A journey of self-discovery: the representation of minority girls in Cynthia Kadohata’s "The Thing About Luck", Alicia D. Williams’ "Genesis Begins Again" and Rebecca Balcárcel’s "The Other Half of Happy"

Abstract

The United States is a country of constant immigration which could be defined by the concepts of diversity and multiculturalism. Given the large population consisting of minority people in the country, the American society is progressively enriching by virtue of the variety of cultures, races and religions; however, people of color have to endure discrimination and a slow process of integration. Besides, this multiplicity leads to children interacting with people ethnically different to them and since the acquisition of systematic prejudice has its origins in childhood, minority children’s literature and its representation could play a major part in avoiding it. The purpose of this paper is to explore how minority girls are represented in the middle-grade novels The Thing About Luck (2013) by the Japanese American author Cynthia Kadohata, Genesis Begins Again (2019) by the African American author Alicia D. Williams, and The Other Half of Happy (2019) by the mixed-raced half-Guatemalan, half-American author Rebecca Balcárcel, as well as to prove that the protagonists are in journey of defining their identity which is conditioned by the fact that they are women in a patriarchal world, by their difficult family circumstances and by their belonging to a minority in the United States. The first part of the analysis deals with the gender of the characters; it is examined how, for being women, they have to deal with gender roles and expectations of a male-centered society. In the second section, the family environments of the girls are analyzed, regarding how dysfunctional families cause children to have responsibilities affecting their mental health. Finally, this study covers the consequences of belonging to a minority, delving into the racism the girls endure along with the way they perceive themselves. This research aims to remark the importance of minority children’s literature for the representation of multicultural people with the objective of conveying real integration in America.