What's Mine and Yours

When Gee shares a part of himself with someone for the first time in a long time, he is rewarded with violence from friends of Noelle’s boyfriend. It seems every time Gee tries to find an outlet for his feelings, he is taught, one way or another, to keep them hidden. This is the root of his struggles throughout life: he feels as though he needs to hide himself from the people he loves, which plays into The Struggle to Understand One’s Identity. Although Gee—later, Nelson—knows that he feels strong emotions like anyone else, the walls he puts up make it difficult for anyone else to understand and truly connect with him. Gee worries that if someone were to know him completely, they would find he is not a good person. Where this stems from is unclear, but it can more than likely be traced to the tragedy that began this story: Ray’s death.

At the same time, Gee finds the strength to stand up to Jade, choosing to remain in the school play despite his mother’s concerns. This shows how Noelle has become a driving force in Gee’s life, and it again brings to mind the way in which Nelson says that Noelle moors him. When Coster finally reveals that Nelson and Gee are the same person, the many hints she laid throughout the novel become clear, and Nelson’s actions in his marriage gain complexity with the added perspective of Gee’s complicated and traumatic childhood. Nelson’s behavior is not excused—Noelle divorces him, and they never regain their closeness—but his story does not end with tragedy and despair. Coster calls Gee the heart of the novel, and this is most obvious in the final scene, in which he finally allows his mother to embrace him after years of both of them attempting to hide their emotions in order to project a strong façade to the world. Gee was a broken child and Nelson is a broken man, but there is hope in his relationship with his mother.

The contrast between young Noelle and grown Noelle is never so obvious as it is when Noelle moves out of Lacey May’s home. When Lacey May says she expected Noelle to “[know] better than to get tied up with boys like that” (278), Noelle stands up for herself and Gee, unafraid to speak her mind. This harkens back to Inéz’s comment that Noelle is no longer herself when she doesn’t become outraged at the story of the Black woman who was harassed by a neighbor at the community pool. There is a big difference between these two Noelles, underscoring the change caused by her pregnancy loss and her unhappiness in her marriage to Nelson. Nelson’s infidelity is, ironically, the push Noelle needs to regain her own sense of identity. Noelle finally finds herself at the end of the novel: moving to a new place to pursue her passions, singing songs in broken Spanish, and dreaming of adopting a child who is not white. Noelle reconnects with her neighbor’s son and finally achieves her dream of becoming a mother, showing that she has seized control of her own future. Noelle seems to be the one character in the novel who truly understands the themes developed there and how they define her as a person.

Finally, these last chapters show the moment Lacey May decides to put her family over her racism. Lacey May took an antagonistic role when she joined the parent protest group, which positioned her against Jade, Gee, and Noelle. It takes Noelle leaving home, and Hank telling her she’s “got to decide whether [she’d] rather be right, or [she’d] rather have [her] daughter” before she finally realizes that she must make a final choice (281). In Lacey May’s mind, she was simply trying to be a good mother and protect her daughters from people she thought were dangerous, and she feels her point was proven correct when Duke’s friends attack Gee even though Gee was not at fault. In the end, Lacey May does not try to become more accepting so much as she is willing to put her relationship with her daughter first.

Lacey May’s intentions are not dissimilar to Jade’s. Jade indirectly teaches Gee to suppress his emotions and fights for justice on his behalf against his wishes, which makes the two mothers foils of each other. Coster uses Lacey May and Jade to show that while mothers often have the best intentions and fight for their future, they don’t always execute those intentions within the best interest of their children. She also shows how children learn from their parents and implement those lessons in positive and negative ways—while Noelle learns to recognize her own ingrained prejudices thanks to her mother, Gee’s inability to connect with others eventually leads to his affairs and his divorce. While parents, especially mothers, may believe they are doing the best they can to equip their children with the tools for success, the reality may be quite different.