Critical Essay

Student ID # 1310576

Dr. Grossman

CMM-370-01

June 2019

“What Race Is”: Adapting Moral Opinion in Imitation of Life ​ Fannie Hurst’s 1933 novel, Imitation of Life, deals with the complexities of the color-line not only in general society, but within black families. Delia, the mother of mixed race daughter

Peola, embraces her blackness as the “glory of bein’ born one of de Lawd’s low down ones”(118). However, her daughter Peola refuses to adopt this complex, instead choosing to pass as white and reject her black roots, including ties with her mother. In Hurst’s novel, Peola never returns to these roots; however, in both the 1934 Stahl film adaptation and 1959 Sirk adaptation, Peola returns to her mother, dissatisfied with her “passing” life. Through strategic blocking and mise-en scene, the film adaptations – this essay discussing Sirk’s – create a sense of isolation surrounding the passing of a mixed race character. This sense of isolation and ultimate return to black community propose an answer to the age-old question posed by Nella

Larsen in her 1929 novel Passing: why those who pass “come back… If [we] knew that, [we ​ ​ would] know what race is” (95). Although Sarah Jane chooses to identify as white to pursue economic and social opportunity, she returns to black community due to the paradoxical sense of isolation that comes with passing. By representing mixed-race characters, namely Sarah Jane, as dissatisfied with their chosen white identity, Imitation of Life’s film adaptations define race by ​ ​ blood heritage, rather than cultural choice.

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John Stahl sets a precedent – which Douglas Sirk follows – by physically isolating Peola ​ ​ in scenes where she passes as white. In Stahl’s 1934 film, Peola distances herself from her family, and therefore their narrative, around which the film revolves. Peola is seen less on screen than her 1959 counterpart, existing more by name or through letters, and this even distances her from the film viewer. When Peola is on-screen, Stahl develops her isolation through ​ ​ mise-en-scene, which physically separates her character from a society in which she is passing.

The first time we see her pass as white, she is a young schoolgirl in a crowd of children. When her mother “outs” her to the class, Peola slowly stands up to exit the room. This blocking physically separates her from the other children, symbolizing the social ostracization that has resulted from her taking on a white racial identity despite her black heritage. Sirk replicates this ​ ​ scene in his 1959 version of Imitation of Life, after which Sarah Jane returns home to lock herself ​ ​ in her room. Absent from the frame, she is quoted by Susie: “[Sarah Jane] says nobody’s her friend.” Sarah Jane’s physical absence signifies the loneliness that she feels due to her confused identity, while her words (conveyed from a distance) express this feeling.

During Sarah Jane’s adulthood, she furthers the physical and emotional distance between herself and her family. In a scene introducing her as an adult, Sirk blocks her in the background, coming down stairs before darting out the door. Later at a party, Sirk mirrors this placement of

Sarah Jane, who is the last to enter, coming down a flight of stairs in the background. This blocking begins to develop adult Sarah Jane as solitary, never physically close to her family or the action that takes place within their circle. When the party moves to another room, Sarah Jane lags behind before turning away from the others, and from the camera. This distances her from not only her family, but also the party and film viewers, developing an emotional barrier between Critical Essay 3 herself and us. We feel as distanced from her as she does from the world, especially now as she experiences it through a mature lens.

These scenes foreshadow Sarah Jane’s removal from the domestic sphere as she begins to sneak out of the house and go on dates. In order to do so, she deceives not only her family, but also her boyfriend. When her family holds a reunion picnic to celebrate their togetherness, Sarah

Jane pretends to have the flu, waiting until they have left to sneak out. She is shown sneaking around by herself, which is repeated in a following scene while other family members have conversation off-camera. Upon her return, Sarah Jane tells Susie that her boyfriend could never know her true identity, weeping: “I’m going to be everything he thinks I am. I look it, and that’s all that matters.” During this scene, and scenes of her sneaking around, Sarah Jane is framed by herself, while Susie’s back is turned to the camera. These shot choices hinder Sarah Jane from connecting with other characters, making it seem as if she looks right through Susie during conversation. Her deception of others functions in a similar way, weakening the relationships between Sarah Jane and her loved ones as she pursues a white racial identity.

While Sarah Jane continues to pass outside her home, the rest of her family makes remarks associating her with blackness. Susie asks if Sarah Jane’s boyfriend is “colored,” and

Lora asks if her boyfriend is a local chauffeur, who is implied to be black. Sarah Jane reacts by portraying a negative black stereotype during a dinner party, reasoning to her family “You’re all so anxious for me to be colored, I was going to show you I could be.” Standing in the foreground, Sarah Jane keeps her back to her family, emphasizing the disconnect that she feels with how her family perceives her. When Lora comes to the foreground, her blocking mirrors

Susie’s with her back to the camera as she addresses Sarah Jane, noting that this negative claim Critical Essay 4 of identity “won’t solve anything.” Thematically, and physically, Sarah Jane is portrayed as alone after a failed attempt to express how her race makes her feel.

When Sarah Jane is finally shown meeting her boyfriend, their interaction begins with

Sarah Jane standing alone by a storefront. When Frankie does arrive, he barely speaks at all, his face shrouded in shadow. This anonymity foreshadows his betrayal of Sarah Jane, when he reveals his knowledge that her mother is black. After violently beating her, he sneaks off, leaving her alone in an alley. This scene is cut in juxtaposition with Annie commenting to Lora that she has hundreds of friends, none of which have appeared in the film thus far. While this appears to be a random comment, it hints to the sense of belonging that Annie has gleaned from her community-- a sense of racial belonging that we have not been exposed to thus far in the film, and certainly a sense of belonging that Sarah Jane does not have at this moment.

Sarah Jane returns home to blame her mother for the attack, accusing Annie of outing her to the community, and therefore Frankie. At first, all characters are blocked surrounding

Sarah-Jane in concern, but they soon retaliate against her. She is chastised by Lora for speaking harshly to Annie, and by Annie for lying. Even Susie betrays Sarah Jane, scoffing that the attacker was “her boyfriend.” Physically surrounded, with the dynamic against her, Sarah-Jane ​ ​ runs back upstairs to the familiar isolation of her room, locked away from her family. The betrayal of the attack, combined with the loss of support from her family, leaves Sarah Jane more alone than ever before. In contrast with Annie’s description of a community of friends, Sarah

Jane is punished for passing by losing every sense of belonging she had known.

Despite this punishment, Sarah Jane chooses to continue passing in an attempt to achieve a sense of belonging elsewhere. She fails to attend Susie’s graduation, and her absence, Critical Essay 5 combined with a shot of her dancing alone in her room, foreshadow her departure from the family and its narrative. When she reappears, Annie discovers her at a club, singing alone onstage. Engaged in an act of performance, Sarah Jane wears a smile as she enjoys financial independence, mirroring Peola in Stahl’s 1934 film. However, she sings of loneliness and emptiness, saying “an empty purse can make a good girl bad,” implying that she is currently in a

“bad” state. Additionally, she receives the attention from men she had craved before, but it is tainted as they either laugh at her performance or are shrouded in shadow, preventing the establishment of any authentic connection to ease her loneliness. Once she is outed by Annie, she is punished further by losing her job, and therefore the income that she had suffered through this loneliness to achieve.

After this betrayal, Sarah Jane runs from Annie’s every attempt at reconciliation. Their final encounter takes place in Sarah Jane’s room, a space in which she had previously locked herself away from the world. At first, Sarah Jane fights her mother’s affection, physically moving away from her at every chance. Annie then asks “Are you happy, honey? Did you find everything you’ve been looking for?” This question confronts Sarah Jane with her values in adopting identity, as she stares at her reflection in the mirror. Annie is blocked so that her reflection shadows Sarah-Jane’s, implying the necessity of her bloodline in Sarah Jane’s determination of the identity that she’s “been looking for.” Sarah-Jane weeps to the mirror, “I’m white, white, white! Does that answer your question?” Her miserable tone suggests her desire to relate with her mother, but the insistence of her words expresses the tragic necessity of whiteness in her social and financial life. Critical Essay 6

Before leaving, Annie embraces Sarah Jane, which moves Sarah Jane to cry “Mama,

Mama, Mama.” This interaction marks a shift in their relationship, where Annie finally accepts

Sarah Jane’s chosen identity, and Sarah Jane acknowledges a relationship with her mother. The interaction ends as Sarah Jane’s colleague enters the room in the background, clearly out of the loop. Having accepted Sarah Jane’s terms, Annie plays the role that Sarah Jane has given her, pretending to be her “mammy.” As Annie leaves, a two-shot shows Sarah Jane whispering

“Mama,” marking a second shift in the relationship. By claiming Annie as her mother in spite of the social conditions imposed by her colleague in the room, Sarah Jane shows ownership of her bloodline that she had never expressed before in public. Additionally, the two-shot develops this new connection between mother and daughter, in contrast with the isolating over-the-shoulder shots which had framed their prior conversations with one another.

