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Barry
The founder of Mallard, Alphonse Decuir was Desiree and Stella’s great-great-great-grandfather. His mother was an enslaved person impregnated by her enslaver, meaning that Alphonse was half-white. He inherited the land of Mallard from his father and decided to create a town meant for people with the same skin color as him. White society didn’t accept him because he was Black, but he also felt ostracized from Black culture because his skin was so light. He therefore dreamed of turning Mallard into a place where everyone marries light-skinned Black people so that each generation becomes whiter and whiter.
Alphonse Decuir Quotes in The Vanishing Half
The The Vanishing Half quotes below are all either spoken by Alphonse Decuir or refer to Alphonse Decuir. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
The father now dead, the now-freed son wished to build something on those acres of land that would last for centuries to come. A town for men like him, who would never be accepted as white but refused to be treated like Negroes. A third place. His mother, rest her soul, had hated his lightness; […] Maybe that’s what made him first dream of the town. Lightness, like anything inherited at great cost, was a lonely gift.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Alphonse Decuir Quotes in The Vanishing Half
The The Vanishing Half quotes below are all either spoken by Alphonse Decuir or refer to Alphonse Decuir. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
The father now dead, the now-freed son wished to build something on those acres of land that would last for centuries to come. A town for men like him, who would never be accepted as white but refused to be treated like Negroes. A third place. His mother, rest her soul, had hated his lightness; […] Maybe that’s what made him first dream of the town. Lightness, like anything inherited at great cost, was a lonely gift.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
