Self-reinvention in The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Abstract

Abstract: The following paper makes a critical reading of The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett in addressing issues related to race, identity, colorism and psychology vis-à-vis Blacks within America’s social fabric. This paper aims to reveal that life choices operated by characters in this novel with regard to their racial identifications are political means through which they reinvent themselves and assert their identities. Finding themselves in a social environment where white hegemony is pronounced and blackness is considered subaltern, black characters in The Vanishing Half develop strategies to cope with these issues on their own terms. Thus, they proceed in re/defining their racial identity in succumbing, for some, to whiteness dynamics, evincing it through the preservation of their light complexion from any person with a darker skin tone, or again into passing over for white, or conversely for others, in standing their ground as they elect to accept their blackness and live in consequence. Keywords: Self-reinvention, Race, Identity, Colorism, Passing,