As a black mother, Annie does everything trying to protect her daughter. .
Annie finally realizes that her black skin will really impact the life of her daughter, she choose to leave. She finally dies for sad. However, she is widely respected because of her kindness. She treats Susie as her own daughter and she helps Lora to take care of her home. She is more than a maid in Lora's house. Everyone treats her as a member of family. .
Sarah Jane is a girl with inferiority. She is eager to be a white girl. She is always be envied of Susie, not only because Susie's white blood, but also her white mother. She thinks she is inferior to others and people are all treating her differently. She wants to pretend. She once has a date with a boy as a white girl. The boy finally finds out that she is a mulatto and feels shamed to have a relationship with her. Sarah is beat by her so-called boyfriend because the boy feels being cheated. After that, Sarah Jane realizes that it is impossible to pretend as a white unless she leaves her mother. She starts working for a club in the town as a stripteaser. She can get confidence by doing this because she can attract the attentions from men by her sexy and beautiful body. She feels she can do the same thing as that the write girls can. She even starts pretending that Annie is not her mother. However, even though Sarah does so many things to hurt her mother, she still loves her mother deeply in her mind. .
When Annie finds Sarah in LA and tells her how much she cares about her, Sarah feels moved and ashamed. Sarah cries and hugs her mother. The reason why Sarah do those all things is attribute to the society. Every time people hear that her mother is black and she is a mulatto, they start act differently, which really hurt Sarah. Sarah just wants to protect herself from being looked down by others. However, the only thing she does not make sense is that even though she cannot choose her birth and skin, she can choose to be a kind person like her mother.