“But what are you really?”. This is the type of question that Isabella, the main character in Sharon M. Draper’s Blended gets asked everyday, but recently she’s been wondering it too. In Sharon M. Draper's Blended, Isabella constantly struggles with her own identity. Her switching lives every week doesn’t help. With a white mom and a black dad who are divorced, Isabella feels constantly torn, not sure whose side to take. There are many moments in this book where Isabella’s story is changed. The most transformative moments for Isabella Thornton are when her parents get divorced and when she gets kicked out of a fancy store. In Sharon M. Draper’s Blended, Isabella’s parents getting divorced is a very transformative moment for her because her …show more content…
Being torn between two lives results in her never feeling like she belongs anywhere. She just feels like a visitor.“What wasn’t working? Our …show more content…
In the book, the security guard states, “My job is to remove any possible… threats” (172). This quote demonstrates how Isabella and her other black friend were asked to leave the store. Isabella’s father had warned her that she might encounter this, but she never imagined it would really happen. She finally understands why two girls who were causing no harm to anyone else would be targeted. It is because they’re black. That is the only reason. This is what Isabella says in response to her friend asking if they look like criminals, “‘No, we don’t. We look like kids. Black kids’” (175). Isabella is angry that she needs to explain this to her friend. She is mad because it shouldn’t have to happen. They are just normal kids, but to the security guard they were considered a threat, just because of the color of their skin and that shouldn’t have to be the case for anyone. Isabella’s perspective changes here because she has experienced real life discrimination. In “Blended”, Isabella and her black friend are asked to leave a fancy store for no reason and this is when Isabella realizes that because of her skin color, she will always be treated differently which is a very transformative