The Lighter the Better, Obviously

I watched the wrong version of Imitation of Life last week and blogged on it so hopefully this will make more sense now that I’ve watched the right movie. The first thing that stood out to me was in the very beginning when Annie tells Lora that Sarah Jane’s father was “practically white.” The way she says this is so whimsical and her face instantly lights up as if his lighter skin color is something sacred–and i suppose it is. This is interesting to me because the movie starts in medias res in the sense that at the onset of the film Sarah Jane’s racial issues as a child are seemingly full fledged. The fact that Annie’s tone is so reverent in referring to Sarah Jane’s father’s light skin makes me think that Sarah Jane learned self-hatred by osmosis, by subconciously picking up on her own mother’s intonations when talking about race. I also noticed that Lora is a single mother because she is a widow while Annie is a single mother because she must fulfill the stereotype of an unwed black single mother and because inherent in her blackness is promiscuity. We know nothing about Sarah Jane’s father except that he was light complexioned, we do not even know if Annie was married to him. Furthermore, Lora is unsullied by divorce, her reason for being a single mother is most legitimate.