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Chapter 12
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
On the last night of the musical, Kennedy arrives early at the theater. She talks to Jude about what she’s going to do next in life, speaking frankly about her own insecurities. She has no idea what to do and isn’t even sure she’s a particularly good actor, but she could never admit this to her mother, since it would just confirm Stella’s misgivings about Kennedy becoming an actor. That night, Stella finally comes to see Kennedy’s show. Having spotted her, Jude follows her outside during intermission. Stella is smoking a cigarette and hardly notices Jude, but Jude introduces herself as Kennedy’s friend. She mentions that Kennedy said Stella was from Louisiana, and then she says that she herself is from Mallard. Stella looks surprised but says she’s never heard of Mallard.
It's unsurprising that Stella lies about having never heard of Mallard. She has spent decades doing everything in her power to separate herself from the town, so she’s certainly not going to just start talking about it with a stranger like Jude. Just as Reese predicted, then, reconnecting with Stella is most likely going to be quite difficult, since Stella doesn’t want to relive her past.
Themes
Jude tells Stella that her mother’s name is Desiree Vignes. Suddenly, Stella turns on her and demands to know who she really is—she doesn’t believe that Jude is really Desiree’s daughter, so she wants to know who sent her to say such outlandish things. Jude simply says that she wanted to meet Stella, but Stella responds by pointing out that Jude doesn’t look anything like Desiree. Jude then repeats several stories that only Desiree could have told her, explaining that Desiree returned to Mallard because her husband—Jude’s father—used to beat her. Hearing about her sister’s hardship softens Stella, though she can hardly believe that Desiree would have returned to Mallard.
Stella’s negative reaction here aligns with her overall unwillingness to reconnect with her past. She has, after all, spent many years doing whatever was necessary to cut herself off from her former life. Now, though, Jude leaves her with no choice but to face her past. When she hears that Desiree’s husband used to beat her, she can’t help but show some empathy for her twin sister. And yet, she’s clearly not ready to reconnect with Desiree or, for that matter, with Jude.
Themes
Stella asks if her mother is still alive, and Jude says that she is. She tells Stella that they could call Desiree and Adele right now, but Stella becomes defensive again, saying she has to go and that she couldn’t possibly “go back through that door” of her past life. Walking away from the theater, she vanishes down the dark street.
What Stella says might disappoint Jude, but it’s not altogether that surprising: Stella has worked very hard to create the life she currently leads, so reconnecting with her twin sister and her mother would be like going backward—it would be like reentering a “door” she thought she’d left behind once and for all.
Themes
After the show that night, Jude goes to the cast party at a nearby bar. Reese comes along and spends the evening taking pictures of the cast while Jude sits with Kennedy, who’s upset because she thinks her mother didn’t come to see her in the musical. She didn’t see Stella in the audience during the first half, so she feels insulted and angry. Jude, for her part, is upset that Stella turned away instead of wanting to reconnect with Desiree, though she knows she shouldn’t be surprised.
Kennedy’s disappointment about her mother not seeing her show is a direct consequence of Stella’s secrecy. Of course, Stella really did come to the musical, but she had to leave under mysterious circumstances, since Kennedy knows nothing about the fact that Jude is really Stella’s niece. In a way, then, Stella’s inability to tell her daughter about her past puts a strain on their relationship, causing her to act in ways that make Kennedy think she’s a removed, unsupportive mother.
Themes
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Jude wants to leave the cast party early. When Kennedy tries to get her to stay, she says that she can’t, adding that Reese is ready to go, too. Suddenly, Kennedy’s voice takes on an edge. She says that Jude is lucky because Black men like Reese usually like light-skinned women, not dark-skinned women like Jude. Rage washes over Jude, and she thinks about how Kennedy doesn’t even know what she’s saying—she doesn’t know, for instance, that she herself is a light-skinned Black woman. Unable to stop herself, she tells Kennedy the truth, informing her that Stella is her own mother’s twin sister. Kennedy just says that Jude is crazy, but Jude pushes on, saying before she leaves the bar that Stella has been lying to Kennedy for her entire life.
When Kennedy lashes out at Jude with a racist comment, it seems likely that she’s misplacing her anger—she’s upset at Stella, but she takes that anger out on Jude. Still, though, the mere fact that she says such an insensitive and bigoted thing to Jude suggests that Kennedy still has a racist way of looking at the world. She hasn’t, it seems, managed to rid herself of the racism that Stella herself instilled in her as a child when she used the n-word and told Kennedy not to play with Black children.
Themes
The next morning, Stella lies in bed thinking about Jude. Blake, who’s lying with his head on her chest, notices that her heart is beating fast. He asks what’s wrong, and she claims to have had a bad dream. She says she often dreams of men pulling her out of bed. She even starts to say that she saw something horrific when she was a child, but she starts crying before going on. Blake pulls her close and kisses her, and then they have passionate sex. Afterwards, Stella feels better and realizes that her life is pretty good—she had started wanting more and had been frustrated at Blake for discouraging her academic dreams, but now she thinks she should appreciate what she has, since she sacrificed so much just to have it.
Seeing Jude has dredged up all sorts of thoughts about Stella’s past—including the traumatic memory of her father’s grisly murder. But after she has sex with Blake, she’s able to ground herself once again in her present life. What’s more, it seems as if meeting Jude reminded Stella of just how hard she worked to get where she is now, making it easier for her to accept her current circumstances instead of continuing to strive for more.
Themes
On her way out the door that morning, Stella is surprised to run into Kennedy, who has decided to move in with her parents. And Kennedy, for her part, is surprised to hear that her mother actually did see her play (Stella doesn’t mention seeing Jude, instead vaguely saying that she had to leave halfway through the show). All seems well for a moment, but then Kennedy says something just as Stella is about to leave: she asks if she’s ever heard of Mallard. Stella stops and asks what her daughter means by that question, and Kennedy says that she met a girl who said she knows Stella from Mallard. Stella lies and says she’s never even heard of the place.
Having committed herself to a life of passing as white, Stella is accustomed to hiding the truth. Consequently, her impulse is to deny that she’s ever heard of Mallard when Kennedy asks her about it. The mere fact that Kennedy asks about Mallard means that Jude’s comment at the bar must have gotten to her, causing her to wonder about Stella’s past. But her mother clearly isn’t going to tell her the truth.
Themes
In the coming months, Kennedy periodically asks Stella questions about her past. Stella tells Blake about Jude, but she makes the entire situation sound like Jude was just trying to get money out of their family. It’s an easy lie, since Blake is quick to assume that Jude must have seen Kennedy’s fancy car and figured she might be able to take advantage of her.
Stella knows how to manipulate Blake’s privileged worldview. As a wealthy white man with unexamined racist views, he’s quick to assume that a Black person would try to take advantage of Kennedy because she’s rich. Knowing Blake thinks along these lines, then, Stella suggests that Jude was just trying to scam Kennedy, thereby tricking Blake into helping her hide the fact that Jude is actually telling the truth.
Themes
Standing in the kitchen one day, Kennedy asks Stella if she ever had a sister, prompting Stella to once again tell her to stop thinking about “that black girl.” Blake walks in and tells Stella to drop it, assuring his daughter that he and Stella love her and that they wouldn’t lie to her. But Stella privately thinks about how sometimes lying can be “an act of love.” Shortly after this exchange, Stella and Blake rent out an apartment for Kennedy in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles. Stella is now willing to support her daughter and encourage her acting career, especially since Kennedy not living at home will prevent her from asking so many questions about Stella’s past.
Stella’s idea that lying can be “an act of love” sheds light on the way she thinks about her own dishonesty. She doesn’t see lying to Kennedy as problematic because she’s only doing it so her daughter can lead the unburdened life of a white person. As long as Kennedy doesn’t know she’s part Black, she has nothing to hide and can therefore fully make use of the privileges afforded to white people in the racist environment of the United States. Thinking this way, Stella sees her lies as a form of parental support.
Themes
