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Chapter 4: Grace
Themes
and Colors
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
Amma enters the after-party of The Last Amazon of Dahomey and is greeted with a champagne toast, ecstatic round of applause, and Roland, who kisses her on the cheeks. She looks beautiful in a wraparound dress that she’s paired incongruously with sneakers, an homage to her rebellious teenage self. Everyone agrees the play is a success. A “usually savage pit-bull of a critic” has already given it a five-star review. She’s finally achieved the large-scale success that Roland told her she could have had earlier if she’d produced some “multi-culti Shakespeares” early in her career rather than her “agit-prop rants.”
Roland narrates the beginning of chapter five, becoming the only male narrator in this chorus of voices. His narration highlights Amma’s entry into the mainstream where he’s existed for years at this point. The play’s resounding success marks her transition from radical to reformer and puts the play’s radical subject matter into question. Amma’s story, by and for Black women, is radical, but its place on a mainstream stage threatens to dilute that radicalness. Roland’s comment about “multi-culti Shakespeares” likewise questions the radical potential of the cultural mainstream. Racially non-traditional casting, the practice of having people of color play traditionally white roles in white-authored narratives, can be viewed both as a sign of progress or a lazy attempt at diversity and inclusion.
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Roland spots “Chairman Mao Sylvester” who he’d hooked up with in his younger, partying years. Reminiscing on those days isn’t nostalgic, but a reminder of “El Diablo” who took so many of their peers. Sylvester reluctantly admits to Roland that the play is Amma’s best work, but he’s still resentful that she sold out to the “Boring Suits” who are scattered throughout the party. Sylvester rants against the corporate sell-outs. Roland is still upset that Sylvester has never acknowledged his success. He rehearses what he’s going to say about the play on the news the following day out loud to Sylvester.
Roland’s derisive nickname for Sylvester underscores the division between radicals and reformers. On the other hand, their queer identities, and their shared experience of loss during the AIDS epidemic, brought them together, pointing to the potential for radical and reformer to unite. Sylvester admits that this is Amma’s best play yet, but couches that compliment in a further criticism. Similarly, Sylvester is unwilling to acknowledge Roland’s success. Roland desperately wants his approval while at the same time he is unwilling to reciprocate and acknowledge Sylvester’s successes in life. Both Roland and Sylvester are uncompromising in their views, representing on a larger scale how both radicals and reformers struggle to acknowledge that each side contributes to overall social change.
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Annoyed with Roland’s academic ramblings, Sylvester cuts him off and walks away. This deeply offends Roland, who thinks, “you can keep your social conscience, Comrade” because Roland has cultural capital, which he sees as a far more powerful currency. Roland is “too sophisticated” to shout at Sylvester, so he suppresses the urge. He spots Shirley, whose outfit he derides for being old-fashioned, and Dominique, who is still “sexy in a dykey-bikey way.” He sees his partner, Kenny, fawning over a Black security man. They’ve been together 24 years and are polyamorous. Roland ruminates on the simple fact that he “prefers white flesh” while Kenny prefers black.
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Roland walks outside and looks out onto the Thames. He loves London and the city loves him back. But the current political trends threaten to disrupt this equilibrium. He remembers a recent appearance on BBC news with a “Brexiteer” who called him “a metropolitan elite” at odds with the “ordinary and hardworking” British outside of the city. Roland is angry because, as a son of working-class African immigrants, he worked hard to ascend the ranks of class and education to where he is now. He asks the commenter if he means to suggest that Black people should work only in service professions. Roland tells the Brexiteer that his family was chased out of the English countryside by racists mere months after they arrived from Gambia. He explains that this is why Black people made their homes in cities.
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While responding to the critique, Roland thinks to himself that he’s loath to use the word black, which he thinks is “crude.” The audience cheers Roland on. The debate ends and he’s the clear winner, but rather than feel proud he’s angry that he had to discuss race and that he's viewed “as a spokesman for cultural diversity” when the debate goes viral. Roland is decidedly not an ambassador of cultural diversity.
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An arm around his waist interrupts this memory. He’s happy Yazz is hugging him rather than yelling at him. Yazz tells him she’s so glad the play is a success and they both agree they’re proud of Amma. Roland credits Yazz with his success, dividing his life into “Before Yazz” and “After Yazz” eras. He was honored when Amma asked him to be her sperm donor and co-parent, and he wanted to be as successful as possible for his future child.
