Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Skin I’m In, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bullying and Insecurity
Self-Esteem, Support, and Friendship
Writing and Self-Expression
The Importance of Role Models
Summary
Analysis
The first time Maleeka sees Miss Saunders, she knows that the woman is “a freak like [her],” and that Miss Saunders will be teased relentlessly. Her first name is a man’s name, Michael, she’s tall and fat, and there’s a white stain spread across her face. Maleeka has spent a lot of time trying to fit in at McClenton Middle School, and she knows to stay clear of anyone else who will be immediately marked as different.
This opening passage establishes several key dynamics at Maleeka’s school. First, Maleeka illustrates that students will make fun of anything they see as different, as she points out the many attributes for which Miss Saunders will be teased, including a skin condition that is implied to be vitiligo. And even though Maleeka doesn’t yet explain exactly what makes Maleeka a “freak,” students have clearly bullied her for her own differences as well.
Themes
On Miss Saunders’s first day, she asks Maleeka where the principal’s office is. She’s wearing expensive clothing, and Maleeka tries not to look at her face. Maleeka tells her where the office is, and when Miss Saunders asks Maleeka’s name, a boy named John-John McIntyre says that Maleeka isn’t worth knowing. Miss Saunders stares John-John down and tells Maleeka that her skin is pretty, like a “blue-black sky after it’s rained and rained,” which she says comes from a favorite poem of hers.
In Miss Saunders’s first exchange with Maleeka, she immediately recognizes that Maleeka is a target of ridicule from students like John-John. Even without fully understanding that Maleeka is insecure about her dark skin color, Miss Saunders tries to boost Maleeka’s self-esteem and counter the bullies in her life.
Themes
When Miss Saunders walks away, John-John turns to Maleeka and says he doesn’t see her as pretty—he just sees her Blackness. John-John starts singing a song about how he can’t see Maleeka because she’s so dark. Maleeka notes internally that John-John is really short and is as dark as she is, but since second grade he’s been teasing her about being too Black. He sings the song constantly.
Being teased for her skin color makes Maleeka feel insecure about being too dark-skinned—John-John even implies that being Black and being pretty are mutually exclusive. John-John’s song about not being able to see her only makes Maleeka feel even worse about her skin color. Yet, in noting that John-John has the same skin color as she does and that he is very short, Maleeka hints at the idea that John-John bullies her because of his own insecurities, so that she’ll be teased instead of him.
Themes
Maleeka explains that she’s been teased all her life: for being too Black, for being too tall and skinny, and for her ill-fitting clothes, which her mom makes by hand. She often borrows nicer clothes from one of her classmates, Charlese. But one day, the week prior, Maleeka was strutting down the hall and feeling really good in one of Charlese’s dresses when Charlese yelled at her to take off the clothes, and so Maleeka did. After that, Maleeka made up her mind not to let people treat her badly. But she knows that saying so is one thing, and making it happen is another. She hopes that Miss Saunders doesn’t make her situation worse.
Maleeka describes her many insecurities: aside from her skin color, she is also anxious about her body and her clothes. Clothes, in particular, represent Maleeka’s desire to be accepted by her peers. Like John-John, Charlese bullies Maleeka because of her own insecurities. When Maleeka looks good and feels confident in her dresses, Charlese makes her take off the clothes in order to make herself feel better by comparison. And even though Maleeka knows that she shouldn’t let Charlese mistreat her and that friends shouldn’t tear each other down, she struggles to stand up for herself—a problem that will recur throughout the novel.
Themes
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