The Maid's Daughter - Ch. 4 Passing and Rebelling

In Ch. 4 of The Maid’s Daughter, we see Olivia exploring identity concepts of passing and rebelling. Olivia crosses social boundaries every day. While she is aware and thankful of her privilege, she can’t help but feel as though she is being white-washed. The Smith’s take her to the country club and send her to an upper-class school. Olivia begins to resent the detachment of her culture she is experiencing. Olivia is very adaptable, intelligent and aware of her double consciousness or code switching, and roles she plays at a young age. Olivia is also aware that she “passes” within society with her lighter skin and features. She uses this advantage of passing to rebel. Olivia begins to conduct social experiments of her own. She decides to go to the prom with the son of one of her mother’s employers. He is of different social class and ethnicity. For this occasion, she wears her makeup in a heavy Chicana/Chola style, partly to shock her date’s friends and families, but also as an homage to her embraced identity. Olivia’s quick wit and adaptation earns her a promotion at her job. Here, Oliva also explores role and identity. Most all the employees under Olivia are the children of her mother and mother’s network. Olivia loves to give them grief in that they may have rich families, but no common sense or street smarts. While developing her identity, she is realizing that people can be typecast in certain roles. Olivia is in a position where she can question or challenge those norms and I suspect that this will influence or help her blossom into the woman she later becomes.