Race and Identity

Race and identity are constantly linked throughout the novel, and the narrator’s path to self-discovery is inextricably connected to his relationship with his multiracial background. From an early age, the narrator and his brothers are made aware by their parents and even by strangers that they are mixed-race, a uniquely difficult social position in a primarily white, low-income rural area. The brothers stay at a distance from the other neighborhood children and are rarely included in the larger community. From the time of their marriage, their parents face hostility for their interracial relationship, and once their sons are born, adults often turn their scorn onto the young brothers. The narrator notes this when the day guard confronts their father about taking the brothers with him on the job. The guard tells him “‘Well, at least you’re only half as ugly looking as...