The Weight of Blood

Maddy’s hair symbolizes her identity, both in terms of her race as well as her magical powers. At the beginning of the novel, Maddy’s racial identity is a secret to most people around her, and her magical identity is a secret even to herself. This secret is symbolized by Maddy’s hair, which her Papa straightens weekly with a hot comb and which Maddy is not allowed to get wet in public under any circumstances for fear of revealing that she’s biracial. When Maddy’s hair does get wet when they run outside for gym class, it changes physical form, becoming larger, frizzier, and resistant to her attempts to contain it in a ponytail. Maddy’s hair is also the specific aspect of her that the other kids choose to target on that fateful day in Mrs. Morgan’s history class, emphasizing the symbolic connection between Maddy’s hair and her racial identity. The other kids can tell from the change in her hair that she’s been hiding her biracial identity, so their bullying is promptly amplified and racialized. Despite the blatant racist tones of the bullying, the other kids and some adults still claim race is not the issue, demonstrating how the dynamics of