Boy, Snow, Bird

Identity takes many complicated, nuanced forms throughout the novel. Most obviously, this is a novel about racial passing. However, even though the Whitmans’ racial passing is not revealed until nearly halfway through it, people pass in other ways, foreshadowing the eventual reveal. Boy feels like she’s passing in Flax Hill, as an outsider who seemingly does not bring anything to a town of craftsmen. She meets Mia while Mia is passing as a blonde for a piece, and Mia herself is practicing a form of passing, as she rejects her wealthy background and father’s wishes. Boy likewise practices a form of passing with Arturo, whom she agrees to marry even though she does not truly love him, at least not yet. Once the Whitmans’ heritage is revealed, however, racial passing becomes much more prominent, and other versions seem to fall to the background. The Whitmans treat their passing as a matter of happenstance—they are light-skinned, and fortunate enough to take advantage of that, so they do so in order to avoid the oppression of America, and in particular, the South. However, it is more complicated than that: we discover that their skin