Caucasia
One of the common themes throughout Caucasia has been that of “passing” and how Birdie associates herself as multiracial. In this section we see Birdie alternating between two different aliases, that of Birdie Lee and Jessie Goldman. Birdie transitions from these personas in order to keep her mother happy, and essentially leads two different lives.
Birdies confusion and resentment relating to her double life is seen on page 297 where she imagines herself as the monster from Frankenstein.
“I had liked the image of myself as a monster, an unfinished creation turned against its make, and had terrorized a shrieking, giggling Alexis, walking toward her with my arms out in front of me, my legs stiff as wooden planks.”
Its easy to see why Birdie associates herself with Frankenstein because she has no real permanent identity. Like the monster she is outcast and different from everyone else. She wants to be Birdie Lee and be with her sister but is forced to become the Jewish Jessie Goldman when with her mother.
tdubz21 said,
December 14, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I too thought it was very interesting when she compared herself to Frankenstein. Horrible, really. It went to show how she definitely thought rather little of herself; as if she was just a creation, all simply because she is half black and half white. I really think that it’s awful that that happened to her. I found it interesting that she chose to take the Jewish side.