Caucasia may not be the happiest of novels, but the truth it does hold. Caucasia, created by Danzy Senna, is about a girl, Birdie, whose world keeps rapidly changing. She and her sister, Cole, are half black and white, while she looks white, and Cole looks black. They are taken to a school which is entirely black, and Birdie doesn’t fit in at all. Later Sandy, Birdie mother, takes her away to find a place safe from the “Feds”. Her appearance here in NH was ideal, and she fit in as much as Cole did in their old town. Deck Lee, Birdie’s father, and her new father Jim, have two very different feels to them, and give her a different taste of two different environments. These characters set out a figurative “Yellow Brick Road”, because they guide …show more content…
At this stage of the book it is unclear who the protagonist really is, or maybe they’re both protagonists? However it’s soon revealed at their new school that Cole is only mentioned as doing fine and fitting in, even a bit popular. However, Birdie is focused on being bullied, and not fitting in with anyone. It is not just school though, everyone in town is mostly black, and this makes Birdie believe she’s a very light black, and that black is beauty, possibly to be a part of her sister’s world that she desperately wanted to be a part of. This gets confusing when she moves away. Now everybody is mostly white and they accept her. Senna even adds a new “Birdie”, with a girl whose black/white, but looks black. She doesn’t fit in at all, and Birdie at first doesn’t make it easier for her. She starts fearing that if she keeps this up, she’ll turn white on the inside, and that is the last thing she wants. So first she keeps a box filled with her black heritage, and then she apologizes to the new girl and tells her secret to her. The only reason they moved was so Sandy would be safe from the “Feds”, or the …show more content…
Deck can’t handle all of the paranoia that Sandy has, so they divorce, and he gets a new girlfriend. She loves Cole, but cannot stand the sight of Birdie, causing her to see Cole as white which to her is horrible. This becomes the nail in the coffin that Birdie and Deck will never have a healthy relationship. Jim starts dating Sandy after the separation and acts more caring to Jim, possibly because of her skin color. However it’s not Deck’s fault more or less; when she and him were alone, police were called about him “abducting her”, making a bit of society not accepting their mixed