After their separation, Annie passes away. Her funeral is extravagant, with an entire community in attendance. The scene is a mirror image of Langston Hughes’ “Night Funeral In

Harlem,” focusing on a combination of black community and wealth. A somber montage reveals the hundreds of friends Annie had mentioned previously, and the sheer magnitude of people establishes Annie’s sense of belonging within a distinctly black community. Additionally, a grand service filled with flowers and music, followed by a large procession, displays Annie’s economic success during her life. These conventional symbols of success stand in stark contrast with a weeping Sarah Jane, who arrives at the funeral crying, “Mama I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it… I killed my own mother.” By apologizing and recanting all of her prior actions, Sarah-Jane mirrors her 1934 counterpart, Peola, by implying that her adoption of white identity, and therefore her rejection of her black heritage, killed Annie. Critical Essay 7

In Fannie Hurst’s original 1933 novel, Peola passes as white to work, and never returns to her mother or her black identity. Her fate remains uncertain as she goes on to marry and continue passing. When John Stahl adapted Imitation of Life into film in 1934, he dramatically changed ​ ​ Peola’s character arc by including her return to her mother at the end of the film. This scene undermines Peola’s chosen identity, and changes the meaning of every act of passing in the context of her ultimate return to her black heritage. If a mixed-race character had triumphed over every obstacle in her personal and financial life to develop a chosen identity, the story would therefore reward her for passing and defining race as her own interpretive choice. However, rather than attain this chosen identity, Stahl’s Peola returns to the black community by deciding to return to school, renouncing every prior attempt to pass. Similarly, Sarah-Jane returns to her mother’s funeral, assuming responsibility for her mother’s death and apologizing for her prior actions.

In this context, every other scene of each film serves to punish Sarah Jane/Peola for passing. Directorial choices such as blocking and mise-en-scene emphasize the isolation and loneliness that eventually bring her crawling home. Likewise, narrative changes – like being attacked or fired from her job – function to punish her for identifying as white in the film adaptations. Even the deception of Sarah Jane’s family and boyfriend negatively associate passing with lying. Combined with the films’ ending, these factors impose the moral lesson upon the audience that choosing one’s own racial identity is a betrayal of heritage, and defining one’s race by blood heritage is therefore virtuous. In doing so, the film versions of Imitation of Life ​ perpetuate the “tragic mulatto” stereotype of a mixed race character who must be perpetually unhappy with her racial identity. Critical Essay 8

As creators and consumers, we adapt stories to provide a new take on issues that remain relevant over time. In the case of Imitation of Life, it seems to be difficult for society to form a ​ ​ new take on the “race issue,” even now. Recently, in 2015, the New York Times attempted to do ​ ​ ​ ​ so by elaborating on its own initial review of Sirk’s adaptation, which had labeled the 1959 version a “shameless tear jerker.” The amended article does not make much progress, calling

Peola a “martyr” and a “casualty” of internalized racism. The closest that it gets to addressing the big picture is when it acknowledges that “the tragic mulatto is the only [trope] Hollywood would ​ allow….” And then, the critic loses focus, differentiating Stahl’s Peola from Sirk’s Sarah Jane, ​ who, played by a white actor, is called “a performing cog in some well-oiled glamour machine.” ​ While critics have no trouble questioning the character and who plays her, it appears to be beyond critical imagination to address the way in which her story is told. Perhaps more focus should be put on the big-picture question: why has a story been deliberately changed (for

Hollywood) so that a sympathetic character is punished, rather than rewarded, for persisting in an attempt at self-expression? If we can ask this question, perhaps the search for an answer will bring us one step closer to being better creators and consumers of culture as we search for a “new take” on an old issue.

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Works Cited

Hurst, Fannie, and Daniel Itzkovitz. Imitation of Life. Duke University Press, 2005. ​ ​ Stahl, John, William J. Hurlbut, Claudette Colbert, Louise Beavers, and Fannie Hurst. Imitation ​ of Life. United States: Universal Pictures Co., 1934. ​ Turner, Lana, Juanita Moore, Sandra Dee, Allan Scott, Douglas Sirk, Ross Hunter, John Gavin,

Russell Metty, Eleanore Griffin, and Susan Kohner. Imitation of Life. United States: ​ ​ Universal Pictures Co., 1959.

Larsen, Nella. Passing. New York: Penguin Books, 1997. Print. ​ ​ Hughes, Langston. “The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes.” New York:

Random House, 1994.

Hoberman, J. “Two Takes on ‘Imitation of Life’: Exploitation in Eastmancolor.” The New York ​ Times, The New York Times, 14 May 2015. ​