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While Amma’s career is intertwined with her identities, his has never been that way. Roland hates that Black intellectuals, like all Black people in Britain, are still so defined by their race. He sees his Blackness and gayness as “footnotes” in his life, genetic factors he was born into. He doesn’t feel like he can identify as Gambian since he immigrated when he was only two. Early in his career he decided to become a part of the establishment that wasn’t going to accept him. He decided against “carrying the burden of representation,” which would hold him back while white people, who aren’t expected to represent their entire race, would easily get ahead.
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From the moment Yazz was born, Roland has loved Yazz more than he loves anyone else, even Kenny. Like Amma, she refuses to play by the rules, and he’s worried what will happen to her in a world that punishes rebels. He wants her to become “proficient in the discourse of diplomacy.” Yazz comments how the skyline looks so beautiful at night, which launches Roland into a lecture about the ancient predecessors of skyscrapers. Yazz drifts off to talk to an androgynous, tattooed person. Roland is overcome with an emptiness as she leaves. He misses how she loved him so unconditionally when she was young. So many people are stunned by his success. All he wants Yazz to say is a simple “you done good, Dad.”
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Carole stands alone in a corner, self-conscious about the fact that she and the other bankers in their business attire look out of place at this after-party. Her husband, Freddy, works his way around the room charming everyone with his “upper-class confidence.” Carole envies his natural social skills. Carole was intrigued by the play, but didn’t know much about Benin, the neighbor of her parents’ homeland, Nigeria, which she also knows little about. Her lack of knowledge about her heritage isn’t her fault. Her mother couldn’t return to Nigeria after her parents’ deaths. Carole understands that her mother will “never be one of those West African matrons one sees at airports with a trolley-full of excess baggage.” Carole would like to visit Nigeria one day with her mother, Freddy, and Kofi, who she loves because he’s perfect for her mom.
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Carole felt embarrassed when confronted with a stage full of Black women “as dark or darker” than her. She may have felt validated if the play was about a black woman achieving “legitimate success,” rather than a bunch of lesbian warriors. During the intermission she noticed white audience-members looking at her with more friendliness and approval. She noticed that there were more Black women in the audience than she’d ever seen at the National. They’re decked out in “extravagant head ties,” “voodoo-type necklaces,” and “leather pouches containing spells (probably).” They give Carole the “black sisterhood nod, as if the play somehow connected them together.” She panics at the thought that the nod might be the “black lesbian sisterhood nod,” which prompts her to grab onto Freddy.
She’s ready to leave the party when she spots Mrs. Shirley King walking towards her. Carole and Shirley are mutually shocked to find each other at this most unlikely of places after all these years. Shirley notices Carole looks elegant and refined, which she takes as a sign that she’s been successful and makes her feel frumpy in comparison. She’s suddenly overcome with anger and old feelings that Carole failed to keep in touch after all she’d done for her. Carole greets Shirley with an unrecognizable accent and reveals that she’s a banker. They agree that they aren’t very into the play, though Shirley feels ashamed for betraying Amma. She wishes she could boast about her friend in the teacher’s lounge but can’t, given that it’s about lesbians.
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Carole assumes Shirley must be retired, but Shirley tells her she’s still working at the “insane asylum” that continues to churn out the next generation of “prostitutes, drug dealers, and crackheads.” Shirley laughs at her own comment, expecting Carole to do the same, but instead Carole looks astounded. Shirley tries to backtrack, explaining that she still “rescues” the exceptional students. Shirley flushes with embarrassment, while Carole wishes Freddy would deliver her from this awkward interaction with this old, sweating woman. She’s shocked that Shirley is so nervous when, the last time they’d seen each other, Shirley held an abusive power over her.
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They sit in an awkward silence until Shirley says goodbye. Carole sees a sad glint in her eyes, surprised to see she seems capable of having feelings. Carole suddenly sees Shirley through adult eyes, not the eyes of an angry teenager, and realizes that she was doing her best even if she went about it in the wrong way. Worried she’s upset the old woman, she tells Shirley that she owes her an overdue thank you for all she’d done to help her. Shirley insists that she was only doing her duty as a teacher, and that Carole’s success was thanks enough. Shirley starts crying, and it’s only in this moment that Carole realizes that Mrs. King helped her when no one else could.
