After the death of their parents, the Murray family consists of just two people—Virginia, the younger darker-skinned teacher; and Angela, the elder fair-skinned artist—both Black, both women. While Virginia embraces her Blackness entirely; goes on to move to Harlem, teach Black children and marry a Black man, Angela outright rejects it—opting to move to New York, pass for white, and use her privilege to shatter the glass ceiling of her race.

But is it enough? While the act of passing gets her foot in the door; allows her the opportunity for artistic success and even leads to a romantic affair, as a woman there’s only so far she can go and only so much respect she can garner. If being a woman, even a white woman, limits the ways in which she is able to seek fulfilment in her life, what is the point in trying to pass at all?

Semi-autobiographical in nature, Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral is a coming-of-age novel that questions the intersectionality of race, class, and gender in the early twentieth century.

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