Group 2

In the last journey of Plum Bun we as the readers began to delve deeper into Angela’s life in the realms of “passing”. A few of the themes that were thrown around in our group were those of: loneliness, maturity, and also the theme of accepting ones truth. These three themes played a big role in how the plot unraveled within the novel, and ultimately added a dramatic twist that held our attention.

·         Lonliness

The main thing that stuck out to me was that Angela was simply lonely in this section. When “passing”, at the end of the day, she really didn’t have anyone and her life was empty. The life that she thought would be made full and complete by passing was actually void of all the things that made life good, like friends and family. It came back to bite Angela, because “Jinny had changed her life and been successful” (p. 245) as a black woman, where Angela had only found “despair” (p. 241) when passing for a white woman.

Though Angela is the only one to blame for her actions of leaving her family and community, I don’t think she should be shunned. I also don’t think anger is the 100% best reaction to have towards her, because the true shame in this situation is that she lives in a society where she would have to be faced with the option to pass. As I said in class, “don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Although that is a very casual way to explain such a complex situation, it is true that the real shame lies in the racist society. The shame does not rest on Angela, ultimately.

·         Maturity

In this section I noticed maturation in Angela, not only in her growth as an adult but her growth racially and socially. In previous sections of Plum Bun, Angela expresses no desire to be a part of the black community. Her actions of passing were still as they were in her childhood days, because she has no understanding of why passing is wrong. For example, Angela’s mother passes, but she never denied her black community, and she deeply regretted ignoring her noticeably black husband and daughter in public. As Angela matures she understands the negative consequences that come with passing, secrecy and loneliness. Angela also matures in society as a woman. Previously, Angela would leap at the proposal of marriage with Roger; however, she denies him and the idea that marriage is solely to improve her power in society.

·         Accepting ones truth

Throughout this section, Angela finally decided to come to terms with her own truth after seeing how Anthony was able to openly speak about his. She took that as a model to follow and a stepping stone to not only accepting who she is but taking the risk in seeing who else would accept her for Angela and not Angele. She begins to consider an active life within the Harlem community, and think past the restrictedness of it, thinking about how she could still thrive as an artist. She makes new acquaintances that she finds are more accepting to the idea of a “mixed breeds”. Angela also takes more initiatives to be around her sister and her new friends, although it was for self-gain originally, she ended up really remembering the value of: love, family, morals, and her sister specifically.