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Embarrassed by her uncontrollable emotions, Shirley rushes off feeling lighter and excited to tell Lennox about this encounter. She’s eager to leave the party, which she finds grating. She’d rather be at a party where everyone is like them and where there’s “rice, peas, curry goat simmering […] in the kitchen.” Searching for Lennox, she spies Roland who she got to know after she became Yazz’s godmother, and who she used to dislike because he made her feel inferior. Now his air of superiority makes her laugh.
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Shirley wants to find Amma so she can say goodbye, but spots Dominique making her way over to her first. Earlier in the night when Dominique asked Shirley about her life, she felt Dominique looking down on her “pathetic little life.” Shirley was never jealous of Amma and Dominique’s friendship because she and Amma had already drifted apart ideologically at that point. They maintained a friendship based on loyalty and history. She wanted to say goodbye to Amma, who she’d hardly had a chance to speak to at the party, but instead lets her walk off with Dominique. She and Lennox finally leave the party, passing Yazz on the way out who, earlier, hadn’t introduced Shirley to her edgy-looking friends, a slight she assumes means Yazz thinks she’s boring. Shirley’s happy to be heading home where she and Lennox will drink hot chocolate and watch The Great British Bake Off.
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Tucked away in the bathroom, Amma waits while Dominique cuts lines of coke just like it’s the old days. No amount of distance or time can dilute their friendship. They get high, Dominique remembering that this used to be their opening night ritual. Amma asks Dominique if she truly liked her play, and Dominique reassures her like she has been doing all night. Dominique took an overnight flight to surprise Amma at her premiere. She flies out in the morning. She rarely visits to see her friend’s plays because she wants to avoid all these people from her past, like Roland and Sylvester, who she’d caught up with briefly earlier.
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She’d unfortunately run into Shirley earlier, too, Amma’s most boring friend, a closet homophobe who Amma nonetheless defends fiercely. Dominique thinks all these old acquaintances have gotten worse with time, and that their worst traits are more prominent than ever. Dominique loved the chance to see Yazz, who is feisty as ever flanked by her cool university friends, including an especially “funky” girl in a hijab. Yazz tells her she’s her “Number One godmother,” and asks her to pay for a trip out to Los Angeles.
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Dominique takes a black and white photo out of her bag and hands it to Amma. It’s a photo of them with their middle fingers up, triumphantly standing on an exterior balcony of the National. Amma marvels at how young they look and how much time has passed since those days. Dominique sees the photo as a relic of a bygone era. Now Amma is an unstoppable powerhouse blowing up the National Theatre. This is the praise Amma was seeking out all night, and in that moment everything is perfect.
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Back at Amma’s place, the two friend stay up chatting long after the rest of Amma’s friends have gone to sleep. Amma tells Dominique that The Last Amazons of Dahomey is likely the peak of her career. She’s worried that she still has a lot left to give, but her ability to make social change through theater will be limited in England from here on out. Dominique agrees and tells her to join her in the U.S. where there’s more potential, despite the country’s own political problems. Amma says she doesn’t want to leave Yazz, and that she likes England even though it frustrates her endlessly.
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Dominique says that she loves England, too, but that it’s a “living memory,” stuck in the past while she’s living in the present. Amma jokes that it sounds like she’s been talking to her therapist, and Dominique suggests that Amma should try seeing one herself. Amma insists she doesn’t have any “disturbing psychological” issues to work out. Dominique explains that she views therapy as a type of consciousness-raising, which Amma critiques as an outdated word.
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Dominique asserts that feminism is making a comeback these days. It’s on trend and Dominique hates that. Amma doesn’t understand why this is a bad thing, and Dominique explains that it’s because feminism is being commodified by the mainstream. Amma argues the media has always elevated beautiful women within the feminist movement, like Gloria, Germaine, and Angela. Dominique says that the “trans troublemakers” these days also bother her. She was called out for being transphobic when she advertised her festival as being for “women-born-women.” The protest was started by a relentless Twitter activist, Morgan Malenga.
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Amma points out Dominique’s hypocrisy, reminding her that she used to be the troublemaking protestor. Amma warns her that she’ll become irrelevant if she doesn’t stay open-minded. Amma explains that Yazz is helping her stay “woke” by confronting her outdated thinking. Amma tells Dominique she’s sure she has her own devoted following of “heroine” worshippers back in the States, but Dominique says the young people see her as an old person who is part of the problem. Amma says that Dominique needs to talk to these young people and focus on celebrating this new evolution and reawakening of feminism. “How can we argue with that?” she asks.
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