Discussion & Reflection

Similar to Irene in “Passing,” Emma Lou in “The Blacker the Berry” is an unreliable narrator because of her bias and view points toward certain people and situations.

For example, Alva clearly does not have very strong feelings for Emma Lou, is relatively lazy in his decision to not work summers because “it was far too hot” (Thurman, 105), and freeloads off of Emma Lou because she is blinded by love and willing to give him money. But Emma Lou excuses his lax and lazy personality by agreeing that “there was no sense in working in the summer” (Thurman, 106).

However, when she talks about Alva’s roommate Braxton, she views him as a lazy and conceited person, even though Alva is very similar in his action in terms of his lack of work and using other women for monetary benefits.

Moreover, Emma Lou can be viewed as an unreliable narrator due to the way that she views all of the people that Alva introduces her to. It becomes clear that she is paranoid that everyone is out to “make fun of” (Thurman, 116) her and make her feel bad. However, all Alva’s friends did was discuss the problems of intra racial discrimination in a lighthearted manner.

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.

Emma Lou constantly misunderstands the situations and people around her. Of course, she is hardly alone in this. The Blacker the Berry is chalk full of people who don’t understand each other; in fact, it is not clear that anyone ever really does. However, some are worse at it then others, and Emma Lou certainly belongs to the former category, at least until the final few pages of the book.

To me, the most interesting instances of Emma Lou’s lack of understanding regard her love life. She has no understanding of Weldon’s reasons for being with her, and she misinterprets the cause of his departure. Of course, she cannot entirely be blamed for this, as he keeps his motives from her, and tells her only what she wants to hear. However, her assumption that he feels comfortable leaving her because of her color is problematic. It puts the blame on her skin, something she cannot help. Her assumption that she has been discriminated against is not such an issue in this case. It may, in fact, be more comforting then the truth, that she is only one of a string of lovers. However, in other cases, her race consciousness is more serious.

Much later in the book, Emma Lou’s assumption that any color is better then her black skin leads her to use gimmicky products which have a mostly negative affect on her, making her look “Purple.” In her phase as a teacher, she feels isolated by the rest of the staff, and assumes this is because of her skin. However, the reader learns that it is really because she keeps to herself, and doesn’t try to get to know them, and because her “Lightening Products” make her look eccentric and intimidating. Her feelings cause her to isolate herself even more, leading her colleagues to avoid an apparently fragile person. They are to blame for not approaching her personally, but she also interprets their note as a sarcastic joke about her color, and she isolates herself even more. Thus, her lack of understanding increases her self isolation, and when the other teachers respond by avoiding her, she assumes the problem is her skin color, which, again, she cannot change.

 

The anxieties of Emma Lou in the opening of The Blacker the Berry mirror those of Irene in Passing. The thing that sets these two women apart is that Irene is passing and Emma Lou is not. Both novels show the experience of a black person living among white people and its effect of it on them emotionally and psychologically. The fact that both novels are narrated by these women gives the reader an inside look into what goes on in their heads. As unreliable narrators they show the ups and downs of living among white people. In the beginning of Passing, Clare simply taking notice of Irene was enough to induce a feeling of paranoia in her. Before she realized it was Claire she was scared that she had been tagged as negro despite her effort to pass as white. This content worry of being noticed and standing out because of the color of your skin can have substantial effects on a person emotionally. This is apparent in The Blacker the Berry as well. It begins with Emma Lou sitting at graduation waiting to receive her diploma. There a sense of resentment that she feels toward the color of her skin. The relationship that both these women have with their skin color is complicated. It is not the actual color of their skin that they resent; it is how their race effects their place in society. As a white person if is sometimes hard to relate to these feelings. She is “the only negro pupil in the entire school”. Naturally this causes people to treat her differently. It creates a constant struggle for her as she interacts with her peers. She worries more about what people think of her rather than just being able to live her life and be able to be treated the way she wants.

From the beginning of The Blacker the Berry, Emma Lou walks us through the color spectrum that she perceives makes a black person less likable or fitting than another. In other words, the darker someone in, the less respected they should be, and vice-versa. Both the novels take the view of the female protagonists – Emma Lou in the Blacker the Berry and Irene in Passing. In many respects, they are similar in the way they hold themselves or judge the people around them. But what is it about them that makes them seem to be unreliable?

For starters, readers are only able to gather what they learn through Emma Lou or Irene. In Emma’s case, we see the dynamic of her life to be centered around the color spectrum that she envisions. Beginning with how her colleagues mocked her because of her skin color, Emma Lou takes this and exacerbates it. It makes every destructive moment of her life be blamed on by her skin tone.

Irene is similar in the sense that she is blameful too. While skin color is less the factor for her fall-out, regardless of the impact it has on the novel as a whole, she was more focused on pointing the finger at Clare. It’s clear that jealousy was a strong motive for Clare’s murder, but throughout the book, readers see the extreme actions Irene claims Clare has done. For example, Clare’s supposed affair with Irene’s husband, Brian.

