Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral

“At a very early age she had observed that the good things of life are unevenly distributed; merit is not always rewarded; hard labour does not necessarily entail adequate recompense.” 

Angela recognizes that inequality and injustice are inherent in society, particularly when considering race (what the contemporary reader might call “systemic racism”). She is also making the accurate, if childish, point that “life isn’t fair.” Her precocious awareness of this leads her to calculate how to present herself in order to tilt the scales more equitably in her favor.

“This was a curious business, this colour. It was the one god apparently to whom you could sacrifice everything. On account of it her mother had neglected to greet her own husband in the street. Mary Hastings could let it come between her and her friend.”

Angela’s growing awareness that “colour” defines and distorts nearly everything about social relationships causes her distress: It can disrupt a happy marriage and spoil a friendship swiftly and mercilessly. She distances herself from this destructive marker.

“‘No, I don’t think being coloured in America is a beautiful thing. I think it’s nothing short of a curse,’ says Angela.” 

Angela does not possess racial pride—later described in Van Mier’s lecture—because her experiences with being Black have largely been negative. This creates the double consciousness that Fauset’s mentor W.E.B. DuBois described: Angela views herself through the lens of white society, which disapproves of and denigrates her Blackness; thus, she disapproves and denigrates herself (what modern readers recognize as internalized racism).