Identity

At the core of Funnyhouse of a Negro is Sarah's internal struggle to understand and accept her identity as an African American woman in the United States. Each of Sarah's four "selves" her subcon scious's way of dealing with her identity issues represents a facet of Sarah.

Two of her four selves are white European women of royal blood: the Duchess of Hapsburg and Queen Victoria. Sarah also has a large statue of Victoria in her room. This emphasizes her desire to identify more with her mother, who was white or a light-skinned African American depending on differing interpretations of the text. The Queen and the Duchess despise Sarah's dark-skinned father and what she thinks that represents: impurity, beastliness, and evilness.

Two of Sarah's inner selves are men: Jesus and Patrice Lumumba. The latter is an African revoluionary who was the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic...