Dicey Johnson In Elia Kazan's Pinky

In Elia Kazan`s Pinky, the color of one`s skin is vital in determining his or her social status. The film is packed with characters of all ranks: whites who transcend not only other races but also common law and blacks who aspire to be white. One such character, Dicey Johnson, appears to be content with her race, but through her relationship with Pinky Johnson, she reveals that she too actually craves advantages of whiteness. Although Dicey Johnson is portrayed as a saint for sacrificing her life to send her granddaughter to school, Aunt Dicey sent Pinky to school solely so she could experience whiteness through Pinky. In the opening of the movie when Pinky and Aunt Dicey are arguing over school, Pinky admits that wishes her grandmother had never sent her north for schooling. Immediately, Dicey becomes livid telling her granddaughter that if she had stayed in the south she would have grown

When Pinky is packing up in order to leave her grandmother, Dicey instantly begins complaining and unpacking Pinky`s suitcase because she realizes her last hope to fathom in any whiteness would disappear with her granddaughter. Dicey finally acknowledges that without Pink, she is constrained to her life as a linen washer. During the court case for Miss Em`s land, for the first time in the movie, Dicey Johnson is seen wearing an elegant dress, just as the whites and Pinky have been wearing throughout the entire movie. In another attempt to mesh with the whites, she is holding a fan, even though she scarcely uses it. During the trial, in front of an all-white audience, Dicey put on a facade in an attempt to appear that she looked and acted like a white person. When on the stand, she attempts to hide her blackness by not admitting she cannot read or write. This action demonstrated that Dicey is ashamed of her