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Brown Eyes versus Blue Eyes
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Caste, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Caste, Race, and Social Division in the U.S.
Caste as a Global Problem
How Caste Sustains Itself
The Costs of Caste
Summary
Analysis
In December of 2017, Isabel Wilkerson arrived in London to attend a conference on caste. At the convention center, she noticed that there was no one else of African descent in the audience. She had come to study the caste system in India—and she was hoping that after the successful publication of her first book, she would be recognized as a legitimate scholar and a “well-spoken and focused” person. But when she approached an Indian woman whom she could tell was upper-caste and asked for a packet of papers that had been presented earlier that morning, the woman questioned why Wilkerson needed a copy and refused to give her the materials.
This passage shows that even between different caste systems from different parts of the world, social hierarchies can define people’s relationships and their treatment of others. It doesn’t matter than in India, Black people aren’t a part of their caste system—this upper-caste woman was taught that she was superior, and she likely knew that in Wilkerson’s home country, Wilkerson was a member of the subordinate caste and could be treated as such.
Themes
At lunch, Wilkerson sat next to an Indian man who was sitting alone. They began talking, and he told her that his name was Tushar and that he belonged to the second-highest caste—the warrior-soldier caste. Wilkerson was intrigued by Tushar’s bookish appearance and felt struck by the phenomenon of “miscasting” that caste creates. Tushar continued to tell Wilkerson about how growing up in India, he’d felt moved to help members of the lower castes he saw struggling on the streets—but he was always told to stay in his place and ignore their plight because “caste [was] created by God.”
This passage highlights the tensions that emerge when outdated caste hierarchies continue to define modern-day people’s lives. Though Tushar would never be considered a fit warrior or soldier, he felt constrained to operate within the bounds of his caste because of the “pillar” of divine will. Once again, the book is showing that caste is entirely arbitrary and often absurd.
Themes
When Tushar asked Wilkerson what caste she belonged to in the U.S., she told him that she was an “American Dalit”—but that she was living proof of caste’s arbitrary nature and artificiality. The two continued to trade stories of their heartbreaking experiences bearing witness to their countries’ respective caste systems. Each of them was miscast, meaning that they had defied their caste assignments and refused the definitions thrust onto them at birth.
Just as Tushar proved the irrelevance of his own caste system, Wilkerson, too, proved that the U.S. caste system could be overcome and perhaps even dismantled. By learning from each other’s upbringing in their respective caste systems, Tushar and Wilkerson were both able to see their own “miscasting” in a new light and better understand the arbitrary, ridiculous nature of caste.
Themes
