Caucasia
Danzy Senna
 The novel is about Birdie and Cole, multiracial sisters who become separated in life because of their differing appearances and the racial identities which people ascribe to them. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator Birdie is not classified by appearance. Her sister Cole is described as "cinnamon-skinned, curly haired",Senna, Danzy. Caucasia. [[Riverhead Books], New York (1998)]. traits associated with African Americans of mixed race. Senna hints that the girls' mother is European American (her belly is called a "pale balloon" on page 5 of the novel). Over time, race, as experienced by the girls in United States society, creates a rift between their lives. As young girls, Birdie and Cole speak an indistinguishable language of their creation which they call "Elemeno". The closeness between the two sisters suggests that appearance is not a defining characteristic of personality or behavior. Senna offers culture and atmosphere as having the most profound effect on a child's development. Birdie especially struggles to identify with and reconcile her multiracial identity. At the end of the novel, the two sisters are reunited in Berkeley. The two sisters are separated when their father decides to leave for Brazil in search of a more racially harmonious society and their mother flees their home in fear that she is in trouble with the FBI. Each parent takes the child that is closest to them in appearance, Cole leaving with her father and his new girlfriend and Birdie leaving with her mother. In order to avoid being caught, Birdie and her mother adopt false identities and Birdie is forced to change her name to Jesse Goldman and pass as a Jewish girl. Birdie and her mother remain on the lam for several years, but even as time passes Birdie is unable to fully adopt this new identity. She cannot forget her sister, her father, or her the race that she truly is. She hopes for the day when her family will be reunited and she can stop the facade. Near the end of the novel, after being separated from Cole and her father, Birdie runs away from her mother in order to find them. Her mom has forced her to pass as a Jewish girl for years. Cole, with her darker skin and thicker hair, has been passing as black with their father. Once Birdie comes to realize that she may never be reunited with them unless she takes it upon herself, she leaves her mother to find them. Before meeting with Cole again, she reunites with her father, whom she is angry with. She cannot understand why racial appearance has caused division in her family. Birdie says to her father, "I heard myself say, 'Fuck the canaries in the fucking coal mines. You left me. You left me with Mum, knowing she was going to disappear. Why did you only take Cole? Why didn't you take me? If race is so make-believe, why did I go with Mum? You gave me to Mum 'cause I looked white. You don't think that's real? Those are the facts." Senna, Danzy. Caucasia. [[Riverhead Books], New York (1998)]. (336) For so long, Birdie was made to believe that there was some logical reason behind the splitting of her family. In her immaturity, she was led to think that her passing as someone else and constant displacement were for a greater cause and that her family would eventually be reunited. Birdie’s inability to understand and lashing out against her parents in the end shows she has successfully come of age. After years of struggling to maintain some sense of who she was while having to cover it up in different ways based on her environment, she grew to recognize the ridiculousness of her circumstances. She no longer sees her parents for what she grew up envisioning them as. She is angry that something so shallow could have such deep repercussions for her and her family. She cannot make sense of her father's lack of effort in planning a return to her. An irony exists in her father’s working so hard at writing about race while working so little at forming a relationship with his mulatto daughter based on her racial appearance. Birdie comes to understand that there is nothing to understand about the actions of her mother and father. The way in which skin color has ruined her childhood and the fact that her parents allowed it to is too insensible for her to ever make sense of. Through this coming of age novel, Birdie grows to understand the ridiculousness in accepting appearance as a determining characteristic of performance.