I found the friendship between Emma Lou and Gwendolyn interesting because of the parallel upbringings of the two characters. Emma Lou’s conviction that lighter skinned people are the “right kind of people” comes from her mother’s belief system, and, similarly, Gwendolyn’s preference for darker friends and men comes from her mother’s insistence that this is the way in which to achieve complete interracial tolerance (198). Both of these young women are clearly the products of the values that their mothers instilled in them as children, and although they have different perspectives and goals, both Emma Lou and Gwendolyn in fact increase their color consciousness as a result of their attempts to fulfill their mothers’ solutions to the race problem. Although Gwendolyn is one of the only characters in this novel who actively attempts to eliminate color consciousness and interracial prejudice, Thurman highlights her inability to match her actions to her beliefs. When she becomes frustrated with Emma Lou’s preference for a light-skinned man, she displays prejudice against Emma Lou because of her skin color, stating, “There’s probably something in this stuff about black people being different and more low than other colored people. You’re just a common ordinary nigger!” (208). Furthermore, though she prides herself on her preference for dark-skinned men, Gwendolyn intends to marry Benson, the light-skinned man she did not approve of as a match for Emma Lou (213). These scenes highlight hypocrisy in Gwendolyn’s character; although she acts according to her mother’s beliefs, she proves unable to separate herself from interracial prejudice. Although the friendship between Emma Lou and Gwendolyn is fulfilling to both characters because it enables Emma Lou to feel accepted by the “right kind of people” and allows Gwendolyn the opportunity to prove that she does not have a “’pink’ complex, this friendship actually highlights the color consciousness of both women and provides a critique of Gwendolyn’s attempt to promote interracial tolerance.