Emma Lou are similar in their insecurities, self-consciousness, and in their judgment of peers. In both Nella Larsen’s Passing and Wallace Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry, these insecurities manifest themselves in unreliable narration. Furthermore, both novels use the unreliable narrative despite the use of the third person. The factual occurrences of racism that Emma experiences are portrayed objectively; however, this places the focus more on how these occurrences change her perspective on race and cause internal conflict.

After hearing students make derogatory comments about her skin color at USC, Emma’s lack of comfort in her physical appearance turns into the root cause of anything in life not going her way. It consumes her as her relationship with Weldon Taylor ends because he relocates—as Emma immediately attributes the end of this relationship to the color of her skin. A lack of comfort can be clearly recognized as a crippling insecurity when Emma assumes that a joke made during a play about dark-skinned girls was directed at her. The choice to use the third person clearly separates fact from personal view, while providing a strong commentary on the psychological consequences of racial prejudices.

Emma Lou, much life Irene, does give the narration of her story a subjective point of view. Just as Irene tries to make the readers sympathize with her stance on passing and racism, Emma Lou’s narration has several flaws in remaining objective. Since we are seeing the story through an unreliable narrator, Emma Lou’s upbringing is imbedded into the story throughout. She grew up believing that having lighter complexion is desirable. Her entire family, other than Joe, sees themselves as higher or superior compared than their black ancestors. She rejected two relationships on the basis that the other person was too dark skinned. In the end, she remained with Alva in an abusive relationship because he had fairer skin. I found that Emma Lou did not embrace her heritage as Irene did (on the surface).

This held me back from relating to her and rooting for her. Although I knew she was a product of her society, I couldn’t help but wish that she would stand up for herself and learn to love her roots. As Irene did. Of course, I too, am a product of my own society. I grew up to believe that we should embrace all cultures and fight for human rights, so I am judging Emma Lou harshly for her actions. From my point of view, it is natural for me to connect with Irene, who is having an internal struggle but overall wants to be proud of her heritage, as opposed to Emma Lou, who has no intention of associating herself with her ancestors.

-Not Seeing Past Skin Color

From the beginning of The Blacker The Berry, there were great similarities to Larsen’s Passing. Irene Redfield and Emma Lou are both the main voices in the novel. The readers only hear one side of every story and this is what they must trust. This makes the narration very unreliable and quite deceiving. One characteristic about Irene Redfield that I noticed in Emma is the judgmental thinking. Irene judged everyone and everything that surrounded her and Emma does the same in this novel. The narration of this novel allows us to get inside the protagonist’s head but it does not mean that this results in a reliable narration.

Similarities between Irene and Emma are very apparent throughout the rest of the novel as well. “Emma Lou was too powerless to resist”(p.20). This reminded me of Irene because she could not resist Clare in Passing. Also, Irene was easily influenced and discriminating towards others, which is seen in Emma Lou’s character. Emma Lou judges everyone around her by their skin color. What she chooses to believe solely depends on the person’s color. What she sees rarely goes beyond a person’s color. We see that Emma belittles everyone who is dark-skin before even getting to know them and often this is the rest of her experience with that person. This is shown in her relationship with Hazel and John. However, when a person is lighter-skinned, she treats the person a completely different way even if they do not treat her well. This is what makes everything Emma Lou unreliable. She simply does not see past the skin color because she resents her own skin color and this makes her an untrustworthy narrator.

Wallace Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry deals with the personal struggles a dark skinned girl faces with white people and with colored people. Emma Lou grew up in a family that discarded her as a disgrace just because her skin is darker than anyone else’s and even her own mother and grandmother used harsh chemicals to try and lighten her skin color. Her mindset has always been that she will never amount to as much as anyone else just because of her skin color. Even though she puts lighter skinned people above herself, she claims that she doesn’t, “mind being black, being a Negro necessitated having colored skin, but she did mind being too black” (21).  If not even her own race and her own family could accept her, how could she learn to accept herself?

Like Irene from Nella Larson’s Passing, Emma Lou is an unreliable protagonist. She never admits to herself that she hates being a dark skinned black girl and justifies her hatred towards other black people by saying they are just not educated at her level. This is evident in the scene where she meets Hazel at UCLA and immediately dismisses her because of her dark skin and the way she talks. Since the reader only sees how Hazel is through the eyes of Emma Lou, the reader is misinformed of what is true and what is not true.

After Emma Lou moves to Harlem, she meets John who quickly helps her with finding and home and showing her around the city. Although John only showed her the most kindness she’s ever received in her life, Emma Lou breaks up with him after two days because of his dark skin. When the light skinned Alva shows some interest in Emma Lou, she falls completely in love with him even though he is pretty much embarrassed of her and her dark skin. Emma Lou never truly realizes this and yet still continues to love him for mostly his light skin. She is hypocritical in her ways and racist to her own kind. That is why she is an unreliable protagonist.