39 pages • 1 hour read
James IjamesFat Ham
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Juicy’s Barbie Doll
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to assault, murder, racism, and anti-gay bias.
Juicy recalls wanting a Black Barbie doll as a child and being gifted one by his mother. He details how he admired the doll and her beauty, along with its clothing and adornments. The doll is a display of traditional femininity and female sexuality. Juicy’s appreciation for feminine traits indicates his disinclination to adhere to traditional gender norms and his discomfort with traditional masculine traits. The doll is a way for Juicy to live out femininity in a way that he cannot physically do so for himself. Tedra’s gifting of the doll symbolizes her support and approval of Juicy—she wants him to be happy and whole, no matter what his sexual identity is or his performance of gender.
Juicy’s father, however, destroys the doll out of disapproval. He wants to prevent Juicy from displaying feminine traits and feels that only traditionally masculine traits—like toughness and a lack of emotional empathy—are acceptable for Juicy. By destroying the doll, Pap seeks to destroy feminine traits within his son. Pap destroys the doll by way of his barbecue fire because his identity as a chef is one that he deems especially masculine. By destroying the doll, Pap no longer has a visual reminder of the way his son is different from him. His disdain for the doll reveals the way Pap feels threatened by Juicy’s sexuality.
Opal’s Dress
When Opal arrives at the barbecue wearing a dress, everyone comments on it because it is out of the norm. Rabby notes that Opal’s typical attire consists of a hoodie sweatshirt and that she has a proclivity for covering her body. The younger characters, such as Tio and Juicy, emphasize how awkward and strange Opal looks in the dress, immediately sensing her discomfort and how the dress is inconsistent with her identity. Opal readily admits that she is uncomfortable in the dress and angry at her mother’s insistence that she wear it. The dress symbolizes traditional femininity—traits that Rabby desperately believes Opal should possess because she is a woman. Tedra compliments the dress, illustrating how she abides by traditional displays of femininity.
For Opal, the dress is uncomfortable because it is inconsistent with her identity. Traditional feminine traits are at odds with Opal’s sense of self, and to wear a dress is to pretend to be someone she is not. In wearing the dress, she conveys a desire to please her mother and resists challenging her. She and Juicy note the difficulty in living one’s life as one would wish it; Opal’s wearing of the dress is this difficulty manifested.
Opal’s coming out to Rabby is an important step in asserting her identity and refusing to comply with the person that others insist she should be. Taking off the dress is akin to removing the confines of harmful gender norms.
Juicy’s Karaoke Performance
Juicy performs karaoke at Tedra’s insistence. The mood of the song he chooses—“Creep” by Radiohead—greatly contrasts with that of the song Tedra has just sung. Where Tedra’s performance was upbeat, a crowd-pleaser, and a showcase of her ability to bring people together, Juicy’s song strikes the other characters, especially Rev, as morbid and bizarre. When Rev complains of the song’s strangeness, Tedra tries to defend Juicy, insisting that he is emotional and sensitive. This is in keeping with her frequent attempts to defend and protect Juicy against Rev.
The song’s lyrics declare that the speaker is weird and a loser. This fits with the way Juicy is seen by those around him. As the song unfolds, it speaks to Juicy’s feeling of being out of place among his family and friends: “What the hell am I doing here? / I don’t belong here” (“Creep.” azlyrics.com.). Juicy is sensitive, with a keen intellect, and inclined toward furthering his education. This, in addition to being gay, makes him feel different than the adults in his life. In singing the song, Juicy voices his frustration with the criticism he has received and with his desire to find a place where he belongs—to become confident in his identity and comfortable with the person he is.
Acknowledging the way he is different via the song gives Juicy a kind of confidence. When the song begins, his performance is awkward, and his singing is off-key. By the end of the song, Juicy’s singing has become powerful and moving, and the audience is taken with his performance in an unexpected way. This foreshadows how Juicy comes into his own identity by the end of the play. He embraces his differences and will find a means to be confident because of them.
