Racism And Prejudice In The Awakening And The Vanishing Half

Despite what many believe, racism and prejudice is a prevalent and recurring issue in our society today. In order to create a more human society, novels that reflect to us, our own actions, have to be read. The two Novels, The Vanishing Half written by Brit Brennett and The KiteRunner 'written by Khaled Hosseini do just that. They both talk about how much impact racial injustice has, using a different point of view. These two novels are mirrors of our world, which show how racism impacts a person, by changing their perspective and understanding, thereby leading to a more humane society. This is demonstrated in the lack of equal opportunities for people of color, and racism experienced in their hometown, their new community, and their workplace,

In case that an individual did not have the allegedly normal skin tone compared to what society standard were, they were bullied for the color of their pigmentation. Which leads to people wanting to change the way they look. And along with affecting a person's mentality. As shown in the book The Vanishing Half when from Jude’s point of view it says, “A jar of cream. That was all she needed. She’d slather it on her skin, and by fall, she would return to school, lighter and new.”(Bennett 118) Here we can see how much racism affected Jude. In Mallard most of the people were lighter toned, and they bullied jude for her darker tone. Rather than attempting to try to understand her better, they bullied her for the color of her skin. This caused her to want to change her skin tone just so she could please the people in her class. Assuming that the children were taught better, and that society had tried harder to make a better, more safer place for people of darker color, they would have not felt the need to try to change their skin. Furthermore, racism also affects the conditions of someone's life. The conditions of their lives are very inferior compared to the people who have higher value. Most believed that those who were workers did not deserve as much quality as those who were more rich. The KiteRunner demonstrates, when Amir was talking about Hassan’s home“I went past

There are many disadvantages especially when they move to a new home. Specifically from a colored person's point of view the things they wanted to achieve in life, the dreams they had they were unable to achieve, due to the color of their skin. The only option they had to be treated fairly was to fit in the way people were expecting. Which was essentially being white, during that time. “ Her mother pursed her lips. ‘It wasn’t her first time,’ she said. ‘Ma’am?’ Being white,’ her mother said. ‘New Orleans was just her chance to do it for real.’ “ (77 Bennett) Due to the circumstances of her life, Stella loved to pretend to be white. They had more options for jobs, when people thought that Stella was white. Eventually her imaginations became reality, and she changed her whole identity just to fit in with the new society standards. This demonstrates the deficiency of the community. Moreover in The KiteRunner The Hazara did not have access to education. They were forced to be workers their whole life. The Hazara had no choice, but to work and they never had a chance to do anything else. As well as, they did not get the opportunity to be treated equally. This is shown when in The KiteRunner it says, “That Hassan would grow up illiterate like Ali and most Hazaras had been decided the minute he had been born, perhaps even the moment he had been conceived in Sanaubar's unwelcoming womb after all, what use did a