The Vanishing Half: A Novel

1. Why is Desiree’s early career as a fingerprint analyst a powerful symbol in the novel?

A) She is able to have a career in DC that wasn’t available in Mallard.

B) She has agency in her work that she doesn’t have in her troubled home.

C) She seeks to understand her identity in relation to her twin sister.

D) She wants justice for her father’s death.

2. Why might the twin’s father’s death have an influence on Stella’s decision to permanently pass as white?

A) She has nothing left at home after he dies.

B) His death made her afraid of people enacting violence on her for being Black.

C) She saw him as weak and unable to stand up for himself.

D) Her mother’s acceptance of his death outraged her.

3. What factor is most important in June’s difficulty fitting in after she arrives in Mallard?

A) her urban upbringing

B) her role as a minor celebrity and figure in the town’s gossip

C) her skin tone

D) her refusal to talk about what happened to her in DC

4. Why does John Early decide to lie to Sam about Desiree’s whereabouts?

A) They had a previous relationship that has stuck with him.

B) He sees a better opportunity in Desiree’s quest to find Stella.

C) Desiree offers to pay him off.

D) He thinks the job isn’t worth his time.

5. How does Desiree feel about passing for white when she goes in search of her sister?

A) She feels powerful and giddy.

B) She’s terrified that she will be discovered.

C) She finally understands her sister’s decision.

D) She feels bad about how easy it is.

For each of the following questions, write a one-sentence response based on details in the story.

6. What is most significant about Mallard’s culture?

7. Why is it ironic that Desiree is the twin who returned to Mallard?

Discussion Suggestion: Colorism is a theme throughout the book. What is colorism’s relationship to power in this book, and how is that distinct from racism?

8. Why does Jude prize running so much?

A) She loves the feeling of going fast.

B) It opened up the opportunity to study medicine.

C) When she runs, she transcends the color of her skin that has defined her.

D) When she runs, people are forced to respect her.

9. Why is it significant that Reese takes a good photograph of Jude?

A) It represents the way no one has treated her with dignity because of her skin tone.

B) She feels like herself instead of like her mother’s daughter.

C) It proves he’s a good photographer, as cameras were designed to photograph light skin.

D) He has studied how to do it well in order to prove his love for her.

10. Why does Jude misunderstand Reese’s relationship to his bindings?

A) She has never met a transgender person and doesn’t understand their culture.

B) She wants their relationship to be more intimate than it is.

C) She has spent her life trying to accept who she is, and she sees Reese’s bindings as a rejection of himself.

D) She thinks it is a temporary solution and wonders why he is not more proactive about getting surgery.

11. How does Barry’s cross-dressing differ from other passings in the book?

A) He is comfortable with his bifurcated identity as Barry and Bianca.

B) He doesn’t have to keep it a secret.

C) He knows it is impermanent and that he will give it up when he gets older.

D) He primarily does it because the money is good.

For each of the following questions, write a one-sentence response based on details in the story.

12. Why is Jude’s study of bodies thematically relevant to the book?

13. What’s ironic about the young woman at the bar telling Jude that they are “rivals” shortly before Jude shatters the bottle of wine?

Discussion Suggestion: The concept of passing has different ramifications for transgender people than it does for people who view it through a racial lens. How do these two types of passing work to complement each other thematically in this novel?

14. What drives Stella’s aggressive response to the news of Black neighbors?

A) resentment that she has to pass in order to be there

B) fear that she will be discovered

C) a growing hatred of Black people from her time in rich white communities

D) selfishness rooted in her desire to be unique

15. What does Loretta reading Stella’s palm accurately reveal about her?

A) that she misses her home

B) that she is living a life that’s split in two

C) that she has a secret

D) that she regrets her choices in life

16. Why does Stella object to the story of Santa Claus?

A) She is uneasy with the idea of further lies.

B) She thinks Kennedy is too mature for it.

C) It has made Kennedy into a spoiled child.

D) She never had access to gifts growing up.

17. What is ultimately ironic about Stella’s influence on Reg and Loretta’s decision to leave the neighborhood?

A) She did her best to befriend Loretta but fell into old habits.

