The Vanishing Half

by

Brit Bennett

Desiree Vignes Character Analysis

Desiree Vignes is a light-skinned Black woman who grew up alongside her identical twin, Stella, in Mallard, Louisiana. Desiree always considered herself the bold, independent sister, since she was the more dominant and strong-willed one. She even convinced Stella to run away to New Orleans when their mother, Adele, had them quit school to start work as housecleaners for a rich white family. The novel begins when Desiree returns to Mallard after many years. Her reappearance creates a fuss in town, especially because she returns with her daughter, Jude, who has very dark skin. Mallard is a town made up of light-skinned Black people who have racist and colorist ideas about skin tone, so everyone judges Desiree for running away, marrying a dark-skinned Black man, and returning with Jude. But Desiree had to come back because her husband, Sam, was abusive, and she knew he might end up killing her if she stayed. She has nobody to turn to for support except her mother, since Stella abandoned her a year after they moved to New Orleans, deciding to start passing as white. Back in Mallard, Desiree gets a job at the local diner and rekindles a romantic relationship with a man named Early, whom she knew when she was a young girl. Early eventually reveals that Sam hired him to track Desiree down, but he cares more about Desiree than completing the job, so he tells Sam that he can’t find her. Desiree and Early continue their relationship even after Jude moves to Los Angeles for college. Finding it too painful to dwell on Stella’s disappearance, Desiree mostly tries not to think about her sister, having realized that she really was dependent on Stella when they were children (even though she saw herself as the independent one). But when Stella eventually comes back to Mallard for a short stay, Desiree still shows her love and support, despite her anger.

Desiree Vignes Quotes in The Vanishing Half

The The Vanishing Half quotes below are all either spoken by Desiree Vignes or refer to Desiree Vignes. 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:
Race and Identity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

In Mallard, nobody married dark. Nobody left either, but Desiree had already done that. Marrying a dark man and dragging his blueblack child all over town was one step too far.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:

She wanted to go to college someday and of course she’d get into Spelman or Howard or wherever else she wanted to go. The thought had always terrified Desiree, Stella moving to Atlanta or D.C. without her. A small part of her felt relieved; now Stella couldn’t possibly leave her behind. Still, she hated to see her sister sad.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:

She was beginning to feel as if an escape door had appeared before her, and if she waited any longer, it might disappear forever. But she couldn’t go without Stella. She’d never been without her sister and part of her wondered if she could even survive the separation.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes
Page Number: 13-14
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

But even here, where nobody married dark, you were still colored and that meant that white men could kill you for refusing to die. The Vignes twins were reminders of this, tiny girls in funeral dresses who grew up without a daddy because white men decided that it would be so.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes, Leon Vignes
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:

“Don’t you have something brown?” her mother had asked, lingering in the doorway, but Desiree ignored her, tying pink ribbons around Jude’s braids. Bright colors looked vulgar against dark skin, everyone said, but she refused to hide her daughter in drab olive greens or grays. Now, as they paraded past the other children, she felt foolish. Maybe pink was too showy. Maybe she’d already ruined her daughter’s chances of fitting in by dressing her up like a department store doll.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Jude Vignes, Adele Vignes
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:

She’d finished quick, the deputy said, laughing a bit in amazement, might have been a record. He pulled out the answer guide from a manila folder to check her work. But first, he glanced at her full application, and when he saw her address listed in Mallard, his gaze frosted over. He slid the answer key back in the folder, returned to his chair.

“Leave that there, gal,” he said. “No use wasting my time.”

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

If she hadn’t believed, even a bit, that spending time with Early was wrong, why hadn’t she ever asked him to meet her at Lou’s for a malt? Or take a walk or sit out by the riverbank? She was probably no different from her mother in Early’s eyes.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Early
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

This was how Desiree thought of herself then: the single dynamic force in Stella’s life, a gust of wind strong enough to rip out her roots. This was the story Desiree needed to tell herself and Stella allowed her to. They both felt safe inside.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:

Stella needed to find a new job, so she’d responded to a listing in the newspaper for secretarial work in an office inside the Maison Blanche building. An office like that would never hire a colored girl, but they needed the money, living in the city and all, and why should the twins starve because Stella, perfectly capable of typing, became unfit as soon as anyone learned that she was colored? It wasn’t lying, she told Stella. How was it her fault if they thought she was white when they hired her? What sense did it make to correct them now?

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:

“She don’t want to be found. You gotta let her go. Live her life.”

“This ain’t her life!” Desiree said. “None of it woulda happened if I didn’t tell her to take that job. Or drag her to New Orleans, period. That city wasn’t no good for Stella. You was right all along.”

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes, Adele Vignes
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:

Desiree only knew the failures: the ones who’d gotten homesick, or caught, or tired of pretending. But for all Desiree knew, Stella had lived white for half her life now, and maybe acting for that long ceased to be acting altogether. Maybe pretending to be white eventually made it so.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:

She passed through the perfume aisle with the confidence of a woman who could buy any bottle she wished. She stopped to smell a few, as if she were considering a purchase. Admired the jewelry in the display case, glanced at the fine handbags, demurred when salesgirls approached her. In the lobby, the colored elevator operator gazed at the floor when she stepped on. She ignored him, the way Stella might have. She felt queasy at how simple it was. All there was to being white was acting like you were.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes, Early
Page Number: 75
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

If he pitied her, he wouldn’t be able to see her clearly. He would refract all of her lies through her mourning, mistake her reticence about her past for grief. Now what began as a lie felt closer to the truth. She hadn’t spoken to her sister in thirteen years. Where was Desiree now? How as their mother?

