Summary Of The Girl Who Fell From The Sky

In the The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow, the author expresses that labels and single stories about race through Nella and Rachel, say more about the world that attempts to identify them than who they are. Rachel struggles with her identity when she moves to the United States. Race did not define Rachel or Nella in Germany where Rachel’s dad, Roger was stationed. People characterize Rachel and Nella by their race and not what type of person they were. This says more about society’s single stories than what the labels actually represent.

When Rachel moves to Portland, the color of her skin is a new factor into who people think she is. Being Black and Danish together was not a problem in their old life. Grandma and her neighborhood’s heavy black influence made Rachel question her danish side. Rachel’s surroundings throughout the book made it hard for Rachel to be accepted in her new neighborhood. After moving to Portland, Rachel says, “That makes me think of how the other black girls in school think I want to be white. They call me an Oreo. I don’t want to be

Before Nella moved to Chicago, she did not know that the color of their skin could cause her children any harm. Thus leading Nella to be desperate and jump off of a building with her kids. Nella didn’t want to live in a world where people branded her family as black or white. In Nella’s journal she wrote, “My children are half black. They are also one half of me. I want them to be anything. They are not just a color,” (Durrow 157). Nella knows what her children look like to other people, but she also knows that they are more than a skin tone. She wants her children to grow up in a world without racist ideas. The single story that people have about Nella and her children in Chicago does not explain who they are, but a world filled with hatred. The world’s ignorance made Nella wanting to jump off a 9 story