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Chapter 19
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
After two days, June heads home and back into the agonizing misery that is trying to come up with a new idea for a book. She begins to envy the “dignified manual labor” of checkout clerks at the grocery store. She finds herself researching graduate programs online. She even considers calling her old boss at the Veritas College Institute but can’t face the shame of admitting that her dreams failed to materialize.
It isn’t enough for June to publish one bestseller; the industry moves so quickly that without follow-up successes she’ll quickly sink into irrelevance. The glamor of being the next big thing is quickly replaced with the disheartening drudgery of the real work. Athena’s life—which she so envied—can’t have been much easier.
Themes
June spends a lot of time online, too. First, she reads and re-reads the glowing, five-star reviews of her work on Goodreads as well as the flattering interviews with her that were published when she was a literary darling. When these no longer give her the serotonin hits she craves, she delves into the dark side. Reading the bad reviews at least proves that people are paying attention to her. She considers coming clean, but she can’t bring herself to in the end.
As she sinks deeper into her own paranoia and despair, June seeks validation on the internet. She’s still upset at the negative comments, but they bother her less than once they did as she’s decided that it’s better to garner bad attention than no attention at all. And she can’t confess because that will close the door to the literary stardom she wants permanently. She’s bought wholesale into the idea that nothing matters as much as her success in the literary world. It's a winning proposition for Eden (which is still selling her books at a nice clip) but it’s costing June her mental health.
Themes
One night, however, June stumbles on a lengthy, well-argued, and nuanced take on the The Last Front controversy which asks pointed questions about the nature of June’s and Athena’s friendship, the one thing the public discourse has failed to examine thoroughly. The reviewer concludes that it would be worth reading a novel about that and the sordid details of how The Last Front came to be. And June realizes that this is it. This is the next book she will write. She has plenty of material to draw on from her own memories. It’s sordid enough to generate interest. And, most importantly, encapsulating the whole messy “scandal” within the safe confines of fiction will allow June first to defang it then to put it behind her entirely.
With each subsequent book it becomes harder and harder for June to maintain the illusion that she’s a competent craftswoman. The idea for her comeback novel belongs to some random commentor on the Internet and, notably, the book allows June to continue the rivalry with Athena that seems to be the driving force of her life at this point. Just as she lost track of the line between her version of The Last Front and Athena’s, she is losing the sense of her own personality without Athena as a foil.
Themes
June briefly thinks about writing up a pitch and emailing it to Daniella that evening, but Daniella is embroiled at the moment in her own controversy over making racially insensitive comments. But June is confident that Eden won’t fire its only female editor willingly.
Daniella epitomizes White privilege in this moment; she (and June) rest confident in her ability to speak derogatorily about non-White people without major consequences. Remember how different the situation was for Candice, who was both Daniella’s junior and non-White. Moments like this feed June’s idea that a person has to do something really bad to get cancelled, because she sees other White people acting with relative impunity.
Themes
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June gets right to work writing. It’s surprisingly easy now that she’s back in the zone. She’s really, really excited about the opportunity to “absolve” herself, to assign artistic value to what she’s done, to “reveal the truth without saying it.” She wants to make her legacy eternal. She digs into her most painful memories—Athena stealing her “maybe-rape” story; the mean comments Geoff reported Athena making about her; how the @AthenaLiusGhost so thoroughly derailed her mental health—for the emotional drama they contain.
The project excites June in part because it allows her to regain control of her identity, which has been tarnished and shaped by the controversies surrounding her work. And if she were just massaging her identity for her own self, that would probably be okay. Her behavior is problematic in the view of the book because she’s shaping her persona disingenuously and using it to hurt and get back at others.
Themes
But June finds herself remembering a lot of good times, too—like how close she and Athena were in college. How June was the first person Athena called (before her parents, even) when Athena got her first book deal. June starts to wonder if she and Athena were the rivals she remembers them being, or if that was merely a projection of her own jealousy.
Up to this point, June has been fairly adamant with readers that she’s been feigning her distress over Athena’s death and using it for social capital online. But as she remembers more about their early friendship, it becomes clear that she has a loss to mourn, whether the loss occurred with Athena’s death or earlier, when their relationship fell apart. She comes close to reckoning with that here, and even to considering the extensive way in which she’s allowed her rivalry-affection for Athena to shape the course of her life. But crucially, she stops short of the kind of self-reflection that might lead to meaningful personal growth.
Themes
June is so confident as the draft comes together that she even ventures back into social media, putting up a picture of herself at work (looking pretty and serious at the same time in the golden-hour glow) on Instagram. The same day that she does, Athena’s old Instagram account comes back to life. Someone posts a picture of Athena sitting at her desk with copies of Mother Witch and The Last Front. She looks a little “off” and uncanny, but it’s certainly her. The caption tags June specifically.
It's indicative of June’s lack of personal growth that she’s still playing for online attention. She cares more about the attention of her anonymous followers than she does about the losses that haunt her—the relationships she sacrificed with her mother, her sister, and Athena in her quest for fame and success. So, it’s fitting that this is the moment at which Athena’s ghostly presence forces its way back into June’s consciousness through the machinations of another mysterious person on the internet.
Themes
When June’s panic attack subsides enough for her to function, she goes back on Instagram where she sees that Athena’s account no longer has any followers. The post is meant just for her, and a quick Google search reassures June that no one else has seen it. As stupid as it sounds, she Googles “Athena Liu alive,” just in case. But Athena is dead and buried. Still, the fact remains that someone is using Athena’s account to bully June. And although the memory of Athena in her green shawl in the front row of June’s launch event for The Last Front arises unbidden in June’s mind, she still thinks that Geoff is the most likely perpetrator of this new attack. She texts him, demanding that he meet her at a café the next day.
Reasonably enough, June feels guilty when she’s confronted over the things that she’s done, especially stealing The Last Front. But she habitually deals with negative feelings like guilt and grief by deflecting. She’s angry at whoever has the gall to stalk and harass her. But she’s unwilling to admit her own offenses or to risk the life she’s living, which she feels she deserves. She quickly homes in on Geoff as the likeliest suspect, and it’s not unwarranted if readers start to worry about what she might do next. When cornered, she has shown herself more than willing to go on the attack, and her idea of revenge is harsh.
Themes
