Intersections

In Blankets, there is a panel on page 393 that shows an apple tree and topless Raina below it. It discusses the idea of temptation and compares Raina to Eve. I like this panel, because it brings up the point of women being viewed as the original temptresses in Genesis. They will lead you to sin by making you bite into the forbidden fruit. I also like how Craig's conflicted feelings are summed up in this panel. She is beautiful and attracted to him, but he still can't view it as innocent it has to be sin.
Also, on page 540 we see the picture that Craig drew on Raina's wall being painted over. It's like he is erasing her image or memory because he has finally gotten over her.

I think all of the texts we have read so far discuss feeling lost or being afraid of being an outcast. In American Born Chinese the main character denies his ethnicity to try and fit in. He doesn't want to be on the edge of the crowd he wants to feel included. This is also the case with the main character of The Bluest Eye; Claudia. She gets angry with Shirley Temple, because she feels that the image of Shirley discludes her from society. She feels on the outer fringes of beauty because Shirley is seen as the typical beautiful girl. Claudia does not disown her marginalized skin color, but her friend Pecola is convinced that beauty lies in Shirley's blue eyes. Pecola eventually becomes dillusional, and believes she has blue eyes due to circumstances she has been through. Oranges shows us Jeannette who struggles with fitting into her small world of relgion. She battles with her inner feelings and is afraid to be different than her congregation so superficially repents. Blankets shows a boy who is already outcast by his class mates. However, he is afraid of enternal torment, because he is already living it. This results in him trying to conform to the church's teachings and cast aside his passion for drawing and a girl. All of these books have main characters that feel outcast and are trying desparately to feel a part of something...whether it is the white majority or the religious teachings they've been raised in.