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Chapter 10
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Vanishing Half, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race and Identity
Loss, Memory, and Inheritance
Companionship, Support, and Independence
Class and Privilege
Summary
Analysis
In the months after Loretta and her family moved away, Stella was depressed. The feeling was similar to the one she experienced when she first parted ways with Desiree. Blake noticed her sadness and urged her to do something to distract herself, thinking that maybe she’d like to take a class. She ended up going back to school, completing her GED, and enrolling in college. She studied statistics and has recently taken a job as an adjunct instructor at Santa Monica College—something that Blake isn’t too happy about, since he originally thought she was just going to take a flower-arranging class. They now fight quite often about the time she spends away from home because of her new job.
Blake’s disapproval of Stella working as an adjunct professor underscores his lack of support when it comes to Stella cultivating a sense of independence within their marriage. In reality, Stella is a fiercely independent person, as made quite clear by the fact that she decided to abandon her previous life in order to go her own way—but Blake doesn’t know anything about that, so he sees her as a dependent person.
Themes
Stella takes Kennedy to lunch one day with the intention of gently persuading her to go back to school. Kennedy had been enrolled at the University of Southern California, but she quit in order to pursue an acting career. The only reason she got into USC in the first place was because Blake and Stella made a sizable donation to the school. Still, she didn’t seize the opportunity to make the best of her education. Instead, she got caught smoking marijuana in her dorm room, which bothered Stella not because her daughter was using marijuana, but because she was careless enough to get caught. Kennedy has no idea, Stella sometimes thinks, how much her mother sacrificed to give her the opportunities she’s had.
It’s evident that Kennedy doesn’t think much about her own privilege. She has led a very fortunate life, in which many opportunities have been available to her, but she simply does whatever she wants. Whereas Stella would never let herself get caught doing anything that might jeopardize a college career, Kennedy doesn’t think that way: for her, opportunity is so commonplace that she doesn’t mind taking risks that might threaten her chances of success. The contrast between her carelessness and Stella’s own sacrifices is a good illustration that it’s all too easy for white people to take their own prosperity for granted.
Themes
At lunch, Stella and Kennedy argue about whether or not Kennedy should return to school. Stella insists that she could easily pick back up where she left off, even though Kennedy was on academic probation before leaving school. Kennedy, for her part, is upset that her mother only cares about making sure she gets a college degree. She tells Stella that college isn’t right for everybody, but Stella doesn’t listen. Finally, Stella hisses that she sacrificed too much for Kennedy to just drop out of school, but Kennedy says it’s not her fault that Stella grew up without any money. As she yells at her mother, a Black waiter comes to refill their water, and the two women go silent. When the waiter leaves, Stella tells her daughter to lower her voice.
Kennedy doesn’t know about her mother’s past, thinking that Stella simply grew up without much money. She therefore doesn’t understand what her mother sacrificed in order to build a life in which her daughter could go to college. It makes sense that Stella is upset to see Kennedy squander the opportunity to become a college graduate, but it's also worth noting that, because she has never communicated openly and honestly with Kennedy about her past, it’s somewhat unreasonable for her to expect Kennedy to understand why, exactly, the topic upsets her so much.
Themes