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes, Blake Sanders, Adele Vignes
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

She couldn’t share any memory of her youth without also conjuring Desiree; all of her memories were cleaved in half, her sister excised right out of them, and how lonely they seemed now, Stella swimming by herself at the river, wandering through sugarcane fields, running breathlessly from a goose chasing her down the road.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes, Loretta Walker
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:
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Desiree Vignes Quotes in The Vanishing Half

The The Vanishing Half quotes below are all either spoken by Desiree Vignes or refer to Desiree Vignes. 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:
Race and Identity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

In Mallard, nobody married dark. Nobody left either, but Desiree had already done that. Marrying a dark man and dragging his blueblack child all over town was one step too far.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:

She wanted to go to college someday and of course she’d get into Spelman or Howard or wherever else she wanted to go. The thought had always terrified Desiree, Stella moving to Atlanta or D.C. without her. A small part of her felt relieved; now Stella couldn’t possibly leave her behind. Still, she hated to see her sister sad.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:

She was beginning to feel as if an escape door had appeared before her, and if she waited any longer, it might disappear forever. But she couldn’t go without Stella. She’d never been without her sister and part of her wondered if she could even survive the separation.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes
Page Number: 13-14
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

But even here, where nobody married dark, you were still colored and that meant that white men could kill you for refusing to die. The Vignes twins were reminders of this, tiny girls in funeral dresses who grew up without a daddy because white men decided that it would be so.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes, Leon Vignes
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:

“Don’t you have something brown?” her mother had asked, lingering in the doorway, but Desiree ignored her, tying pink ribbons around Jude’s braids. Bright colors looked vulgar against dark skin, everyone said, but she refused to hide her daughter in drab olive greens or grays. Now, as they paraded past the other children, she felt foolish. Maybe pink was too showy. Maybe she’d already ruined her daughter’s chances of fitting in by dressing her up like a department store doll.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Jude Vignes, Adele Vignes
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:

She’d finished quick, the deputy said, laughing a bit in amazement, might have been a record. He pulled out the answer guide from a manila folder to check her work. But first, he glanced at her full application, and when he saw her address listed in Mallard, his gaze frosted over. He slid the answer key back in the folder, returned to his chair.

“Leave that there, gal,” he said. “No use wasting my time.”

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

If she hadn’t believed, even a bit, that spending time with Early was wrong, why hadn’t she ever asked him to meet her at Lou’s for a malt? Or take a walk or sit out by the riverbank? She was probably no different from her mother in Early’s eyes.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Early
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

This was how Desiree thought of herself then: the single dynamic force in Stella’s life, a gust of wind strong enough to rip out her roots. This was the story Desiree needed to tell herself and Stella allowed her to. They both felt safe inside.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:

Stella needed to find a new job, so she’d responded to a listing in the newspaper for secretarial work in an office inside the Maison Blanche building. An office like that would never hire a colored girl, but they needed the money, living in the city and all, and why should the twins starve because Stella, perfectly capable of typing, became unfit as soon as anyone learned that she was colored? It wasn’t lying, she told Stella. How was it her fault if they thought she was white when they hired her? What sense did it make to correct them now?

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:

“She don’t want to be found. You gotta let her go. Live her life.”

“This ain’t her life!” Desiree said. “None of it woulda happened if I didn’t tell her to take that job. Or drag her to New Orleans, period. That city wasn’t no good for Stella. You was right all along.”

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes, Adele Vignes
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:

Desiree only knew the failures: the ones who’d gotten homesick, or caught, or tired of pretending. But for all Desiree knew, Stella had lived white for half her life now, and maybe acting for that long ceased to be acting altogether. Maybe pretending to be white eventually made it so.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:

She passed through the perfume aisle with the confidence of a woman who could buy any bottle she wished. She stopped to smell a few, as if she were considering a purchase. Admired the jewelry in the display case, glanced at the fine handbags, demurred when salesgirls approached her. In the lobby, the colored elevator operator gazed at the floor when she stepped on. She ignored him, the way Stella might have. She felt queasy at how simple it was. All there was to being white was acting like you were.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes, Early
Page Number: 75
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

If he pitied her, he wouldn’t be able to see her clearly. He would refract all of her lies through her mourning, mistake her reticence about her past for grief. Now what began as a lie felt closer to the truth. She hadn’t spoken to her sister in thirteen years. Where was Desiree now? How as their mother?

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes, Blake Sanders, Adele Vignes
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

She couldn’t share any memory of her youth without also conjuring Desiree; all of her memories were cleaved in half, her sister excised right out of them, and how lonely they seemed now, Stella swimming by herself at the river, wandering through sugarcane fields, running breathlessly from a goose chasing her down the road.

Related Characters: Desiree Vignes, Stella Vignes, Loretta Walker
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis: