Racial inequality has always been a part of America's history. Weather if it was before the revolution to the present time. The idea of one color being superior to others is shown the most in the 19 hundreds with segregation and less rights. In The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet, the novel explores into the past and exposes racial inequality during the early 1950s to late 1990s. It shows the duality of the path with passing over as a white with twins who went down different paths in search of their identity. In search of comfort and happiness, colored people were willing to risk their lives to pass over as white. 

The novel starts out in a small town called Mallard. Here the twins were born. Their names were Stella and Desiree. The twins desired to leave Mallard and planned to leave during a celebration to head toward New Orleans. Here we see the duality of the book as Stella splits off and passes over to being white while Desiree accepts her identity and lives with it. The scene of Desiree returning with her child was shocking as she disappeared for many years. Desiree left New Orleans because of an abusive relationship with a man named Sam. She begins to live with Adele, Desiree and Stella’s mother and achieves a job at the local egg house. She is reunited with her past lover named Early Jones. Early was a bounty hunter who was hired by Sam to track Desiree down but instead began a relationship with her. Ten years later, Desiree’s daughter Jude was going to UCLA with a track scholarship. At a halloween party, she meets a trans man named Reese. Jude develops feelings for him and moves in with him. After a night of which Jude comments about his chest bandages, Reese lashes out at her. Her friend Barry gave her a place to stay. Reese came forward to apologize. Jude begins to work as a caterer to pay for Reese’s breast removal surgery.

The story goes back in time to the point of view of Stella. Rather than being Stella Vignes, she passed and now she is Stella Sanders. She met her future husband named Blake and was working as a secretary for him. She attended a neighborhood meeting and realized that there were colored people moving into their neighborhood. She vocally spoke out against it for the fear that she could be exposed. Loretta and her husband move in with her child Cindy. Stella saw Kennedy playing with Cindy and ran over to stop it. Feeling guilty, she gives them a lemon cake and apologizes to them. They became friends at that point especially with Kennedy and Cindy playing together. The day after Christmas however, Kennedy called Cindy a racial slur and they seperated. The Walkers faced constant harassment from the other neighbors and moved out. Going back to Jude, she is still with Reese. She is going to medical school and waits for an acceptance. Barry invites Reese and Jude to a play at which she meets Kennedy. After the show, Kennedy gets drunk and asks Reese to stay with her. After refusing, she made a comment about Reese and Jude and which point she decided to leave. Kennedy’s life has been interesting. She loved acting and joined the play. She moved to New York for a play and was shocked when she saw Jude there. Jude doesn’t say anything and gives her a contact card. It was revealed that they were here for a surgery. They get along better and Jude exposes the history of Stella and their relationship being cousins. Kennedy confronts her mother after she returns to California. Stella went to visit Mallard after Blake went on a business trip. She met Early and Adele who just finished fishing. Stella visits Desiree and begs for forgiveness. They talked about their experiences and drank gin. Stella apon leaving, gave Early her wedding ring to pay for Adele’s hospital bills. During the last chapter, Adele passes away. Reese agrees to fly down with Jude to visit Adele’s funeral.

The Vanishing Half shows the different paths that colored people took during the 1950s. It showed the separation between Desiree and Stella. The novel explored different aspects in life and how it played out for the twins and their children. They both explored ups and downs in their life and eventually met their lover.