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Chapter 2
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Yellowface, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Critique of the Publishing Industry
Identity, Power, and Privilege
Social Media and Cancel Culture
Ambition, Success, and Notoriety
Loss, Grief, and Guilt
Revenge and Retribution
Summary
Analysis
June pauses to defend herself to any readers who now consider her a thief, a plagiarist, a liar, or a racist. It isn’t plagiarism; she had to work to transform a rough draft into a fully realized novel. And it isn’t theft; no one knows Athena wrote it, and besides, June thanks her in the acknowledgements. Besides, June continues, Athena was fascinated with literary hoaxes and the question of how an author’s identity influences their success. Maybe she would even have wanted this. June recognizes that people will expect her to feel guilty, but she doesn’t. Instead she’s excited about writing for the first time in years. And besides all of that, she feels that The Last Front constitutes the reparations Athena owed for everything she took from June.
The fact that June defends herself shows that she knows full well she is all three of the things she denies. She took the manuscript from Athena’s apartment after Athena died. She’s passing it off as her own work. And her allegations of reverse racism (claiming that the publishing industry is unfriendly to White women like herself while welcoming nonwhite writers like Athena), as well as her attitude toward the mourners at Athena’s funeral and their odiferous food, show that she is at the very least racially and culturally insensitive and unaware of her own White privilege. But, as she says, she doesn’t feel guilty—she just wants people to like her. So she telegraphs her intention to portray Athena as a villain instead of acknowledging the harm she’s about to cause, knowing full well what she’s doing.
Active
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