street, because Cole was not following the beauty expectations of those in the black community. When Birdie starts to dress and mimic the white girls in her New Hampshire class she does so to be accepted and a part of the white community. In these ways beauty is closely intertwined with identity. and culture.

Beauty in this novel is addressed not just in terms of gender expectations, but in terms of racial issues as well. The intersectionality of gender and race is a clear theme in the novel, particularly within the context of beauty standards. Cole and Birdie are held to different beauty standards throughout the novel due to their differing appearances, specifically because Cole appears to be more black and Birdie appears to be more white. When Birdie and Cole attend the same school, one where the majority of students are black, Birdie is criticized for looking too white, and must struggle with the expectations held to her as a black girl who isn’t black enough. Later, once Cole and Birdie are separated from each other and Birdie is treated as a white girl, her individual struggle with appearance is made clear as, for example, her friends comment on the relative darkness of her skin in the sun. Birdie’s constant struggle with her race is directly tied to her physical appearance, and therefore to the societal beauty standards held to women, specifically those that are separately tied to white women and black women.

Senna also uses beauty to show how black female bodies are sexualized and criticized. Senna’s contrast of Samantha Taper and Birdie, now Jesse Goldman, exemplifies how black girl bodies are criticized and hyper-sexualized. While Birdie describes Samantha as having “deep-set eyes, caramel complexion…” and “full lips,” Birdie’s classmates mock her by calling her “Wilona,”“disgusting,” and “Brown Cow” because she has developed breasts (223). The white students referring to a young teenage girl as a grown black woman character shows how black girls are hyper-sexualized to the point where they are not seen as children. It isn’t until Samantha over-sexualizesherself at the beginning of high school that other students notice her. Even after her transformation Samantha receives critiques of seeking attention and looking like a hooker. Senna shows us how beauty standards are used to criticize black women.

Identity

Birdie's struggle with identity is central throughout the novel. Many people in Birdie's life try to assign her an identity based on her appearance. Carmen, Penelope, her classmates, and later on even Sandy deny Birdie's blackness and expect her to behave as if she was white. When Birdie and Sandy go undercover, Birdie herself is forced to deny her blackness in public. Living in a white New Hampshire town, Birdie's only connection to her blackness and her past is the box of Negrobilia gifted to her by Deck before he and Cole left for Brazil. When Birdie makes a trip to New York City and sees young black people dancing to hip-hop, it seems to motivate her to reconnect with her blackness, and after an encounter with Samantha, she decides to return to Boston to find Cole. It is not until she finally tracks down Cole in California that her fractured identity seems complete. Even Deck, a man who once claimed that no child of his could pass as white, dismisses Birdie's struggle for identity by saying that race does not exist.

Passing

In Caucasia, the identity category of race is presented by raising the question: Who is passing for what? Passing is a term associated to someone who is not legally White but passes as White, facilitating their ability to assimilate in White culture. In Caucasia, several characters experience a loss of racial identity and the denial of self with the intention of gaining social acceptance. While Cole denounces her White heritage and passes as Black and Sandy resists the idea of passing as a wasp, Birdie is one of the main characters who experiences a complete disassociation with anything that would indicate a connection to her blackness. Consequently, Birdie is able to pass as a Jewish after her mother forces both of them to runaway.

While the main character dealing with issues of passing is Birdie, Sandy also has her own issues with her white identity. While passing is typically associated with black people attempting to live as a white person to gain upward mobility, Sandy passes to escape her wealthy whiteness. She uses Deck and her children to remove herself from her privileged whiteness. Although Sandy attempted to use her family to escape her whiteness, they simply magnified it. Sandy’s inability to parent two black girls and to understand her black husband only reinforced her background that she tried to escape. Running to New Hampshire with Birdie not only allowed her to run from this imagined political threat, but allowed Sandy to restart her life as a white woman.

Language

In Caucasia, language is an important part of passing from one identity to another. When Birdie's dad, Deck, is around other African Americans he changes the way he talks from more academic to more of an African American Vernacular. However Language is not just words, but also can be customs, traditions, or acts. Birdie and Cole must learn the language of lotion and talking black, and getting their hair done in order to fit into black culture. Then when Birdie goes to New Hampshire she learns to become comfortable with the n-word. But she also learns to like rock or pretends to like rock instead of R&B and soul in order to fit in with the language of the white New Hampshire culture.

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