Analysis Of White Lies By Natasha Trethewey

I chose to write about the three elements of poetry: theme, character, and setting. Theme is a literary device and is defined as the central topic. I found two definitions for character and I decided to use both. Character was described as the mental/moral qualities that make up a person in a novel, play or movie. Setting is the time and place in which a story takes place. Settings in literature can real or fiction. In this case, it is a real setting.

I wanted to write about the poem, “White Lies.” The poem is by Natasha Trethewey. Trethewey was born on April 26, 1966 in Gulfport, Mississippi, which was considered the ‘black part’ of town. Her African American mother worked as a social worker, and her white father was a poet. Many people thought that she wrote “White Lies” to portray the problems she was confronted with daily as a biracial child in a separated community. She had to lie about her race just to fit in with the other children.

One of the themes for this poem is race.

Race was a huge deal during the 1960s. Slavery was a prominent issue, even though it was illegal. Her parents were married illegally because of their race. Tretheway is biracial and lived in the ‘black part’ of town. Can you imagine what she went through? She attended a mixed school but racism was still present. “…Three of us in class.” Another theme is childhood. Trethewey was a child during this time and she just wanted to fit in with the other children. This can be seen at the line “I could act like my homemade…” Since she felt ‘different,’ she had many insecurities. An example of this is that she wanted soap to wash her from the inside out. This could mean many things, such as her pointing out her innocence and how young she

was.
There were three characters present in this poem: the mother, daughter and the girl. In this poem, Trethewey is a stock character. Stock characters represent stereotypes, and are based on clichés and societal prejudices. The mother played the role of herself and was an ‘unimportant character.’ If I had to label the mother, she would be a minor character, as well as the girl. The narrator in this poem was from the point of view of a black child[Trethewey] who just wanted to fit in.
In this poem, the setting was in Gulfport, Mississippi. She lived in the poor part of town. Interracial marriage was a criminal act and was frowned upon. When I say frowned upon, I mean people would kill or cause physical harm to other human beings. As I have mentioned before, Trethewey’s parents were an interracial couple and were married illegally. Her parents most likely lived in secrecy. It is possible that all of this happened during the Jim Crow era. Jim Crow was the name of the racial class system, which functioned in southern states, between 1877 and 1960s.
I usually do not write about the poet themselves when writing an essay, but I figured it would be essential because the poem is focused on her life as a young child. Since she was light skinned, she could easily lie about her race. She also lied about where she bought her clothes. She was able to pull it off because she was biracial and because her mother made quality clothes for her to wear. I just think that it is so sad that a child…A child had to lie about her race to fit in with other people.