Full Cicada Moon

Mimi Yoshiko Oliver, the novel’s protagonist, is the daughter of a Japanese mother and African American father living in 1969 New England. Following World War II and the Civil Rights Movement, Mimi experiences discrimination and racism due to societal sentiments toward both the ethnicities to which she belongs. At the same time, she struggles to come to terms with what— or who—she is. One of the novel’s main themes is the way Mimi navigates her complex racial identity in the unique historical context in which she lives. Having lived amongst many other people of color when in Berkeley California, she is forced to come to terms with her “otherness” in Hillsborough, a neighborhood populated mostly by White people. When she first moves to Vermont, Mimi is taken aback by the way people treat her. The people she meets have no interest in anything about her except her ethnic/racial identity. When faced with being the “other” without anyone else to relate to, Mimi learns to understand who she is as a person in contrast with simply defining herself by her ethnicity. Over time, she gains confidence in her identity such that she is no longer embarrassed of eating the Japanese food her mom packs for her, and confidently teaches her kitchen in home economics class how her father makes cornbread.