Writing Techniques in Caucasia

Caucasia Techniques

Narrating her story through the eyes of a young girl, Senna chooses a perfect metaphor for the confusion Birdie feels because adolescence is the time when girls feel a huge discord between their body images and their physical bodies. Birdie experiences this confusion as well as the mixed messages she receives from the white and black communities because of her white skin.

As she approaches adolescence, Birdie has no fixed moorings other than her mother, and in some ways it leaves her free to experiment with her identity in a variety of ways. She stops attending any kind of traditional school, and she finds herself moving from place to place, with very little notice.

Senna separates the novel into three distinct sections—before Birdie and Sandy disappear, Birdie and Sandy's time on the road, particularly in New Hampshire, and finally, Birdie's journey to find her sister.