The protagonist Emma Lou in The Blacker The Berry is a character diluted by the same vices and same inconsistencies as the character of Irene in Passing. Emma Lou is impressionable, vulnerable, and incredibly self-conscious, both physically and emotionally. Starting from the inception of the novel, Emma Lou is characterized by the phenotypical connotations associated with her skin color, “..Emma Lou began to feel that her luscious black complexion was somewhat of a liability, and that her marked color variation from the other people in her environment was a decided curse” (1). The demographic breakdown in Boise is primarily white, and the social climate there is indicative of that, “But why did the people in the audience have to stare so? Didn’t they all know that Emma Lou Morgan was Boise high school’s only nigger student?” (12).
Furthermore, Emma Lou is incredibly biased in how she sees the world because she enforces the racial standards that she is forced to abide by in how she analyzes someone’s character. For the entirety of her life, Emma Lou follows the maxim that “lighter is better” and that the opportunities that lighter-skinned black women receive are exponentially higher than darker-skinned alternatives. From her mother claiming that even dark-skinned boys experience better lives than dark-skinned girls to the debate at the rend party between mulattos and Negros to even Braxton’s affirmation that “the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice,” the social context that surrounds Emma’s life demands that dark is a curse and light is a blessing. This is exemplified in Emma Lou’s interaction with Hazel when she first arrives at USC. Emma Lou is immediately critical of Hazel; the vernacular and informal gestures that Hazel uses makes Emma Lou view her as a lower class black, “And Emma Lou had climbed aboard, perplexed, chagrined, thoroughly angry, and disgusted…All Hazel needed to complete her circus-like appearance…was to have some purple feathers stuck in her hat” (39). The critical nature in Emma Lou’s impression of Hazel amplifies the subjectivity in her perspective of the story. Although later on her impression is validated by the rest of the sorority girls on campus, Emma Lou remains flawed in how she perceives others, once again due to her heavy reliance on judgement based on color.
In addition, Thurman provides an entire chapter solely on Alva because of his treatment of Emma Lou that differs from the rest of her interactions. Alva’s introduction to the novel begins with his invitation of Emma Lou to dance at the cabaret. In Emma Lou’s eyes, Alva is the suitor that she has been looking for: compatible, charming, and light-skinned due to his mixed descent (half-mulatto, half-Filipino). However, when discussing his encounter with Emma Lou with Braxton, Alva is insistent that he was only doing her a favor and is only using her for sex. However, this evaluation is later changed when Alva is left by Geraldine and even Emma Lou rebukes him as a suitor. In the end, the ironic twist of Alva as a player versus Alva as a father shows the fact that gender does not outweigh the darkness of one’s skin.
