The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett

 

Characters
Mallard	Desiree		Stella
Decuir – founding family, 1848   Adele Decuir Vignes -mother Leon - father, killed by white men	Sam Winston – husband, abusive Jude – daughter (see below)   Early Jones – hunted missing people   Lou’s Egg House		Blake Sanders – husband Kennedy – daughter (see below)   Reginald and Loretta Walker – black family moved into Palace Estates Cindy - daughter
Jude Winston		Kennedy Sanders
Reese Carter - boyfriend   Barry – Reese’s friend, high school teacher and drag queen		Franz – boyfriend   Played Charity Harris in soap opera, Pacific Cove   Became successful real estate agent

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       The twins witnessed their father being killed and then were forced to leave school to work after 10^th grade?  How did these two events change their lives?  Was it fair of their mother to insist they leave school?  Did she have a choice?   Would Stella have changed her race if she had been able to finish school and go to college?

2.       Were you surprised that Stella spoke up at the Home Owner’s Association meeting against the Walkers moving in?  Why then did she almost become friends with Loretta?

3.       What motivated Stella to get her GED and then go on to college and eventually teach?   How hard do you think it was for Blake to suddenly have a wife different than from what he expected?

4.       How do you think he would have reacted if he had found out Stella was technically considered to be an African American?

5.       Do you think the fact that Blake had a black doll, Jimbo, when he was young that his dad destroyed one day would have made a difference in how he would react to the news?

6.       Why do you think Jude felt compelled to tell Kennedy about her heritage?  Why couldn’t she just leave it alone?

7.       In her thirties, Kennedy began to feel that “Her whole life, in fact, had been a gift of good fortune – she had been given whiteness” and “a bounty of gifts she hadn’t deserved” (page 299).   Could you understand why she felt this way?

8.       Did you gain any insight into acting?  Kennedy realized that “she became new each time she stepped under the lights” (page 246).   Her drama teacher told her, “True acting meant becoming invisible so that only the character shone through” (page 267).  Have you seen any movies or plays where you felt the actors ceased to exist as their own self?

9.       Leaving seems to be one of the themes in the book.  For example, both girls left Mallard, Stella permanently; Kennedy left for a year and traveled; Early’s parents left him when he was young.  How did leaving, returning or staying affect the characters’ lives?

10.   In an interview, Brit Bennett said that one of the questions in the novel is what makes us who we are?  Do we define ourselves or do others define us?

11.   In the interview she asked what race really is.   Does it require participation of others to confirm what we think or how we identify ourselves?

12.   How hard is it to redefine yourself, for example to start to think about yourself as someone who exercises as opposed to a couch potato?   How hard do you think it was for Stella to redefine herself?

13.   Did you like the organization of the book, bouncing back and forth between 1968 and 1978 and then beyond?