My Take - The Blacker the Berry… A Novel of Negro Life by Wallace Thurman

The Blacker the Berry… A Novel of Negro Life by Wallace Thurman is probably the most powerful book that I have ever read. Before reading it I was quite apprehensive about the quality of the novel. I have read many literary critics who criticised the writing as not being refined; even Therman B. O’Daniel in his Introduction to the novel was being dismissive about the writing ability of Wallace Thurman. I lament the fact that such an extraordinary book is obscured by the canonized highfalutin ‘classics’. And I am gald that despite the negative reviews I chose to read this wonderful, thought-provoking novel.

The novel deals with the “haunting chimera of the intra-racial colour prejudice.” The protagonist of the novel, Emma Lou Morgan is a black girl, darker than her fellow black mates. From an early stage of her life she is made to believe that there is no place in the world for a girl as dark as her. She is looked down upon by the light-skinned Blacks for being darker than them and thus sowing the seeds of self-loathing and colour-consciousness in young Emma Lou’s gullible heart. Emma Lou, tired of being discriminated against by the coloured community for her darker complexion flees her Boise, Los Angeles and finally ends up in vibrant Harlem. But regardless of her geographical location, the colour prejudice always confronts her.

However, rather than fighting against the colour prejudice she ends up absorbing it and consequently loathing herself for being too dark. Perhaps inadvertently, she too becomes an instrument in this discriminatory practice as she is prejudiced against those darker than her. Emma Lou, though a victim of intra-racial colour prejudice is not portrayed as a wronged heroine to be pitied and sympathised. Because as much as the cruel, prejudiced society, she too is liable to be blamed for her own pitiable condition. She is so blinded by her colour-consciousness that she fails to see and discern other aspects of life, thus being continually deceived by others. Even when life offers her opportunities to better her situations she rejects them because of her inferiority complex. In her relentless quest of being accepted by the “right sort of people” she forgets to accept her own self. However, we should not be too hard on Emma Lou for her continual self-loathing and self-pitying because it is not easy for anyone to suddenly cast away all the prejudiced ideas that had been embedded in their heart for so long, even though the prejudiced ideas make one hate oneself and deny their identity.

In the end of the novel, realisation dawns upon Emma Lou that she will never be able to change her skin colour and hence, it will do her good if she comes to accept it, for her colour is the integral component of her identity. She realises that rather than seeking social acceptance finding self-acceptance will bring her the elusive peace or perhaps some semblance of it. She realises that self-acceptance is the most essential step in the way to attain salvation.

The novel also brings forth the intricacies of life in Harlem during 1920s, such as rent-parties, cabarets, seedy theatres, etc. I found the novel extremely well-written and fast-paced. It was quite easy and perhaps conventional to portray Emma Lou as a victimised damsel-in-distress, but Thurman chose to portray her as a credible, flawed human rather than as a stock character. The difficulties of life are exacerbated by the prejudices of those around us, however rather than yielding to those prejudices and wallowing in self-pity it will be more judicious to accept the things that we cannot change about ourselves, embrace ourselves as we are and continue with the journey of life.

I will end my review with my favourite quote from the novel:

“You see, people have to feel superior to something, and there is scant satisfaction in feeling superior to domestic animals or steel machines that one can train or utilize. It is much more pleasing to pick out some individual or some group of individuals on the same plane to feel superior to.”

My rating - 5 ⭐