Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Girl, Woman, Other, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Diaspora, Culture, and Identity
Love, Sexuality, and Race
Home and Community
Contradiction, Complexity, and Intersectionality
Radical vs. Reformist Social Movements
Summary
Analysis
As Carole Williams walks through Liverpool station, she thinks about people who throw themselves under trains. She remembers the times she stood on the platform contemplating suicide, just one leap away, while appearing normal from the outside. Now, however, she’s alive and looking forward. Today she’s a “willing orchestral player in the cacophony” of London’s rush hour. Carole is a workaholic, constantly immersed in the world of finance. She thinks social media is a waste of time. Instead, she gets stuck online in the endless deluge of news, using it to avoid sleep which is when “bad things happen to little girls who ask for it.”
Carole is a master of façade. She’s able to maintain a seemingly flawless exterior as a successful woman in the fast-paced and elite world of finance while crumbling on the inside. It’s clear she’s often been dissatisfied with the drudgery and stress of modern living within an unforgiving capitalist society, but today she’s able to blend in and keep up with its demands. Carole’s obsession with the news, and particularly bad news, reveals her deep-seated anxiety that’s rooted in an experience she suffered as a young girl. The reference to "little girls who ask for it” suggests that she was sexually assaulted, as it’s a phrase society often uses to blame women and girls for their own assaults.
Themes
Carole is on her way to a meeting with an exceedingly rich client from Hong Kong, worried that he’ll read her as the person who’s meant to deliver office refreshments rather than run the meeting. She’s used to clients looking past her or sexualizing her. She remembers a client who went so far as to mislead her into a lunch in his hotel room, undermining her “hard-won professionalism.” Today she is determined to project positivity, but she’s flooded with memories of past microaggressions—businesspeople who are surprised that she’s “so articulate;” customs officers that pull her aside while her colleagues pass through unbothered.
As one of few Black women in a position of power within the white, male-dominated world of finance, Carole is often mistaken as someone who works to serve the men in charge. This is one among many unfortunately common microaggressions that people of color who work in elite, white supremacist spaces experience, and these experiences complicate simple narratives of meritocracy that suggest hard work and achievement within society’s mainstream institutions can alone eradicate inequality. Additionally, like many women in male-dominated workplaces, Carole is sexualized by her colleagues. Her identity as a Black woman specifically compounds that misogynistic sexualization as the hyper-sexualization of Black women has deep, historical roots within white-supremacist societies, dating back to the era of slavery.
Themes
Carole is desperate to delete these memories, to be one of the privileged members of society unencumbered with emotional baggage born of experiences like the time she was strip searched in an airport, abroad on another business trip. The physical invasion brought back debilitating memories from the first party she attended at her friend LaTisha’s house, memories she’d shut out for years. At 13 Carole wasn’t interested in boys or parties. She was the “Super Geek” of her class who loved math, just like her single mother, Bummi. She was enamored with her mother’s strength and mathematical intelligence. Carole loved math because she was the best at it and this set her apart from her peers.
Carole, and all other women of color, carry the immense weight of the racism they suffer daily, a weight that white people don’t have to carry. This added weight often makes daily life much harder for people of color. Additionally, these microaggressions haunt Carole and often retrigger the sexual trauma she suffered as a young girl. Carole grew up with a smart, strong mother, who instilled those traits in her. The trauma she suffered interrupted this safe and empowering upbringing.
Themes
In Carole’s flashback to the party, she’s drunk for the first time when she spots a college student, Trey, who she thinks is much more attractive than boys her age. She starts dancing for him, her top showing off her newly developed breasts. She’s so drunk she falls, and Trey swoops in to help her. He puts his arm around her, tells her that she’s hot, and Carole wonders if this is love. He takes her outside, his arm tightening around her head until she feels like she’s floating. She hears other voices around her, then is lying naked on the grass. She closes her eyes, suddenly yearning for sleep, but when she opens them again discovers she’s been blindfolded. Her body is taken away from her as she’s sexually assaulted. In pain, she thinks of her favorite number until it stops. Then the boys are “gone and so was she.”
Carole is young and innocent, and Trey, much older, picks up on that vulnerability. Carole, who has been relatively sheltered so far, gets swept up in the excitement that comes with receiving male attention for the first time. Naively, she thinks she might even be in love with Trey, the first boy who has really ever noticed her. His attention gives her a brief sense of power that immediately dissipates once they step outside the party. His tight hand around her head leaves her feeling like she is floating, literally separating her further from her body, which already feels out of her own control because she’s so drunk. Carole dissociates during her sexual assault, detaching from her body completely in order to survive the horrific trauma. She tries to retreat into her favorite number, into math, which is a steady, comforting constant in her life. When the assault is over and the boys leave, they take who Carole was before the assault with them. Her very self and identity have been stolen.
