The Skin I'm In

Miss Saunders arrives late and flustered because her toilet overflowed. When she begins the lesson, she stops short at a drawing on the blackboard: It is a woman’s face with one smooth side, and one cracked and drooping side. It is labeled, “THE TEACHER WITH TWO FACES” (41). She erases it and continues asking the students about Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. She asks what John-John would do if he were Romeo, and he replies that he would just move on from Juliet. Maleeka mumbles that no one wants to talk about the play. When Miss Saunders asks what the class does want to talk about, John-John responds, “Why Maleeka’s so black” (42). This comment gets him scolded.

Miss Saunders tries to get back on topic by emphasizing how Romeo and Juliet were independent spirits who didn’t bow down to others’ shallow demands—but Worm pipes up to ask why it even matters since both characters die anyway. To help the class understand, Miss Saunders asks them if there is anyone they love enough to die for. Students mention parents or friends, but a student named Jerimey says he wouldn’t die for anyone but himself. When questioned, he insists that if everyone loved themselves enough, they would want to take care of themselves—and so they wouldn’t hurt other people, because this would just cause unnecessary problems for themselves.