In Tuesday’s class, we spent a majority of the time discussing race, one of the main themes in Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia. In Ophelia Speaks: Resurrecting Still Lives, Annette Debo asserts that there is an ironic contrast between Ophelia’s initial yearning to be acknowledged as white and her customers obsession with her black traits. I believe that this contrast is a result of Ophelia’s acceptance of race, initially running away from it to later acknowledging and favoring the benefits of race.
At the beginning of Bellocq’s Ophelia, the readers acknowledge Ophelia’s desire to be viewed as a white woman by society rather than black. In Ophelia’s letter Letter Home, she tells the audience that she has left home to find a job in New Orleans. However, Ophelia never explicitly explains to the readers the reason for her leaving. I believe that Ophelia leaves her home to escape the unnamed “white man”, probably identified as Ophelia’s father, who “leaned over [her], pinching/ the tiny buds of [her] new breasts/ sneering” (February 1911, Trethewey 18). In other words, Ophelia was escaping her ‘white’ father and running away from sexual assault. In addition, Ophelia is taught as a child to “curtsy and be still/ so that {she} might please a white man, [her] father” (March 1911, Trethewey 20). Debo states Ophelia’s father “is clearly a man of a higher social class” (Debo) because of the color of his skin and because of Ophelia’s proper manners. When Ophelia travels to New Orleans to improve her employment options “she decided to pass for white, but constantly fears that she will be found out despite her skin” (Debo). In other words, Ophelia believes that the only opportunity for employment will be to conceal her color. This is another example of Ophelia running away from race, by physically “dressing each day/ in [her] best, hand covered with the lace gloves” as she “walk[s] these street/ a white woman” (Letter Home, Trethewey 7).
At the beginning of Bellocq’s Ophelia, it appears that Ophelia hides from race running away from the sexual abuse of her white father and physically disguising herself as a white woman in New Orleans. However, as Debo recognizes, there is this ironic contrast between Ophelia’s “worry that her African blood will be identified” to her “customers obsession with finding markers of her African heritage in her” as a sex worker (Debo). Ophelia’s white customers “look for evidence-telltale/half-moons in our fingernails/ a bluish tint beneath the skin” (August 1911, Trethewey 26) that identify Ophelia as black and, as a result, receive a larger paycheck. Furthermore, when Ophelia arrives at the brothel, the Countess at the auction calls her “African Violet for the promise/of that wild continent hidden beneath/ my white skin” (Letter From Storyville, Trethewey 13). In the brothel, though being a prostitute is not the ideal situation, Ophelia comes to realize the advantages of her race. As a result of her race, Ophelia is able to make enough of an earning to move west, where she can be who she wants. The readers acknowledge Ophelia’s acceptance of the self “March 1912 Postcard, en route westward”, where the imagery of springtime represent re-birth and re-newel.
I agree with you Amanda. The connection you make about race and it’s disadvantages and advantages is a compelling argument. I never thought about how she used her “blackness” to propel herself out of the brothel. The disadvantage of not receiving an office job might have been displaced by her move out west. The reader will never know, but we do know that she have moved on.
Considering your evidence, I coincide with your argument that Ophelia uses her race as an advantage. Ultimately, her perception of herself does change as the story progresses, where she doesn’t worry as much in appearing white. Apart from what you have stated, the fact that she feels invigorated when referred to as “the African Violet” (Trethewey 13), displays this sense of acceptance. Rather than being ashamed of her clear distinctive name – other prostitutes were named just Violet – she acknowledges that it serves as an advantage and not a deleterious attribute. Still, I do not agree that the men that “look fore evidence” (Trethewey 26) of Ophelia’s African half are the ones who raise her price, since they are berating her rather than appreciating her exotic image.
Amanda, I’m not sure that I agree with your reading that it is Ophelia’s father who has been abusing her at home. What makes you think that that’s how it is? (I’m not saying that it can’t be, but rather that we shouldn’t make that assumption.)