Tag: the blacker the berry

Wallace Thurman’s The Blacker The Berry describes the early adulthood of Emma Lou, a young African American woman from Boise, Idaho. Throughout the first two chapters of the novel, Thurman details Emma Lou’s move from Boise to Los Angeles for college and her move from Los Angeles to New York after dropping out of college. However, in the third part of the novel, Thurman switches the point of view of the novel to include Alva, a man who eventually runs into Emma Lou.

In the first two chapters of the novel, Emma Lou constantly reminds herself to become “friends with the right people.” In college, Emma Lou meets Hazel, a Southern African American woman who is immediately critiqued by Emma based on how she presents herself. In Harlem, she meets a man named John who helps her settle in Harlem by finding her an apartment. Like with Hazel, Emma Lou neglects forming a true friendship with John due to his dark skin tone. In part three, Emma Lou’s control over her friendship changes once she meets Alva.

Emma Lou meets Alva at a cabaret that she was invited to go to with Arline and her brother. After meeting Alva, Emma Lou becomes obsessed with him; she tries to look for him in Harlem every day. Eventually, the two reunite at a casino, but when Emma Lou asks Alva whether he remembers her or not, he responds by saying yes even though he does not remember her. The two end up dancing once again and begin seeing each other.

Emma Lou’s actions prior to getting together with Alva reflect on how she always wanted to please people who disregarded her because she thought they were “the right people.” Emma Lou, rather than focusing on making true friends, always wanted to make friends with people who had a lighter skin tone than herself. Alva’s treatment of Emma Lou draws parallels with how she treated John and Hazel. Rather than genuinely being friends with the two, Emma Lou to some extent manipulated them. John and Hazel were both under the spell that they were friends with Emma Lou whereas this was actually not the truth.

In part three, Emma Lou becomes infatuated with Alva, basically reaching the point where she wants to figure out where he is so she can “accidentally” run into him. Emma Lou becomes hypnotized by Alva because she finally finds a man lighter than her who seems interested in dating her. This relationship with Alva proves just how superficial Emma is since she would rather hunt down a man who she literally just met only because she believes he is “the right person” due to his skin tone.

Thurman dedicates one whole part to Alva to juxtapose how he actually sees her and how she longs for him. By showing this juxtaposition, Thurman connects Alva’s treatment of Emma Lou to Emma Lou’s treatment of both John and Hazel. Through this treatment, Thurman shows how Emma Lou longs for affection when it comes from someone who is lighter but views her as inferior rather than from someone who wants to aid her but Emma Lou views as inferior. Essentially, this section enforces the theme of the African American self-deprecation since Emma Lou falls for Alva’s external treatment towards her without knowing that he views her similarly to her classmates or the strangers who critique her skin tone. Basically, this section enforces the idea that Emma Lou only wants to be friends with people that help her status rather than people who can help her emotionally.

Wallace Thurman’s novel The Blacker the Berry deals with complex opinions regarding skin color and self worth. The protagonist Emma Lou constantly wishes that she wasn’t so dark-skinned, and she sees the misfortunes in her life as a result of her skin color. While it is troubling to read about Emma Lou’s self deprecation, her reasoning is understandable: she has grown up in a family and society that looks down upon her race, especially on dark-skinned women, and she finds no solace even when she leaves her hometown for a more diverse college setting. Emma Lou’s self consciousness about her skin color affects aspects of her social and romantic life, which leads to her unhealthy relationship with Alva.

The third chapter of The Blacker the Berry is a notable shift from the rest of the novel, as it introduces Alva, and is told from his point of view. Emma Lou’s relationship with Alva ends up taking over her life. She becomes attached to him because he is kind to her, and this newfound attention along with her negative views about her skin color bind her to this illusion. Emma Lou has constantly been taught that only light-skinned women are found to be more attractive and suitable to marry, so she somehow cannot let go of Alva despite his obvious manipulation and deceit. Alva is the source of many of Emma Lou’s bad decisions, but he ultimately leads to her realization at the end of the novel  as she gradually becomes more comfortable in her own skin.