Themes
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Carole never tells anyone about the assault. She thinks it was her fault for wearing sexy clothes. She sinks into depression, losing her passion for learning, until exactly one year later she’s overcome with motivation to escape poverty, the projects, and the futures she imagines will trap her peers: low-paying jobs, pregnancy, single-motherhood. She wants to prove her teachers wrong, especially Mrs. King, the teacher who’d once praised Carole for her intelligence but had given up on her once she lost her passion to depression.
Patriarchal society commonly blames women for their own assaults, suggesting that it’s their fault for being out late or dressed a particular way. Carole has internalized these beliefs. Her depression threatens her once bright future until one day her desire to achieve upward mobility reignites and supersedes her depression. It’s in this moment that Carole decides to reform the system from the inside. She is going to pursue success within mainstream society not only to avoid being trapped in the cycle of poverty, but to prove everyone wrong.
Themes
Mrs. King is old and has a reputation for being strict. However, Carole knows she is the best person to ask for help. Risking reproach, she asks Mrs. King for advice and is surprised when she agrees to help— so long as Carole adheres to strict rules, among them to stop skipping school and to change her social circle. Mrs. King harasses her for the next four years, for things as incidental as laughing too loud or walking too fast. When Carole earns an interview at Oxford, the admissions tutor is especially impressed by her achievements given the subpar conditions at her high school. When Carole is accepted to Oxford, Mrs. King takes all the credit. At an end of year assembly she makes a speech about her dedication to Carole, rather than letting Carole shine.
Although Mrs. King is Black herself, she sets Carole down the path of assimilation, revealing that assimilation is not only imposed by white people, but by people of color who themselves have assimilated and believe in it. This assimilation requires a separation from her friends, the people who were once her community, but who are seen as bad influences who will interfere with Carole’s ability to conform and assimilate for success. Mrs. King polices Carole’s behavior to make sure how she comports herself adheres to white, middle-class expectations. When Carole gets accepted to Oxford, Mrs. King makes it all about her. She wants to be known as Carole’s savior, and this problematic desire for recognition undermines Carole’s achievement and her empowerment.
Themes
Carole arrives at Oxford, relieved Bummi couldn’t drop her off because she’d come in a colorful Nigerian outfit looking like an embarrassing, “mad African mother.” There are very few brown people at Oxford, and Carole stands out as the darkest. Out of place among her privileged peers, she withdraws into herself feeling worthless and invisible. When she overhears a student call her “ghetto” she wants to speak up for herself but instead starts questioning if she’d heard correctly. Campus security eyes her with suspicion and a classmate assumes she sells drugs.
Carole wants to keep her Nigerian roots separate from her new life at Oxford because she knows this will make assimilation easier. Assimilation is a hard task here because she stands out not only among her predominantly white classmates, but the other students of color as well, due to the colorism that Carole is subject to as someone with darker skin. As a Black woman on this white supremacist campus, Carole is both hyper-visible and invisible. Her race makes her stand out and when people notice her they automatically stereotype her. At the same time she feels invisible, ignored, and overlooked by her privileged classmates whose lives don’t have room for someone like her.
Themes
Home on break, Carole tells Bummi she doesn’t want to return to Oxford because she doesn’t belong. Her mother tells her she must overcome these early setbacks to ascend to the heights that Black women like Oprah, Diane Abbot, and Valerie Amos have achieved. She tells her that she didn’t come to the U.K. so Carole could give up the opportunities she sacrificed so much for. She tells her that she has to go back to school and find her people, even if they end up being white people. That Oxford is a battle, and it’s her “British birthright” to fight them “as a true Nigerian.”
Bummi dreams of a better life for her child and wants her to take full advantage of the opportunities Oxford has to offer. Like many immigrant parents, she highlights the sacrifice and suffering she endured for Carole’s sake. Carole, like many second generation children, is left feeling guilty. To pay her mother back she herself must return to Oxford and endure her own suffering. Bummi references three Black women who have achieved mainstream success, and uses their stories to convince Carole that she can work her way down that path to success, too. Bummi wants Carole to claim her British birthright, which is her hard-earned place at Oxford, while fighting to survive and thrive in that space as a Nigerian. Bummi still believes it is possible for Carole to balance her identities as both a Brit and a Nigerian.
