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Diversity In Fran Ross's Oreo

631 Words3 Pages

In Fran Ross’s Oreo, the main character, Christine Clark, epitomizes an innovative representation of racial diversity. Nicknamed Oreo, she is a combination of African-American and Jewish lineage. As a result, her ethnical diversity serves as a source of Oreo’s personal authority throughout her quest to find her absent father. While Ross incorporates a portion of Greek mythology’s Theseus tale, she uses parody to reinvert biracial authority into the story. Through the representation of racially diverse characters, such as Christine Clark and Parnell the Pimp, Ross diverges from the traditional representation of African-Americans and other minorities in literature. As a biracial character, Christine Clark reveals the façade behind racial. Furthermore, …show more content…

Through the analysis of Ross’s satirization of Greek mythology and the superficial bonds of paternity, Oreo as a source of authority, her juxtaposition against Parnell the Pimp, their power struggle interaction, and Ross’s reappropriation of “blackness,” an innovative perspective on racial diversity emerges. Ultimately, Fran Ross reclaims the authority of black identity by satirically identifying Oreo with Theseus, which dually destabilizes white power and establishes black authority. A portion of the Greek myth of Theseus centers on his quest to find his biological father. Similarly, Ross incorporates this mythological journey into the plot of Oreo. However, Ross’s narrative structure satirizes the Greek myth while destabilizing paternal bonds between a daughter and her absent father. Like Theseus, Ross’s main character, Christine Clark, goes on a quest to uncover the “secret of her birth,” (Ross 37). However, she is not searching for her father to form a paternal relationship. Instead, Christine wants to understand her conception. However, when she finally meets Sam Schwartzes, her father fails to provide any knowledge. Prior to the conclusion of their

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