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Chapter 14
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Yellowface, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Critique of the Publishing Industry
Identity, Power, and Privilege
Social Media and Cancel Culture
Ambition, Success, and Notoriety
Loss, Grief, and Guilt
Revenge and Retribution
Summary
Analysis
In retrospect, June knows she should have left well enough alone after the The Last Front controversy blew over. But in truth, she couldn’t stand sliding back into Internet irrelevancy. She craves the spotlight. And Brett has been hounding her about her next project. She understands that he—and Eden Press—are anxious to put out another book proving irrevocably that Juniper Song can succeed on her own merits, outside of Athena Liu’s long shadow.
June has already explained to readers why she cares so much about what people say about her on Twitter (and other social media sites)—because it is a microcosm of the publishing industry, it seems realer to her than real life. Now she makes a second confession, one that’s related and equally relevant to her story: she’s really in this just for fame and attention. The content of her books matters far less to her than what people think about them.
Themes
Unfortunately, June is struggling on the writing front, because she now feels like she has Athena’s ghostly voice haunting her brain. Incessantly critical, it has torn apart every idea, every draft she’s attempted in the past several months. And whenever she hears it, she finds herself ruminating on Athena’s horrific death.
There’s one other thing readers need to know, too. June “double-dipped,” taking a few pages of random notes she found strewn on Athena’s desk. Even though she claims that she intended The Last Front to be a “onetime collaboration,” she finds herself unable to start a new project until she reads a compelling stub scribbled by Athena. It’s just a few evocative, moody sentences. And June has no clue what Athena meant to do with it, so it doesn’t really feel like stealing.
There are at least two ways to interpret June’s writer’s block. One is that she truly is a hack writer incapable of creating anything original, which might help to explain why Over the Sycamore was such a flop. The other is that her guilty conscience is getting in the way of her work. From this point on, she becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea that Athena is haunting her, although it should be clear to readers that Athena has haunted her all along, first as an unreachable rival and now as an infallible muse.
Themes
June’s novella, Mother Witch—a fictionalized account of the betrayal and loss she felt over the changes in her mother following her father’s untimely death—comes together quickly once she stumbles on the idea. The fact that it’s so personal is ironic, considering that this is the book that brings her down.
Again, June doesn’t seem to realize what she’s telling readers, but the book places heavy emphasis on her inability to generate novel or original work. Mother Witch rehashes the same experiences as Over the Sycamore from another angle, in addition to using Athena’s material. June isn’t just haunted by Athena’s ghost, she’s haunted by her father’s death, suggesting that she has never fully faced that grief in a useful or honest way.
Themes
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But before she gets into that, June wants readers to know about the first time Athena stole from her. They met in the freshman dorms at Yale. Although they bonded over their shared love for Elif Batuman’s The Idiot, their relationship was very casual at first. But then, June got involved with a cute sophomore named Andrew who invited her to his room to watch TV. She got drunk and woke up in his bed the next morning. They’d clearly had sex. At first, she was embarrassed but proud for having traversed the rite of passage that is the college hookup. But then she started having flashbacks and panic attacks. She was terrified she might have contracted an STI or gotten pregnant; she couldn’t remember if she’d participated willingly of if Andrew had pressured, or worse, raped her.
At the very end of Chapter 3, June first raised the idea that she was justified in stealing the draft of The Last Front because Athena in turn stole things from her. In other words, revenge is one of her motivations (along with a thirst for fame and success in a notoriously competitive industry). Now, finally, she contextualizes that claim. But the beginning of her story shows her relationship with Athena in a surprisingly different light. It seems that, at one point, the two were true friends, not friends of convenience or parasitism, as June tries to suggest in Chapter 1. And if they were once close, then her feeling of being haunted makes more sense.
Themes
It was Athena who noticed June suffering in lonely silence, Athena whose concern seemed so genuine that June found herself spilling the whole story. Athena held June’s hand while she talked and helped her make appointments with student health. She texted supportive messages late at night. June got better. She started seeing Dr. Gaily, who diagnosed her with an anxiety disorder and taught her the coping mechanisms she still uses today. After a while, June and Athena drifted apart again. And then, June read a short story that Athena published in an undergrad literary magazine. It was her story, her experience with Andrew, with only minor, cosmetic changes made to anonymize it. She made a point of complimenting Athena on the story, hoping Athena would confess. Athena didn’t.
The second half of the book works hard to position Athena as an imperfect victim, and there is no reason to doubt the truth about what June is saying here. Moreover, in Chapter 13, other people shared stories about Athena that echo this one. Still, it’s important to keep June’s motivations for vilifying Athena in sight. First, even though Athena is dead, June can’t stop comparing herself to her old rival, so she’s still invested in undermining Athena’s sterling reputation. Second, by making Athena into a villain, June attempts to excuse her own actions. But whatever Athena did or did not do to her, that doesn’t absolve June of plagiarizing Athena’s work or misrepresenting herself as AAPI when she is actually White.
Themes
June can admit that it might have been a coincidence. Stories such as hers, “I’m not sure, I didn’t like it, but I can’t quite call it rape” stories, are abundant on college campuses. But she’s still adamant that Athena knowingly and intentionally profited from her experiences. She watched Athena steal from others throughout her entire brief, brilliant career. So, June doesn’t feel bad and in fact feels more than a little justified in taking something from Athena.
In this chapter, it becomes clear that June doesn’t just resent Athena for her success. She also resents Athena because Athena hurt her quite badly and never apologized for it. Perhaps she never even realized what she’d done. June’s unprocessed grief and hurt from this incident fuel a years-long rivalry, confirming the book’s idea that unprocessed grief and guilty lead only to more misery.
Themes
Mother Witch comes out to critical acclaim and solid sales numbers. The positive reviews gratify June, and she goes back to daydreaming about her brilliant future. She should have known the calm wouldn’t last.
It’s hard not to believe June’s anguish when she describes Athena stealing her story. But it’s important to remember that readers have watched her pretending to be vulnerable before, with Geoff. And she turns on a dime again here. Her grief may be valid, but her inability to confront it leads her into the dangerous territory of revenge and fame-seeking instead of healing.
Themes