Themes
Carole returns to Oxford ready to fight and ready to forge connections. She surprises herself when she makes friends and gets a boyfriend named Marcus. He’s a white Kenyan with “a thing for black girls,” which Carole doesn’t mind because she is so happy to be desired. She keeps her relationship a secret from her mom who wants her to marry a Nigerian. Carole was scared of men after her assault so is especially surprised that she was able to enter a romantic and sexual relationship with him. Marcus grants her social credit and she loves the way he proudly shows her off and treats her to special dates.
Carole returns more determined than ever to successfully assimilate into her new environment. It’s the only way forward she sees if she wants to escape her misery and isolation. Although Carole has never worked through her trauma from her assault, and so is still very fearful of men, she’s happy to be desired, treated, and showed off by Marcus. Because she is so unused to being desired, she overlooks the way Marcus fetishizes her Blackness.
Themes
From her new friends Carole learns to change her speech patterns. “Who was you talking to?” becomes “to whom were you speaking?” She eats what they eat, discovering foods like sushi, asparagus, and brioche. She doesn’t want to lose herself entirely but wants to be a little more like them. She gets rid of her long nails that make grabbing things difficult and her weaves that irritate her scalp. Ridding herself of these feels freeing. She straightens her hair, and when Marcus tells her he likes it better natural, she replies that she’ll never get a job with natural hair. Carole visits her wealthy classmates’ homes and learns what life and leisure in the upper classes looks like.
Although Carole doesn’t want to lose herself completely, she’s shedding pieces of her identity that are seen as stereotypically Black. She stops speaking Black vernacular English and assimilates to what society deems “proper” or “correct” English. She likewise changes her appearance. While some of those changes seem to affirm and free her, others, namely choosing to straighten her hair, she makes because she knows they’ll help her succeed in a white supremacist world. Black women are often policed in the workplace for wearing their hair in certain styles. Carole’s decision is significant because hair is often a symbol of self-expression and pride for Black women. She feels forced to trade that piece of who she is in order to find mainstream success. Becoming successful for her means being forced to give up pieces of her Black identity.
Themes
Jolted from her flashback, Carole exits Liverpool station, heading towards the bank where she works. She thinks of Freddy still asleep at home. Carole is an avid runner, and she runs to escape drowning in the memory of her rape at 13, for which she’d blamed herself for too long. Carole gets to work, a place where she has to dress in heels, where she relies on her morning mantra to power her through: “I am highly presentable, likeable, clubbable, relatable, promotable and successful.” Carole thinks about how much she loves dancing to Fela Kuti’s polyrhythmic and political music. When she dances, she leaves her body and it becomes hers alone with no one watching or judging. She feels free.
Although she no longer blames herself, Carole’s sexual assault still haunts and threatens to drown her. Carole can’t escape the assault because she can’t escape her body. It’s only when she’s dancing that she can temporarily leave the body that, to her, has been scarred and tainted since that day. At work, as she knew all those years ago when she straightened her hair in university, Carole has to put on a costume in order to fit in and succeed in this patriarchal, elite society. Her mantra is a way of talking herself out of her imposter syndrome.
Themes
Carole walks into the building where she joins her boss, Brian, on the elevator. She remembers going out for drinks with him her first year at the bank, and his long-winded monologue about how he worked his way up to success after growing up in a poor family. Brian was going to get Carole, a meticulous worker, quickly promoted to Associate because he believes meritocracy is a myth in banking. He told her that the days of women having to sleep with their superiors to advance are long gone. He got drunker and eventually propositioned Carole, telling her that he has room for a third woman in his life.
The same type of sexual violence Carole experienced at 13 follows her into adulthood at the bank when Brian propositions her. Like most women, Carole has to contend with sexual harassment in her workplace. Additionally, Brian admitting that meritocracy is a myth in elite banking represents the myth of meritocracy on a larger scale. The white men in power in society, like Brian, perpetuate false narratives of meritocracy that suggest society is equal, as long as people work hard enough. This myth of meritocracy fuels immigrants’ hopes and dreams, and especially impacts second-generation children of immigrants like Carole, who grow up under intense pressure to work hard and make good on their parents’ sacrifices. But just like Brian, the rich, white, and powerful know that meritocracy is a myth for all but the few like Carole who give up so much of themselves in order to succeed.
