The Imitation of Life is one of the most powerful cinematic displays of racial passing in movie background. Passing, a popular term especially in the African American community, "occurs when a member of one racial category assumes the ethnicity of another (Alkon, 2012)". The movie was originally manufactured in 1934 with a remake in 1959. The primary personality, Sarah Jane, desired not simply to "pass" within the dominating cultural group (white), but to truly participate in that group and forget her DARK-COLORED identification that comes loaded with much prejudice and hardship. Despite having the racial fluidity to go away, her mom and the individuals who were near to her knew her true ethnicity. Although this is a movie, passing is part of the socio-historical background. In such a paper I am going to examine how Sarah Jane will facework in order to successfully go as a white girl.
There are various types of facework that allow her to be in figure. In Imitation of Life, Sarah Jane was the daughter of a dark-colored housekeeper, who wanted to pass as a white feminine. When attempting to cross ethnic obstacles, there are gains for the person who decides to try and pass. The ultimate gain is popularity into a prominent class in world and the ultimate cost is eventually shedding touch with bloodstream relatives. For example, there is a scene in the movie when Sarah Jane begged her mother to leave her also to never tell anyone they were related. Within this scene, you might see Sarah Jane softening a little bit as her mom embraced her and guaranteed her child that she'd leave her together because she was getting sick and tired of being turned away from her princess. This exchange was the last time they spoke to one another. In the process of passing as a means of survival, the dilemmas facing those who move, is the amount to which they internalize the prominent principles of the oppressor (Yee, 1998). Both of her parents were DARK-COLORED, yet her outward appearance fit all the physical characteristics of a Caucasian person being of lighter pores and skin.
As a young child, Sarah was annoyed because she was presented with a "black" doll. She didn't such as this because she had internalized and embraced that she appeared similar to the other white children around her. Matching to Mead, all children in this world learn at an early age that, in most cases, whiteness is privileged and darkness is not and therefore their alternatives in this regard are usually not unexpected (ISL, 2010). During this scene, she was at incorrect face; she pouted and voiced her unhappiness about the doll and their living situation, and her mom quickly came directly into help Sarah Jane regain face by apologizing, a favorite corrective process. Within the reading, "My Grandmothers Passing", XXX we were created to the writer's grandmother, Mary Douglass, who was also annoyed because her granddaughter found herself as an Anglo North american woman, became upset and distanced herself from her granddaughter after she called her "Mexican" (Lopez McAllister, 2011). In both reports the females involved were of darker pores and skin and experienced self-loathing because of interpersonal comparisons and internalized racism.
Sarah Jane's mother, Annie, could find career as a live-in maid with a battling actress; the relationship of both women clearly identified the social composition in their marriage. Annie was a difficult working woman but her professional status was black. She used emotional labor on a regular basis and rarely got a backstage to perform to when her day was over. In her job as a maid, she were required to do a great deal of surface behaving since it was hard on her behalf to find occupation and keep her little girl with her. She used corrective techniques to avoid competitive interchanges with her workplace and with her princess. The strain of the psychological labor made her ill and this is exactly what we are led to believe is the reason she dies. Through the entire movie, Karl Marx's discord theory of the "haves and the have nots" is clear. The strain between the needing to be a mother and being able to build self-esteem and satisfaction in her little girl was in contrast to her own need of occupation as the maid and caring for their family was quite visible. She did not realize that her compliance in her situation made a sociable dilemma for her daughter. A communal dilemma is an individually reasonable behavior that causes a situation in which everyone is worse off (Newman, 2011).
Sarah Jane grew up moving into the shadow of your rich-white lifestyle longing to be always a real white gal, something she could complete once she experienced part ways from her mom. Matching to Romero (1995), "Sarah Jane needed to learn when she must become the employer's child so when she must expect the appropriate tendencies as the maid's e girl. She has to recognize all the sociable cues and interpret social settings correctly--when to anticipate the same rights and privileged as the employer's children so when to fulfill the goals and responsibilities as the maid's princess" (p. 89). The ways in which parents, family, community and contemporary society transmit various interpretations of contest eventually regulate how one identifies oneself. During the film, Sarah Jane was challenged because she lived in concern with being "found out. " Sarah Jane's sentiment work included a whole lot of deep acting to maintain the role and achieve the master status of any Caucasian person that she was not ascribed. In society, contest is usually visually confirmed.
