The Skin I’m In

by

Sharon Flake

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Self-Esteem, Support, and Friendship Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
Bullying and Insecurity Theme Icon
Self-Esteem, Support, and Friendship Theme Icon
Writing and Self-Expression Theme Icon
The Importance of Role Models Theme Icon
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.
Self-Esteem, Support, and Friendship Theme Icon

Seventh-grader Maleeka Madison struggles to find friends at her new school, and people often make fun of her for her dark skin and clothes. Even when she does find girls like Charlese to hang out with, they often belittle her. But as the year progresses, Maleeka begins to recognize the people in her life who genuinely want to support her, like her peers Caleb and Sweets or her English teacher, Miss Saunders. At the same time, Maleeka finds value in supporting herself. Maleeka’s progression from uncertain to self-assured over the course of the novel illustrates two key ideas: that it’s important to surround oneself with supportive friends, but also that true self-esteem can only come from within.

Maleeka gains confidence from her peers and from the adults in her life, illustrating the value of uplifting friendships and caring guardians. As soon as Miss Saunders, the new English teacher, meets Maleeka and notices John-John picking on her, she compliments Maleeka on her skin, “like a blue-black sky after it’s rained and rained.” Even without fully understanding that Maleeka is insecure about her dark Black skin, Miss Saunders sets out to boost her confidence and counter the bullies in her life. Maleeka’s friend Sweets, who goes to a different school, helps Maleeka get a haircut from her cousin Ronnie. At the salon, the women show Maleeka how to strut and wear her hair in a way that gives her confidence, to the point that she feels “like [she’s] on a runway.” Rather than tearing Maleeka down like the kids at school do, the women at the salon try to empower Maleeka and help her get in touch with her own self-worth. Maleeka finds that the same is true for Caleb, a popular boy in school who likes Maleeka. He writes her a poem that calls her “My sweet dark chocolate candy girl,” and says that he likes her eyes and skin. Caleb also warns Maleeka that Charlese is the kind of friend that will get Maleeka “locked up or shot up” and suggests that she should steer clear of Charlese. Thus, Caleb not only supports Maleeka but also encourages her to rid herself of the toxic friendships in her life. Even Maleeka’s dad, who passed away three years prior to the beginning of the novel, bolsters her self-esteem. Maleeka finds an old poem he wrote for her, in which he called her “brown,” “beautiful,” and “brilliant.” She hangs it on her wall alongside Caleb’s poem, demonstrating how these uplifting messages are so valuable to Maleeka’s confidence that she makes sure she can see them every day in her room.

As valuable as her friendships and mentors are, though, Maleeka ultimately recognizes that she is responsible for her own self-esteem. After Maleeka gets her hair cut, kids make fun of her even though Sweets and the other women in the salon told her how good she looks. After Maleeka puts on a baseball cap and cries in the bathroom, she says aloud, “You know, Maleeka, […] you can glue on some hair, paint yourself white, come to school wearing a leather coat down to your toes and somebody will still say something mean to hurt your feelings.” She recognizes that she can’t rely on others to affirm her, because kids can always find something negative to say. She takes off the baseball cap, a symbolic gesture demonstrating that if she simply has confidence in herself, no one can make her feel less attractive. Maleeka also pulls out an old plastic mirror that her father gave her. She recalls his words: “You got to see yourself with your own eyes. That’s the only way you gonna know who you really are.” The mirror reinforces that the only approval she truly needs is her own. Maleeka uses this newfound confidence to combat the bullies in her life. When John-John calls her “midnight” as an insult to her dark skin, Maleeka thinks of a poem she read in the library: “At midnight, if you have eyes to see / There’s beauty and there’s majesty.” Even though John-John intended the word negatively, Maleeka’s ability to look at it in a positive light helps her to be more confident, not less.

When Maleeka ends her friendship with Charlese, who abuses and bullies her, she reinforces the importance of having both positive, affirming friendships and self-confidence. Charlese frequently insults Maleeka, saying nasty things about her body and the clothing her mom sews for her. Maleeka worries that Charlese will torment her if they don’t remain friends, but that’s the irony in their relationship: Charlese already bullies Maleeka and even forces her to do terrible things like trash Miss Saunders’s room. Ultimately, Maleeka’s newfound self-esteem enables her to see that she doesn’t need Charlese and shouldn’t continue to remain friends with her. At the end of the novel, Maleeka tells Charlese, “if you don’t like me, too bad ‘cause black is the skin I’m in!” Ultimately, Maleeka is able to be confident in herself and acknowledge that friendships should be supportive rather than exploitative.

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Self-Esteem, Support, and Friendship Quotes in The Skin I’m In

Below you will find the important quotes in The Skin I’m In related to the theme of Self-Esteem, Support, and Friendship.
Chapter 1 Quotes

“Thank you,” she says, walking off. Then she stops stone still, like some bright idea has just come to her, turns around, and heads back my way. My skin starts to crawl before she even opens her mouth. “Maleeka, your skin is pretty. Like a blue-black sky after it’s rained and rained,” she says. Then she smiles and explains how that line comes from a favorite poem of hers. Next thing I know, she’s heading down the hall again like nothing much happened.

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Miss Saunders (speaker), John-John McIntyre
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

Char says the dress would look perfect if I had some hips and boobs to go with it. Char blows a fat ring of stinking gray smoke in my face. I laugh, like everybody else. You got to go along with Char if you want to get along with her. You can’t be all sensitive. That’s what Char says.