Themes
In the elevator, Carole and Brian say polite hellos. She can tell he still wants her, but she was still quickly promoted to Associate even though she turned down his advances. Now, she’s a Vice President, something her mom is incredibly proud of. She stares out the giant glass windows of the office, studying the Millennium Bridge and the pedestrians crossing it immersed in their phones more than the world around them. She thinks about how life is all about posting online now. She thinks people will be cyborgs one day, easily controlled so that men won’t commit terrible acts of rape so girls won’t have to live feeling that it’s their fault.
Perhaps because he fears Carole will expose him in a society that increasingly calls men out for harassment in the workplace, Brian promotes Carole. Against all odds and in the face of the many challenges that her intersectional identity as a Black, second-generation woman presents, Carole has made it to a position of power typically reserved for white men. She’s reforming society’s institutions from within and is making English society more diverse and equitable. Her success makes her first-generation mother incredibly proud. She’s lived up to Bummi’s expectations and repaid her for her sacrifices. Carole ruminates on the artificiality of human life and connection in the modern era. But rather than a fearful foreboding of a dystopian future, Carole hopes that technology can become more powerful than men. For Carole, the prospect of a future society controlled by cyborgs is better than the current one controlled by abusive and misogynistic men.
Themes
Carole sees a plane flying towards the airport over the projects where she grew up. The plane makes Carole wonder what happened to LaTisha, who she hasn’t see since she was in high school. She marvels at how they’d once been such good friends and assumes LaTisha must be a “babymother” or in a gang. Carole’s friends from college are all high achieving professionals like her, and she doesn’t see them often. She enjoys a few hobbies. She gazes out at the Tate art museum, thinking about the vast imagination of artists and doubting she has any imagination herself.
From a great height and distance, Carole looks down, both physically and metaphorically, on the projects where she grew up alongside LaTisha. Carole has separated herself from her old home and identity so completely that she now views LaTisha through the same stereotypical lenses that her classmates at Oxford once viewed her through. Her own internalized racism comes out in the way she looks down on and dismisses LaTisha. The art museum reveals that Carole gave up her ability to imagine and dream in order to pursue the rigid and limited path of assimilation and mainstream success. As the second-generation child of immigrants desperate to escape poverty, this is yet another sacrifice she’s made.
Themes
Carole looks out at the National Theater, where a play about Black lesbian warriors is premiering. Freddy bought tickets, joking that it’ll inspire her to have a threesome. She laughs at the joke, enamored with his humor and the way he intuits and respects all her needs. Freddy is one of the two boyfriends she’s had. She’s never dated a Black man, not because she didn’t want to, but because they weren’t interested in her. There weren’t many at her university, and the ones there didn’t go for girls as dark as her. She doesn’t blame them because she sees it as part of what they have to do to survive in a world that views them as a threat.
Carole’s experiences reveal the ways in which race complicates love and romance in white supremacist society. While her mother expected her to date Black, specifically Nigerian, men, Carole has spent most of her adulthood in predominantly white spaces, so didn’t have the opportunity to meet many potential Black partners. She found that colorism rendered her undesirable in the eyes of the few Black men that attended Oxford with her. She understands that their colorism is rooted in their own internalized racism and struggle to succeed in a white supremacist world. Just as she felt she had no choice but to surrender pieces of her Black identity in order to assimilate, she understands that they too are trying to distance themselves from their Blackness, and that dating her would interfere with that objective.
Themes
Carole fell in love with Freddy fast. He grew up very wealthy and so was fascinated with Carole’s impoverished and difficult upbringing. He admired how she’d overcome so many obstacles to get where she is now. Freddy made it to where he is now, a corporate position, through his family’s wealth and connections. Carole lived with Bummi after college to save money, then moved into Freddy’s house once they were engaged. He took on the household duties so that she could pursue her career. His parents, who wanted him to marry someone with an elite lineage like theirs, were shocked when he announced his engagement to Carole.
Freddy lived his entire life in rich, white, privileged spaces. Getting to know Carole is the first time he’s getting to know the world that exists outside of his own privileged bubble. Carole and Freddy’s journey to the point in time when their lives intersected were polar opposites. Carole worked hard and sacrificed so much of herself to achieve what Freddy was born into. Freddy strays from conventional gender roles in order to help her along on her arduous path to elite success. Freddy’s parents’ disappointment highlights how racism shows up in and complicates interracial relationships.
Themes
