Queenie

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-11

Chapters 12-17

Chapters 18-23

Chapters 24-30

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Hair

The book’s cover bears the image of Queenie’s hair, giving it an inherent level of significance. Throughout the text, hair symbolizes both disrespect and fetishism/racism, as well as friendship and caring. The white men that Queenie interacts and/or sleeps with often immediately comment on her hair, fetishizing her and making racist comments. For example, the first time that Tom meets Queenie, he compliments her hair. In Chapter 6, when Queenie meets Guy for the first time, he comments on her hair: “‘I like your, uh, hair. All this,’ he said, awkwardly patting the bun on my head […] ‘Sorry, you aren’t meant to touch a black girl’s hair, are you?’” (99). Later, he demands that she take her hair down while forcing her to endure painful sex; clearly, her hair is a sexualized, or fetishized, feature to him. In Chapter 8, a random white girl grabs Queenie’s hair and compliments it. This act is incredibly dehumanizing as Kyazike describes it to the bouncer: “‘[Y]our clientele [are] reaching out to touch black people like we’re animals in a petting zoo’” (123). At the public pool, a white child pulls at Queenie’s hair, calling her a sea monster, and the child’s mother refuses to apologize. These instances show how white people dehumanize Queenie and don’t see what’s wrong about their actions. To them, her hair symbolizes otherness, subservience, or promiscuity.

On the flip side, Queenie and Kyazike spend quality time together while Queenie, in an act of service and friendship, does Kyazike’s hair for her. Similarly, when Queenie sleeps over at Kyazike’s house, she gets Queenie a silk bonnet to sleep in to protect her hair. Queenie does the same for Diana. When things were going well with Tom, he noticed that Queenie wore bonnets to bed and bought one for her. In Chapter 8, Queenie notes, “One positive to the no sex is that I’ve been taking proper care of my hair. Shea butter, coconut oil, and rosewater blend to condition, and spritzing it every other day to keep it moisturized. I have so much discipline when I’m not worrying about men, I thought as my phone pinged” (115). Queenie’s relationship to her hair can be one of self-care and love when she spends time with herself rather than seeking male validation.

Nightmares

Queenie has nightmares and sleep paralysis throughout the book; the more unwell she is, the more she has; conversely, as she heals, she has fewer. Early on in Tom and Queenie’s relationship, he wakes her up when she has a night terror, screaming and punching: “‘What was I saying?’ I asked quickly, looking at him. What had I revealed? […] ‘I can’t guarantee that it won’t happen again,’ I said quietly. ‘It’s a ‘thing’’” (47). Guy wakes Queenie up when she has a nightmare and yells, ‘Don’t touch me!’ (102). Queenie is very secretive about her “things,” meaning her trauma and emotional baggage, and worries about subconsciously revealing them while she’s asleep. Her nightmares symbolize her unresolved trauma and her inability to ever escape it. While Queenie avoids thinking about her past or revealing too much about it to those around her, she can’t control her thoughts and dreams when she’s asleep. Before the novel uncovers much about Queenie’s past, her night terrors foreshadow the revelation that she had a difficult adolescence. As Queenie falls further into a state of sadness and anxiety, as well as unhealthy patterns with men, she experiences more sleep paralysis than normal, during which she sees a scary man crawling toward her. In the last chapter, after she has started to unpack her trauma and be honest with herself and those around her, she says that her terrors have eased off. Rather than fearing that she’ll reveal her secrets to those around her while asleep, she understands that if her terrors return, she has methods to calm down and cope.

Bad Sex

While the bad sex that Queenie experiences is ultimately a product of toxic masculinity and rape culture, it also symbolizes Queenie’s self-hatred and need for validation; her self-worth issues stem from men in the first place because Roy, Tom, and many others have made her feel worthless. Queenie uses sex for validation but also as a form of self-harm or sabotage in response to feeling worthless after her break with Tom. This is a self-perpetuating cycle, as the awful men she has sex with make her feel even more worthless. She first engages in casual sex because she can’t stop thinking about Tom, and he sends her a text rejecting her again. In response, she calls Adi, whom she knows has always harassed and fetishized her: “‘Shhhh,’ Adi whispered, smacking my bottom once. I winced as I stared out the back window, trying to direct my attention to something completely removed from the car. I focused on a streetlight in the distance.” (45). Queenie disassociates from the sex by focusing on things outside the car, showing how the sex isn’t at all about feeling good but rather is a symbol of validation and a way to punish herself for her failed relationship with Tom.

In another instance, Queenie is having extremely painful sex and thinks to herself, “This is what you get when you push love away. This is what you’re left with” (101). Again, she tries to disassociate from what’s happening to her body: “If I could have fallen asleep while he rutted into me, I would have, but he kept lifting one leg up and throwing it over his shoulder, then putting that leg down and the other one would go over” (103). Before sleeping with Guy, Queenie has been reading through the texts she exchanged with Tom during their fights, so bringing Guy home distracts her from her loneliness and again, offers a way to punish herself. As Queenie starts to heal, she sets boundaries with men—and stops craving male validation and having bad, painful sex.