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Charlese Jones, Maleeka’s Mom, Raise, Raina
Related Symbols: Clothes
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“Liking myself didn’t come overnight,” she says. “I took a lot of wrong turns to find out who I really was. You will, too.” Everybody starts talking at once, asking her questions. Miss Saunders answers ‘em all. Some kids even go up to her face and stare and point. She lets them do it too, like she’s proud of her face or something.

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Miss Saunders (speaker), Charlese Jones
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

At school, everybody’s staring at me. Even John-John’s doing a double-take. When I walk into class, all eyes is on me. Char’s the only one that’s got something negative to say.

“So your momma finally broke down and bought you some clothes. About time,” she says, as soon as we get to Miss Saunders’s class.

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Charlese Jones (speaker), Miss Saunders, John-John McIntyre, Maleeka’s Mom
Related Symbols: Clothes
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:

Day in and day out Kinjari eyes me, staring like he sees the sun rising in my eyes. I want to ask him why he looks at me that way. Am I something so beautiful he can’t help but stare? I keep quiet. Beauty is where one finds it, my father used to say. […]

I was sick, bad, for a long while. When I woke up, Kinjari was gone. Dead. “He had the mark. The pocks,” the girl chained to me said, sucking her front teeth like they was soup bones. “The slavers tossed him over the side,” she said.

But this one, she steals my food. Can I trust her with the truth? I don’t know.

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Akeelma (speaker), Miss Saunders, Charlese Jones, Caleb Assam, Kinjari, Maleeka’s Dad
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

I didn’t plan it that way. I just froze, I guess. The school is so big. So clean. So fancy. And them girls…they looked like they come out of a magazine. Long, straight hair. Skin the color of potato chips and cashews and Mary Jane candies. No Almond Joy-colored girls like me. No gum-smacking, wisecracking girls from my side of town.

That didn’t bother Sweets none. She says she deserves to be in that school as much as anyone.

“You got the right color skin,” I said, poking her fat tan face.

“It’s not about color,” she said. “It’s how you feel about who you are that counts.”

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Charlese Jones, Caleb Assam, Sweets
Page Number: 39-40
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

I jump off the sink and lean close to the mirror on the wall, and think of Daddy. “Maleeka,” he used to say, “you got to see yourself with your own eyes. That’s the only way you gonna know who you really are.”

I reach down into my bag and pull out the little hand mirror Daddy gave me and look at myself real good. My nose is running. I blow it and throw the tissue away. I splash some water on my face and pat it dry. I reach deep down into my pocketbook and pull out the little jar of Vaseline and shine up my lips. Then I ball up my cap, stuff it in my backpack, and walk right on out of there.

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Maleeka’s Dad (speaker)
Related Symbols: Maleeka’s Mirror
Page Number: 47-48
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

I showed this last part to Miss Saunders. She said this is powerful stuff. “Writing is clearly one of your gifts, Maleeka,” she said. I know it sounds stupid, but when I was leaving Miss Saunders’s classroom, I hugged them papers to my chest like they was some boy I’ve been wanting to press up against for weeks. It feels good doing something not everybody can do.

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Miss Saunders, Caleb Assam, Akeelma
Page Number: 92
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

At midnight, if you have eyes to see
There’s beauty and there’s majesty.

Char don’t understand what’s going on with me. She looks at me and calls me stupid, the way I’m smiling to myself.

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Charlese Jones, John-John McIntyre
Page Number: 127
Explanation and Analysis:

“Listen up, Maleeka,” Caleb says, grabbing hold of my arm, and whispering in my ear. “Your girl Char is whacked. You better stay clear of her before she ends up taking you down with her.”

“Char and me are friends,” I say quietly.

“Yeah, right,” Caleb says, shaking his head. “Char’s the kind of friend that will get you locked up or shot up,” he says, walking away.

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Caleb Assam (speaker), Miss Saunders, Charlese Jones
Page Number: 129
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

“All I done for you,” Char says. “You gonna leave me out to dry like this. Wait till later, you ugly, stupid black thing.”

Call me by my name! I hear Akeelma say, and I scream it out, too. “Call me by my name! I am not ugly. I am not stupid. I am Maleeka Madison, and, yeah, I’m black, real black, and if you don’t like me, too bad ‘cause black is the skin I’m in!”

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Charlese Jones (speaker), Miss Saunders, Caleb Assam, Akeelma, Maleeka’s Dad
Page Number: 157-158
Explanation and Analysis:

Charlese gives me a hard look.

She pushes past Miss Saunders and me and makes her way to the door. “Look at you two—two ugly-faced losers,” she says. Miss Saunders don’t even stop Char. She lets her go. Then Miss Saunders hugs me to her, and I feel safe inside.

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Charlese Jones (speaker), Miss Saunders
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32 Quotes

Would you be my Almond Joy
My chocolate chip, my Hershey Kiss
My sweet dark chocolate butter crisp?

Caleb’s poem makes me cry. It is so sweet. I look at my face in the mirror and smile. I promise myself to hang Caleb’s poem on the wall with Daddy’s and the one from the library.

Related Characters: Maleeka Madison (speaker), Caleb Assam (speaker), Maleeka’s Dad
Related Symbols: Maleeka’s Mirror
Page Number: 161-162
Explanation and Analysis: