Caucasia: Shame & Silence

Upon reading pages 83-131 in Caucasia I found this section to be quite tragic and sad. What I seemed mostly drawn to were the words “shame”  ( the sisters constantly feeling ashamed) and silence. This is first seen in the first section when Deck mentions the word “ofay.” The girls seem to understand it when they remark “isnt mum ofay”, however they don’t understand because if their mother is white, why is daddy calling mommy a bad name? In this second section shame is understood by both Cole and Birdie as something bad; something far away from good, while “silence” is  not really understood, but frequented in the family. When Deck and Sandra split, Deck meets a light-skinned dark girl who is everything that Sandra isnt. Carmen knows how to braid and Cole really attaches herself quickly to her. Sandra on the other hand doesnt not know how to braid (or isn’t able to do the braid that “stick” to her head). Cole really identifies with Carmen and starts wearing African Head wraps like her. However, when Carmen meets Birdie, she treats her like “other”–”But Carmen seemed to have grown chillier toward me since we entered the diner. She didn’t make eye contact with me through the whole brunch, and spoke only to Cole and my father…” (Senna 90). Carmen is differentiating between Cole and Birdie, and because Cole is similar to Carmen, she favors her.

Silence seems to strike in this section with a vengeance in that questions about the visitors and the basement are never answered. Sandra becomes more disconnected with Cole, and as the distance increases, silence increases by ten–”Things unravel. Slowly. Without warning. We all had been going through out separate changes for awhile. Moving in different directions. My mother disappearing in to the basement. Cole disappearing into her adolescence. Me into my life with the Brown Sugars clique at Nkrumah” (Senna 91).  Carmen enhances the differences between the two girls and as the novel progresses they too become separated and begin to live up to the “differences” that everyone points out on a daily basis. This becomes relevant when Cole does not speak  in “Elemeno” as much. The sisters are taken away to separate places and Sandra does not seem bothered by leaving Cole and letting her go away to Brazil.  Brazil outlines the distance between the sisters and it’s really quite sad.

This book is deeep.

I like it.

Caucasia: Isolation

Upon reading pages 1-83 of Caucasia by Danzy Senna I found that the main theme that engulfed the first section is isolation. Sandra, Deck, Cole, and Birdie are very isolated in that they are a different or “other” family. Not only is this family isolated from the outside world, but they are isolated from each other. Cole is darker and takes after her father’s black side and Birdie takes after her mothers white side. Although Sandra and Deck make it obvious that the two are different by bludgeoning the girls with very different outlooks toward race—Sandra’s white influences and Deck’s black influences–The sisters plead deaf to that difference and embrace each other even more. The sisters form their own language (Elemeno) and even create an imagined nation. It seems that with Elemeno they have something that only Birdie and Cole can understand; something that Sandra, Deck, and even outsiders of the family will never understand or relate to–”When Cole and I were alone in our attic, speaking Elemeno and making cities out of stuff animals…we were the inside, the secret and fun make-believe, and that was where I wanted to stay” (Senna 7). This language seems like the only way Birdie and Cole stay connected and the way they keep themselves “alive” inside. What is interesting is that according to Birdie and Cole, the Elemenos are not only black and white, they are  interchangeable. The colors change from purple, green, yellow…etc. Now these children are young and it fascinates me that they understand that it shouldn’t matter what color or race you are. It is also sad that Cole and Birdies parents are simply confusing the girls not to mention outsiders they come in contact with everyday.

This novel is heavy on race and quite interesting….so far