As Sarah Jane grew old she constantly denied her ethnicity which resulted in another concern. For African People in the usa, understanding the past is essential in analyzing current issues of the community. The subject areas of colorism and the relationship between light and dark skinned Blacks are specially important because history indicates that the topic is imbued with cryptic uncomfortableness (Cunningham, 1997). Light skin area is valued in some minorities especially African American. When Sarah Jane began to time she thought that if she wedded a white man, her children would come out white and nobody would know the wiser. Contrary to her needs, her boyfriend, who was simply white, found out that her mom was dark-colored. He asked her on the night out and savagely beat her and threw her in the gutter. He felt that she tricked him because he would never date outside of his contest. Having one drop of black blood vessels was considered contaminating, and its own presence made one totally and absolutely dark. The main one drop guideline became regulation during re-construction. In addition, many Whites feared an infiltration of dark-colored blood, and anti-miscegenation regulations were born partially out of the fear that a White person might inadvertently marry a black person (Cunningham, 1997). After this beating she thought more resentment towards her mom because she sensed all the road blocks she was facing were her mother's problem.
There are also breaks in facework in which emotions aren't monitored properly. Sarah Jane's status is constantly changing in response to the wide range of communal options she encounters (Romero, 1995, p. 89). In order to avoid embarrassment because of the many awkward situations she confronted because of her race she made a decision to run away in order to keep face. She joined a chorus series in a minimal class night team and became comfortable living as a white female. She successfully handed in her new personality. This allowed her sense of self applied to grow; she could distance herself from the interpersonal norms that were in place for African Americans.
Facework allowed Sarah Jane to avoid stigmatized personal information: After she ran away, in her new environment, there was no-one to stigmatize her as a dark-colored female. She made friends and found a job. Being a light skinned DARK-COLORED was ordinarily a barrier to find jobs because in the eyes of some whites, these were a picture of the results of a merged relationship which was taboo in those days. The mere idea of men and women who were dark-colored being able to pass and live among whites caused an ongoing threat of racial obscurity for white so by natural means passing as a white woman damaged her looking goblet self, by experiencing herself as she thought others found her (Alkon, 2012).
Sarah Jane's mom was growing older and she was getting very sick. She eventually cooperated with Sarah Jane in the process of facework by promising her that she'd never acknowledge that she was her mother so that Sarah Jane could maintain her face and keep the persona of being a white girl. While Annie was dying she told her employer to inform her princess that she was sorry which she had been selfish as her mom but she cherished her because she was the thing she had. WHEN I mentioned above, Annie used facework and corrective functions until she perished. Unfortunately at the end of the movie Annie passed away. Through the funeral, Sarah Jane ran down the crowded neighborhood and threw herself on the coffin, this time around she was screaming and revealing to her mother that she was sorry. She was utilizing a corrective process by apologizing and asking her mom for forgiveness. Alas it was too late because her mother died of a broken center.
In conclusion, Sarah Jane used facework to successfully go as a white female, and allowed Sarah Jane to avoid a stigmatized identity. She could do that because visually you would not know she was BLACK. Passing as a white woman affected her identity because she used profound performing to internalize the white contest that she infiltrated. Sarah Jane's moving deeply damaged her mom because her mom wanted her to have as a dark female and marry dark-colored man. Passing is a little piece of African-American's socio-historical qualifications and usually remains invisible such as a long buried bone, ironically population is more tolerant and would not view it as a stigmatized action. Culture has come quite a distance from the 30's and 50's and there is more opportunity out there to be successful regardless the color of your skin layer.
