The Skin I'm In

“Charlese, she’s crazylike. Next thing I know, she’s telling Miss Saunders to mind her own business. She says something about her face. Worm’s telling Char to cool it. He’s dragging her down the hall with his hand covering her big mouth.”

This passage characterizes Charlese as loud, disobedient, and stubborn. Just as Charlese resists Worm’s restraint, she resists Miss Saunders’s authority as well. Because Charlese insults her teacher’s face, this scene also characterizes her as shallow and cruel.

“Then John-John started singing his song. ‘Maleeka, Maleeka, we sure want to keep her but she so black, we just can’t see her.’”

This quote illustrates hyperbole, a literary device that uses exaggeration to describe something. In this example, Maleeka’s brown skin is described as purely black to emphasize and mock her darkness. Since song lyrics are a form of poetry, this may be the one instance in the novel where poetry is associated with shame and self-hatred.

“Then she’s back, talking that talk. ‘So, what’s my face say to the world?’ she asks. ‘My face says I’m smart. Sassy. Sexy. Self-confident,’ she says, snapping her fingers rapid-fire. ‘It says I’m caring and, yes, even a little cold sometimes. See these laugh lines,’ she says, almost poking herself in the eyes. ‘They let people know that I love a good joke. These tiny bags? They tell the world I like to stay up late.’”

Miss Saunders engages the students in an exercise about what each person’s face says to the world. Her personal response gives her an opportunity to characterize herself using the adjectives of her choice. The reader learns that Miss Saunders is smart, sassy, and sexy; additionally, her ease with saying this aloud confirms the confidence she claims to have.

“Char’s figuring I’ll do all the work. But Miss Saunders is hip to that game. She says she’s picking our partners. She hooks me up with Desda. Char don’t like that one bit.”

In The Skin I’m In, Flake imitates a young, “inner-city” African American girl’s voice. She captures this voice by using slang (“hip to that”), casual figures of speech (“hook me up”), and grammatical structures that characterize African American Vernacular English (AAVE) (“Char don’t like that”).

“‘How come you don’t talk proper, like Akeelma talks in her diary?’ she asks.

‘Don’t nobody talk like that for real, only people in old movies and books.’ Then I tell her how, before he died, my father read me books where people spoke like that. ‘Some of it stuck, I guess.’”

Between the main narrative of Maleeka’s life and the embedded narrative of Akeelma’s story, Flake must use two different writing styles. She does this to differentiate between Maleeka’s spoken, personal style of speech and the style she uses as a writer. Here, Maleeka demonstrates the common practice of “code switching,” or a switch between two types of language depending on the audience or context.

“Daphne’s itching for a fight. I can feel it. The next thing I know, she’s grabbing hold of my braids. She got them wrapped around her hands like boxing tape and is punching me upside the head with them.”

This is the first of three fights that Maleeka is involved in. In this first fight, Maleeka is taken by surprise and is beaten up. When comparing this fight to the final one, between Maleeka and the boys who attack John-John, the reader can see Maleeka’s character development. Here, she is caught by surprise and loses; in the final fight, she chooses to involve herself, and she wins.

“‘Sometimes, Mr. Mac, you need new ideas, to do things differently. Nothing wrong with a little change, is there?’ he asks.”

In this scene, Principal Pajolli responds to Mr. Mac’s complaints about Miss Saunders’s new ways of doing things. This reflects the major theme of positive change and departing from the norm. Maleeka’s dark skin is treated as unusual, as is Miss Saunders’s facial mark. However, both characters demonstrate that being different can be very good.

“I went to the interview and wouldn’t answer one question they asked. Momma was so embarrassed. She cried all the way on the subway ride home. I didn’t plan it that way. I just froze, I guess. The school is so big. So clean. So fancy. And them girls… they looked like they come out of a magazine. Long, straight hair. Skin the color of potato chips and cashews and Mary Jane candies. No Almond Joy-colored girls like me. No gum-smacking, wisecracking girls from my side of town.”

Maleeka has internalized colorism, a prejudice that favors fair skin over dark skin. Here, Maleeka associates fair skin and straight hair with cleanliness and fanciness. She is anxious about possibly attending a school where she stands out because of her complexion.

“I jump off the sink and lean close to the mirror on the wall, and think of Daddy. ‘Maleeka,’ he used to say, ‘you got to see yourself with your own eyes. That’s the only way you gonna know who you really are.’”

This excerpt addresses self-perception in both literal and metaphorical ways. On the one hand, Maleeka looks at herself in the mirror and closely examines her face. On the other hand, her father’s words refer not only to the way one sees oneself but also the way one understands one’s identity. Throughout the novel, when Maleeka remembers Daddy, she also remembers her self-worth.

“Momma never gives up, though. She’s always looking for new ways to make money. She’s sold Tupperware, magazines, and pretty junk for kitchen walls. We’re still poor as dirt.”

Despite the tragedy of Daddy’s death, Momma constantly attempts to fend off poverty. This quote characterizes Momma as resilient; she “never gives up” (34) and offers an example that Maleeka later follows when she finally refuses to be defeated by Charlese’s peer pressure.

“I hand the homework to Raise. ‘I didn’t have time to do the social studies,’ I say, lying through my teeth. The social studies paper is still in my bag. It’s the first time I don’t give Char what she’s asked for.”

This is a turning point in Maleeka’s character development. She has been fully obedient to Charlese, Raise, and Raina until this point. However, when she secretly keeps Charlese’s social studies homework, she exhibits a defiance and a strong sense of justice.

