As Maleeka and her peers progress through the seventh grade, several adults—particularly Miss Saunders, the new English teacher; Maleeka’s mom; and Charlese’s older sister, JuJu—guide them. While all three of these women want to see the children in their lives succeed, they sometimes fail to be good role models. Miss Saunders’s character highlight how kids need positive role models in their lives who will model good behavior and encourage kids to live up to their full potential. But through Maleeka’s mother and especially Charlese’s sister, Flake emphasizes that poor role models will lead children to be less successful or confident in themselves, and sometimes engage in harmful behavior.
Miss Saunders, the new English teacher, becomes an impactful mentor for the students—and particularly Maleeka—by setting a good example and pushing them to work hard. When Miss Saunders identifies Maleeka’s talent for writing and gives her extra credit to continue a journaling assignment, Maleeka starts to grow more and more proud of her work. She thinks, “It feels good doing something not everybody can do.” This gives Maleeka the confidence to submit her work to a local library competition—and she wins $100. Only through Miss Saunders’s mentorship is Maleeka able to affirm and display her talent. Then, after Maleeka gets in a fight with another girl because of Charlese, Miss Saunders gets Maleeka a job in the principal’s office filing papers, explaining that she feels Maleeka is wasting her potential and can get into less trouble when she’s under the principal’s eye. She also frequently separates Maleeka and Charlese when they hang out in the girls’ bathroom during class, knowing that their relationship is bad for Maleeka because Charlese bullies her. Miss Saunders’s involvement in Maleeka’s life sets her on a better path to take advantage of her intelligence and removes her from bad influences. Miss Saunders also models good behavior for Maleeka. Despite having a skin condition, implied to be vitiligo, on her face, Miss Saunders refuses to let students like Charlese bully her. When Charlese insults Miss Saunders’s face, Miss Saunders lets Charlese know that “there’s nothing Charlese can say about her face that she ain’t heard in at least four different languages.” Seeing Miss Saunders’s confidence shows Maleeka that she doesn’t have to take Charlese’s abuse, either. At the end of the novel, when Maleeka finally tells Miss Saunders about the vandalism that Charlese influenced Maleeka to commit at the school, Miss Saunders hugs Maleeka, and Maleeka feels “safe inside.” Miss Saunders’s support, as well as her modeled behavior, enable Maleeka to escape the abuse she’s been suffering from Charlese.
Maleeka’s mom also encourages her daughter to live up to her potential, but the novel doesn’t always frame her as a positive role model, because Maleeka acknowledges that her mother doesn’t always model good behavior. Maleeka’s mother wants Maleeka to succeed: she makes sure that Maleeka goes to school every day and even tries to get her into a better school so that she can have a more promising future. She also punishes Maleeka when she gets into trouble, restricting her from hanging out with Charlese and other friends. And she encourages Maleeka to recognize her own value, telling her that she could be a professional writer. She knows that Maleeka is smart and tries to make sure that Maleeka will take advantage of her intelligence. However, Maleeka recognizes that her mother isn’t the best role model. She often looks for get-rich-quick schemes like the lottery or playing the stock market, which leaves them “dirt poor.” Maleeka also recalls that when her dad died three years prior, her mother fell apart: Maleeka fed her mother and brushed her teeth for a long time until her mother picked up sewing. Even though Maleeka loves her mother deeply, Maleeka worries that if her mother stopped sewing clothing, she would be consumed by sadness once more. This is why Maleeka never tells her mom how much Maleeka gets picked on for the clothes her mom makes. While both Miss Saunders and Maleeka’s mom want what’s best for Maleeka, her mother fails to set a good example for Maleeka and make her feel fully supported.
Charlese’s sister JuJu, on the other hand, neither looks out for her sister Charlese’s future nor models good behavior, and this choice contributes to Charlese’s failure to complete seventh grade. JuJu and Charlese’s parents died two years prior to the novel’s events, and so 25-year-old JuJu takes care of Charlese. On the surface, JuJu appears to genuinely care about her sister. When Miss Saunders gives Charlese bad grades, JuJu goes to the principal’s office to address the issue so that Charlese can move up to eighth grade (this is her third time in seventh). However, JuJu yells at Miss Saunders and blames her for Charlese’s poor performance, saying that Miss Saunders doesn’t know what she’s doing and threatening her. This conduct trickles down to Charlese, who not only abuses her peers but also plans to get revenge on Miss Saunders for giving her bad grades. By showing the way Charlese imitates JuJu’s bad behavior, Flake highlights how negative role models can instigate bad behavior in children who look up to them. At the end of the novel, after Maleeka reveals that Charlese was the one who forced her to mess up Miss Saunders’s classroom (Charlese’s plan for revenge against Miss Saunders), JuJu sends Charlese to live with their grandparents in Alabama. Her poor modeling has not only led Charlese not to finish seventh grade at the school, but it also shows that JuJu is completely unfit to take care of her younger sister. Through these three women, Flake suggests that guardians should both inspire children to behave and also model good conduct: failing to do so leaves children vulnerable and puts them at risk of bad behavior.
Related Themes from Other Texts
The Importance of Role Models ThemeTracker
The Importance of Role Models Quotes in The Skin I’m In
Charlese, she’s crazylike. Next thing I know, she’s telling Miss Saunders to mind her own business. She says something about her face. Worm’s telling Char to cool it. He’s dragging her down the hall with his hand covering her big mouth. The new teacher don’t know when to quit. She tells Worm to hold on a minute. Then she says her piece. She’s letting Charlese know that she’s traveled all over the world, and there’s nothing Charlese can say about her face that she ain’t heard in at least four different languages.
“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.
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.
The class gets so quiet, it’s scary. “I was ten years old and brushing her teeth, feeding her oatmeal like a baby. She cried all the time. Last year, she finally came to. Got up one day, went and bought a sewing machine, and started making clothes. Ain’t never sewed nothing before. Just started, day and night, sewing.”
Some kids at the back of the room start to snicker and make smart remarks. Shut up, I’m thinking. Just shut up.
“The more she sewed them clothes, the better she got. She started picking up after herself. Got a job and all. No, ain’t nothing good come from loving somebody so much you can’t live without ‘em,” I say. “No good at all.”
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.
The words is written out real neat and straight and strong.
Brown
Beautiful
Brilliant
My my Maleeka
is
Brown
Beautiful
Brilliant
Mine
Momma is calling me. I can’t answer. My mouth is full of Daddy’s words, and my head is remembering him again. Tall, dark, and smiling all the time. Then gone when his cab crashed into that big old bread truck. Gone away from me for good, till now.
“This ain’t right,” I whisper.
Char grabs hold of my hand, and says, “Do it, or I ain’t never gonna bring you no clothes.”
I shake my head. “No.”
“You protecting Miss Saunders?” Char wants to know. “You protecting that hussy? Why? She don’t like you, neither. All the time making a fool out of you in class. You stupid girl. Do like I say or I’ll do something to mess you up.”
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.
