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Chapter 15
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
After Stella claims that she’s not in the photograph Kennedy shows her, Kennedy accuses her of being a liar. She’s so frustrated with her mother that she stops talking to her after leaving Los Angeles. She doesn’t even tell her parents where she’s going when she leaves the country to travel in Europe, though she eventually sends a postcard to Blake saying that she went abroad to “find” herself. Stella dislikes the wording of the postcard, thinking that people can’t just “find a self out there waiting.” Instead, they have to “make one” and “create” whatever identity they want for themselves.
For Stella, identity isn’t something that people just happen to “find.” Instead, it’s something people have to actively formulate, just like she herself created her identity as a white woman. But Kennedy’s experience in life is much different than Stella’s—she has never had to think about her identity at all, which is one of the privileges of living as a white person in the United States, where whiteness is highly valued. But now that Kennedy’s racial identity has been unsettled, she feels as if she has to go out and discover who, exactly, she is. Whereas her mother went out of her way to create her own identity, Kennedy isn’t accustomed to playing such an active role in her own identity formation.
Themes
Stella blames Jude for derailing her and Kennedy’s lives. Hoping to get Kennedy back on track, she decides to finally return to Mallard with the purpose of telling Desiree to stop Jude from talking to her daughter. When she arrives at the station outside Mallard, though, she’s surprised to learn that the town no longer technically exists—it has been renamed, though everything is still there, including the diner where Desiree works.
Stella doesn’t return to Mallard because she wants to reunite with Desiree. Rather, she comes back simply to protect the life she has built as a white woman, not wanting Jude to interfere with Kennedy’s ability to keep living as a privileged white person. It’s once again clear, then, that Stella’s top priority is ensuring that she and her daughter continue to reap the rewards of whiteness.
Themes
When Desiree isn’t working at the diner, she’s often on the phone with Jude. She has also visited Jude in Minneapolis, where she and Reese live. Desiree likes Reese and wants him to marry her daughter. As for herself, she and Early are still together, though they aren’t technically married. Nonetheless, he now lives at the house with her and works at the local refinery—the first “real” job he’s ever had. He also helps out with Adele, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Unlike Stella, Desiree still lives in her hometown. She was the one who was always so desperate to leave, but she ended up returning and living the majority of her adult life in Mallard. In a way, it’s arguable that Stella’s decision to pass as white is what enabled her to leave Mallard behind, opening up the door to an entirely new way of life. Meanwhile, Desiree has struggled to simply stay afloat as a Black woman without many opportunities or resources in the racist environment of the United States.
Themes
Early takes Adele fishing in the nearby river one morning, and when they return, there’s a white woman standing on the porch. From afar, Early thinks she must be someone from the county coming to check on Adele’s living conditions, so he instructs Adele to say that he’s her son-in-law. But Adele tells him to stop joking around because that woman clearly isn’t from the county—the woman is Stella. Without any ceremony, Adele walks up the porch and into the house, telling her daughter to help them clean the fishes they brought back.
In a novel in which so many of the characters struggle to move on from the past, it’s almost merciful that Adele develops Alzheimer’s disease and, as a result, has no trouble moving on from the many hardships of her past. When she casually tells Stella to come inside, it’s as if her failing memory has spared her from the shock and heartache of seeing her daughter for the first time in many years—a heartache that Stella herself can’t help but feel.
Themes
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Stella realizes that her mother isn’t well. At one point, Adele hears her say “Jesus” and chastises her for taking the Lord’s name in vain. Stella apologizes, then starts to apologize even more intensely, but Adele cuts her off and says she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Later, Stella goes to the diner to fetch Desiree for dinner. The diner is empty except for a drunk man. Stella stands there for a moment, waiting for her sister to see her. “Oh,” Desiree says when she finally turns around and sets her eyes on Stella. Then she says, “Don’t,” holding up her hand so that Stella won’t approach. But Stella doesn’t listen. She walks toward Desiree, saying, “Forgive me,” over and over until she’s right in front of her sister, at which point they tearfully embrace.
Stella and Desiree’s reunion is a mixture of resentment, sadness, and relief. Both sisters are, on a certain level, happy to see each other, but there’s also a lot of anger and regret at play when they come face to face. Stella, for her part, wants Desiree to forgive her, but readers know that her real reason for returning to Mallard has nothing to do with wanting Desiree to accept and forgive her. Indeed, Stella’s reasons for returning aren’t sentimental, nor is her return a sign that she’s finished with her life as a white woman. Rather, Stella has only come home to protect that life, though Desiree doesn’t know that yet.
Themes
The twins go home and have dinner. Afterwards, they stand on the porch and share a bottle of gin. Desiree points out that Stella sounds different when she speaks and asks how she learned to talk the way she does. Stella thinks for a moment and then laughs, admitting that she watched hours of television in order to perfect her new speaking voice. But it wasn’t terribly difficult—Desiree could have passed as white, too. But Desiree reminds her that Stella clearly didn’t want her to become white with her. Stella insists that it had nothing to do with any desire to separate from Desiree. She explains what happened between her and Blake and then says that she couldn’t reverse her decision once she had a family.
Stella’s comments about learning to talk a certain way by watching television indicate that she made a concerted effort to become a new person once she started passing as white. And becoming this person, it seems, meant making a clean break with the person she used to be—which, in turn, meant cutting all ties with Desiree.
Themes
Stella tells Desiree that Jude found her in Los Angeles. She isn’t surprised to hear that Jude never told Desiree about their encounter, considering that Stella herself was so cold to Jude. She pleads with Desiree to tell Jude to stop contacting Kennedy, which offends Desiree, who points out that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if Kennedy discovered she’s not as white as she thinks. But then Stella breaks down crying, begging her sister to help her because she doesn’t want to lose Kennedy. After a moment, Desiree wraps her arm around her sister as she weeps.
Although it might seem somewhat callous that Stella has returned to Mallard simply to make sure Jude stops contacting Kennedy, there’s also a more sympathetic way of looking at the situation: Stella simply fears that Kennedy will turn against her, and she can’t take the idea of losing her daughter—after all, she has already lost so many other important loved ones because of her decision to pass as white, so she desperately wants to maintain her relationship with Kennedy.
Themes
Stella tries to sneak out early the next morning, but Early hears her and gives her a ride to the station. Before she gets out of the car, she gives him her wedding ring and tells him to sell it—she hopes the money will help him and Desiree take care of Adele.
Stella’s wedding ring is symbolic of everything she has given up in life. In order to obtain that ring, she had to pass as a white woman—if she hadn’t, Blake wouldn’t have hired her, nor would they have gotten married. And to pass as white, Stella had to give up her ties with her family. Perhaps because of the ring’s symbolic relevance, she gives it up as a way of helping with Adele’s care, ultimately using her newfound financial privilege to counterbalance the fact that she abandoned her mother long ago.
Themes
Not long after, Kennedy comes back to Los Angeles. Stella is relieved to see her, but when Kennedy asks where her ring went, she has to stop herself from lying. She’s so accustomed to bending the truth that she almost gives Kennedy the same story she gave Blake about losing it. Instead, though, she tells Kennedy that she gave the ring to Desiree. She says this before she and Kennedy get in the car to drive home from the airport, and when Kennedy starts asking questions about her mother’s trip back to Mallard, Stella tells her to get into the car. There’s traffic, but she doesn’t mind—she plans to tell her daughter whatever she wants to know. The only condition, she tells Kennedy, is that she can’t talk about it to anyone else.
Finally, Stella decides to be completely open and honest with Kennedy. Her willingness to talk about the past suggests that she hopes to alleviate the strain her secrecy has placed on her and Kennedy’s relationship. Perhaps recognizing how much Kennedy resents her for keeping the truth hidden all these years, she embraces the prospect of having a frank discussion about her former life in Mallard, even though it will be difficult. In doing so, she shows Kennedy just how much she cares about her—enough, it seems, to reopen painful wounds.
Themes
