Caucasia novel essays

Danzy Senna is an American novelist, born 1970 in Boston, Massachusetts to parents, Carl Senna, an Afro-Mexican poet and author, and Fanny Howe, writer. Both of her parents were civil rights activists. Senna attended Stanford University and received an MFA from the University of California at Irvine.

Caucasia (1998) is an American novel written by Danzy Senna. Caucasia is the coming-of-age story of Birdie and Cole, multiracial sisters who have a white mother and black father. The novel is set in Boston, Massachusetts during the turbulent mid-1970s. Much of the novel centers around the theme of racial passing.

The book is written in three parts: Part 1 takes place in 1975 Boston and Roxbury, Massachusetts, when Birdie is eight years old; Part 2 takes place in a small town in New Hampshire six years later when Birdie is 14 years old; Part 3 takes place when Birdie is 14 ½ years old and runs away from her mother to try to find her father and sister.

She and her older sister, Cole, converse in their room using their made-up language, Elemeno. The pair can hear their Caucasian mother, Sandy and African American father Deck, arguing downstairs. The confrontation results in Deck moving out for good.