48 pages • 1 hour read
The Vanishing Half: A Novel
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Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “Heartlines (1968)”
Chapter 7 Summary
The narrative turns to Stella in 1968, at the same time that Desiree is returning to Mallard. Unlike her sister’s, Stella’s fortunes are on an upward trajectory. She has married a rich White man whom she met while working as his secretary in New Orleans. Blake Sanders comes from old money, and, over the years, he has distinguished himself as a marketing professional in Los Angeles. The Sanders now have a daughter named Kennedy, and they own a home in Brentwood.
A crisis erupts for the homeowners in the subdivision when they learn a “colored” family will be moving into the neighborhood. Stella rises and makes an impassioned speech to the group, saying that they must keep the “Negroes” out. Everyone applauds her stand on the issue. Blake is amused that his normally quiet wife would get so worked up. He thinks:
He never understood why she averted her gaze when an old Negro woman shuffled past on the sidewalk, why she was always so curt with the elevator operators. She was jumpy around Negroes, like a child who’d been bit by a dog (147).
In reality, Stella is fearful that another Black person might see through her disguise, and she lives in mortal terror that her identity might be exposed.
The homeowners are unable to keep their subdivision all-White. Shortly after the new family arrives, Stella meets the wife while taking Kennedy to school. She greets the woman casually but is terrified by their encounter:
She gripped the wheel tightly during the whole drive to school, rewinding the conversation in her head. That woman’s easy smile. Why did she feel so comfortable speaking to Stella in the first place? Did she see something in her, even across the street, that she felt like she could trust? (161).
Chapter 8 Summary
Everyone in Stella’s subdivision calms down once they realize their new neighbor is a minor celebrity. Reginald Walker is the star of a popular cop show. His wife, Loretta, is attractive, and their daughter, Cindy, is well-behaved. The men seem to bond well with Reg, but the wives remain standoffish toward Loretta.
One day, Stella realizes that Kennedy has gone across the street to play with Cindy. Horrified, she drags her daughter home and tells her not to play with Cindy, using a racial slur. Feeling guilty at snubbing her neighbor, Stella later bakes a lemon cake as a peace offering. She suggests to Loretta that Cindy and Kennedy should spend time together again. The two women eventually strike up a friendship during their children’s regular playdates.
As their camaraderie develops, Loretta invites Stella over to play cards with some of her Black female friends. During the game, the conversation turns to Cindy’s schooling since Loretta plans to send her daughter to a nearby White school. The friends are against the decision. Stella sides with them, saying it will be much harder for Cindy at a White school. Loretta relents, and she sends Cindy to a Black school where she will be accepted.
On another occasion, Loretta asks about Stella’s family. The latter hedges but admits that she once had a twin sister. Stella is tempted to pour out her entire life story to Loretta:
The thought was humiliating but strangely liberating. Maybe Stella could tell her the whole story now and maybe Loretta would understand. That she hadn’t meant to betray anyone but she’d just needed to be new. It was her life, why couldn’t she decide if she wanted a new one? (181).
Chapter 9 Summary
Stella thinks back to her fateful decision to apply for a job as a secretary that would require passing as White after she got fired from the laundry, where she worked with her sister when they first arrived in New Orleans. Desiree encourages the move because their savings are dwindling. Stella contemplates passing with a heady thrill. She’s tired of being seen as one half of a set of twins and thinks, “Being white wasn’t the most exciting part. Being anyone else was the thrill. To transform into a different person in plain sight, nobody around her even able to tell. She’d never felt so free” (183).
After getting the secretarial job, Stella is assigned to work for the man who will become her future husband, Blake Sanders. He treats her with respect, and soon Stella finds herself splitting her identity between the White Miss Vignes and the Black Stella. She begins to notice the everyday slights that she endures as Black without complaint. Eventually, Stella shifts her entire identity to Miss Vignes: “Maybe she wasn’t a mask that Stella put on. Maybe Miss Vignes was already a part of her, as if she had been split in half. She could become whichever woman she decided, whichever side of her face she tilted to the light” (188-89). When Blake asks her to move with him to Boston, her transformation is complete.
Back in the present moment, Christmas week has arrived in the Brentwood subdivision. Stella and her husband are hosting a lavish holiday party, but Stella hasn’t invited the Walkers. Some of the guests make rude jokes about how close Stella and Loretta have become, causing Stella to storm out of the party. Blake later confronts her about her secret friendship and suggests that she find a more constructive outlet for her loneliness.
A few weeks later, bricks are thrown through the windows of the Walkers’ house. The harassment continues until they are forced to move away. Stella fantasizes about confessing her secret to Loretta before the Walkers leave for good but never follows through.
Part 3 Analysis
The narrative now shifts to Stella’s life in 1968, just at the point when Desiree is returning to Mallard. With the focus now squarely on Stella, the novel examines its principal theme of identity construction. The reader sees Stella’s evolution from a secretary passing for White in New Orleans to her current life as a high-maintenance White wife in California. Stella’s own mind is split in terms of her identity. She feels like a liar and a cheat for having betrayed her family of origin, yet she also shows contempt for the Black people who populate her current world. Her biggest identity test comes when a Black family moves in across the street. Stella is simultaneously attracted to and repelled by the idea of confessing her secret to her new neighbor Loretta.
These chapters delve deep into Stella’s motivation. Aside from the obvious material advantages to be gained, Stella seems even more compelled to assume a false persona as a way to shed her twin. Desiree is the dominant sibling, and everyone assumes that Stella will fall in line with Desiree’s likes, dislikes, and life plan. Stella finds it a heady prospect to forge a version of herself that is independent of her sister.
This segment also foregrounds the theme of ostracism in its depiction of the Black family in Brentwood. The upper-class Whites in the neighborhood are threatened by anything different. Initially, they maintain a frosty reserve around the Walkers, but Stella’s friendship with Loretta suggests acceptance and eventual assimilation of the aliens in their midst. Such a threat to the status quo causes Stella’s neighbors to escalate their harassment until the colored family is forced to move away. Stella finds herself torn by the experience. She has lost a friend and potential confidante but has succeeded in protecting her White identity.
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