“So I can’t help licking my lips when that girl put the last fingerful of my food in her mouth. A thief, that one is. Yesterday I grabbed her hands and tried to take back what was mine. It fell to the floor, and someone else scooped it up. She is a lion who cares for no one but herself.”

After she secretly withholds Charlese’s history homework, Maleeka writes this diary entry for her fictional character Akeelma. As with most of the letters, this reflects the real events in Maleeka’s life. Just as Akeelma fights back for her food, Maleeka finally takes a step toward fighting back for respect.

“Jerimey starts rubbing his cheeks. ‘You gotta love yourself, baby. If you don’t, who will?’”

Jerimey recalls another of the main themes in the novel—self-love. While Maleeka struggles to love herself, Jerimey has no issue doing so. While he seems self-centered, he communicates the important lesson that one must love themselves before they can truly accept love from others. Indeed, once Maleeka fully loves herself, she can accept love from Caleb as well.

“The sea is wild and mean. Water is crashing against the boat like a hundred angry lions. My body is wet with sweat and throw-up from the others pressing close around me like sticks of firewood. They chain us together like thieves and beat us till we bleed. I have made up my mind, though. I will show no weakness. I will be strong. Strong like the sea and the wind.”

This Akeelma letter excerpt correlates to Maleeka’s own decision to overcome the challenges she faces at school and at home. Maleeka also demonstrates strong writing skills here, using a simile to describe the water crashing against the boat (“like a hundred angry lions”).

“I don’t give those evil kids no second chances. I run like the wind. I run and run and run till I can’t breathe no more. When I’m almost home, I sit down on some steps near my house, and cry. My whole body is shaking and seems like it won’t ever stop. Tears and snot are running down my face. No more back streets, fool, I tell myself.”

This is the second fight that Maleeka is involved in. Her fear and decision to run away contrast with the final fight of the novel, where Maleeka stands her ground and fights back. This also signals a significant dramatic moment in the narrative that causes Maleeka to write more, leading to her winning the library writing contest.

“Mostly, I’m thinking and writing in my diary—our diary, Akeelma’s and mine. Lately it’s hard to know where Akeelma’s thoughts begin and mine end.”

Maleeka acknowledges that the embedded narrative of Akeelma’s life on a slave ship is closely tied to Maleeka’s own life. The Akeelma letters function as both a fictional writing exercise and a personal journal of self-expression. Akeelma becomes a figure through which Maleeka can process her own trauma.

“‘You gonna be a slave, or your own master?’ Char asks, crossing her arms. If I was my own master, I wouldn’t ever speak to you again, I want to say. But, instead, I just tell Char I’ll see her later.”

Charlese accuses Maleeka of being a slave to Miss Saunders and the rules of the school. Charlese demonstrates a false understanding of freedom as misbehavior. Maleeka, however, exemplifies that freedom can and should include a consideration of others’ feelings and the greater good.

“Caleb writes back: You have to take a stand when things aren’t right.”

Caleb speaks an important message of the novel. Miss Saunders illustrates the same idea in how she chose to teach at McClenton Middle School, because being a good teacher in a difficult environment is the right thing to do. Caleb’s message also perfectly describes Maleeka’s eventual confession that Charlese was involved in the classroom fire. She stands up for herself and the truth.

“I figure Miss Saunders is on the stage, so I go into the auditorium by the backstage. The ninth graders are putting on The Wiz and they got all kinds of junk on stage.”

This quote offers an example of intertextuality, or the reference to stories that are external to the story itself. As Miss Saunders stands on the stage set for The Wiz (based on The Wizard of Oz), Miss Saunders is also very much like Dorothy. She, too, is in a new and unusual place but tries to make it better (just as Dorothy helps the scarecrow, the lion, and the tin man).

“She finally gets around to what she’s been wanting to say all along, I guess. ‘Have you told anyone about my conversation with Tai?’ Miss Saunders gives me a hard look and goes on about how important it is for a teacher to not have her personal business out among students. How it can ‘undermind her credibility,’ whatever that means.”

Miss Saunders now shows vulnerability that she has previously hidden behind a confident attitude. This enables the reader and Maleeka to appreciate Miss Saunders as a relatable character. It characterizes her as strong but sensitive, much like Maleeka has been.

“Momma is calling me. I can’t answer. My mouth is full of Daddy’s words, and my head is remembering him again. Tall, dark, and smiling all the time. Then gone when his cab crashed into that big old bread truck. Gone away from me for good, till now.”

Poetry is a significant motif that is often tied to love and beauty. Maleeka reflects on her father’s death and feels that he has been gone “till now,” when she finds the poem. Having the poem feels to her like having a piece of her Daddy.

“Working in the principal’s office has got its benefits. You get to see and hear everything. Like parents coming in to tell Mr. Pajolli off.”

Because Flake writes from a child’s first-person perspective, she faces the writing challenge of how she will tell the reader about the adults’ private knowledge and personal feelings when those are typically kept from younger people. Flake uses eavesdropping as a device to give Maleeka and the reader special access to the adults’ world. Maleeka eavesdrops in the auditorium, in the office, in the hallway. Most of the eavesdropping that occurs directly in the narrative shows how the other teachers dislike Miss Saunders for being different; this increasingly parallels Miss Saunders with Maleeka—as an outcast.

“I don’t feel no stronger or braver today than I did a few weeks back.”

This quote demonstrates irony, a literary device in which reality contrasts with expectation or appearance. While Maleeka does not feel any more brave or strong, on the very next page of the novel she demonstrates both bravery and strength as she fights against John-John’s attackers. Likewise, this quote foreshadows the upcoming fight.