Gender Symbolism In Emma Lou

It begins with Emma Lou’s father Jim, The first man to impact her, whose absence while she is growing up strengthens her color consciousness. Her Family never tells her that Jim was driven away by Her Mothers parents. This, and the fact that his name is regularly cursed in her house, leads her to believe that Jim left on his own primarily, she assumes, because of the darkness of his daughter. These thoughts are only further affirmed with the introduction of Aloysius, her self-hating step-father, who abhors his own blackness. Emma Lou’s color consciousness only continues to intensify as Aloysius’s hatred for Negros is put out on her. By the time Emma Lou is a young woman graduating from High school she is mass of anxiety and internal colorism, seeing everything wrong in her life as a direct outcome of her skin being too dark. The novel opens to Emma Lou in the center of the front row, attending her own high school graduation as the only black student in a majority white school. Surrounded by her white peers she describes herself as resembling “a fly in a pan of milk amid a white expanse of bedclothes” (Thurman 2). Emma Lou’s Uncle Joe is the one who pushes her on her road to self-discovery and plays a large role in the path to Emma Lou corresponding with her name. In this way he lives up to his name. However his actions also have a negative impact. He indirectly strengthens/ adds to her color consciousness when she goes to USC. With the encouragement of her uncle Joe, Emma Lou

behind. Alva’s neglectful actions harden Emma Lou and results in her leaving him for the better life she knows she deserves. This triggers the final stage of Emma Lou becoming worthy of her name and becoming a “Universal Woman”. It isn’t until the very end of the novel that Emma Lou realizes that she is complete/whole without her problematic lover and leaves him, thus fulfilling her given