B) She slanders Reg in the same way that people slandered her father before his lynching.

C) Her desire to tell the truth about her identity led to further degradation in the neighborhood.

D) Kennedy, who is innocent, provokes the decision when she repeats her mother’s words.

For each of the following questions, write a one-sentence response based on details in the story.

18. What happens to Stella before she passes over that she never tells Desiree about?

19. What causes Stella to feel “truly white” for the first time?

Discussion Suggestion: Is Stella’s act of passing a transgression? a betrayal of her identity? an act of power and actualization? How does Stella’s choice create a complicated moral position?

20. Why is becoming an actress a fitting choice for Kennedy, as the daughter of Stella?

A) Her mother accomplished a near-impossible dream, which mirrors Kennedy’s chances.

B) She is pretending to be what she’s not, just like her mother.

C) She is running away from her heritage and family by fleeing to LA.

D) She doesn’t know the real consequences of her selfish decision.

21. What does becoming a professor represent to Stella?

A) a continuation of the freedom granted to her by passing

B) a way to atone for her sins

C) a way to separate herself from her husband’s unknowing cruelty

D) the chance to study a subject that she was denied as a child

22. Why is it important to Jude that she get to know Kennedy?

A) She wants to know what her cousin is like.

B) She thinks reconnecting with Stella’s side of the family will benefit her.

C) She wants to honor her mother’s lifelong search.

D) She is bitter that she has had to grow up without the privilege that Kennedy has.

23. Why is Stella so panicked upon meeting Jude?

A) She has grown to hate Desiree and Adele and doesn’t want to be found.

B) She is terrified that being exposed will cause her to lose everything.

C) The colorism instilled in her still causes her to discriminate against dark-skinned Black people.

D) She was trying to be anonymous at her daughter’s play.

24. What sets Jude off when Kennedy speaks to her about Reese?

A) Kennedy’s assertion that Reese would like a lighter-skinned woman

B) Kennedy’s spoken attraction to Reese

C) Kennedy’s misgendering of Reese

D) Kennedy’s unthinkingly criticizing Reese’s appearance

For the following question, write a one-sentence response based on details in the story.

25. What is Peg’s response when asked why there aren’t Black women in her group of women fighting for equality?

Discussion Suggestion: How is Stella growing and changing in the wake of the incident with Loretta? Is she getting closer to identity reconciliation, or further away? 

26. What’s the most significant reason that Kennedy’s heritage becomes a joke between her and Fritz?

A) Fritz thinks she’s making fun of him and responds in kind.

B) She cannot face Jude’s assertion that she may be part Black.

C) She is eager to be believed but cannot assert herself.

D) Her unconscious bias toward Black people is apparent to Fritz.

27. What is most ironic about Kennedy playing “the girl next door” on Pacific Cove?

A) She comes from a rich background.

B) She always wanted to be special, not normal.

C) Her heritage would prevent her from playing those roles if it were known.

D) Her attitude on set is far different from her portrayal of her character.

28. How is Kennedy’s career as a real estate agent a reflection on her upbringing?

A) It requires helping people pretend to be someone they aren’t.

B) She is helping people achieve the kind of life she had growing up.

C) She plays a role in the same kind of discrimination that happened in her neighborhood.

D) She has been forced to give up her dreams, as her mother predicted.

29. What role has John Early taken on in the Vignes household?

A) He is a surrogate son and caretaker for Adele.

B) He is the primary breadwinner.

C) He still drifts in and out, and each visit sees Adele deteriorate further.

D) He has become emotionally disconnected from Adele and Desiree.

30. Why can’t Stella give up passing?

A) She loves her husband too much.

B) She can’t go back to being a poor woman from Mallard.

C) It’s too painful to start over again.

D) She knows that it would destroy her relationship with her daughter.

For each of the following questions, write a one-sentence response based on details in the story.

31. What does Jude find bitterly funny about the minister’s response to the public outcry over the segregated graveyard being cared for unequally?

32. What does Adele begin to do during the later stages of her life that reflects the central plot of the book?

Discussion Suggestion: Kennedy claims that her struggle with her identity isn’t about race but rather about her desire to self-identify without anyone else telling her who she is. Do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not?