Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution

“But when it comes to causes she believes in—and there are many—Rebel’s intensity can be downright volcanic. And what has her spewing lava this morning? The bright, shiny new performing arts middle school that opened near our neighborhood.”

In contrast to her own, upbeat attitude, Lotus uses a metaphor to describe how Rebel feels, comparing her personality to an erupting volcano. This metaphor immediately introduces the difference in characteristics between Lotus and Rebel, introducing them as foils: While Lotus is cheerful and upbeat and thinking only about the opportunity she will get from attending Atlantis, Rebel is already fixated on the larger picture and the impact the school will have on the community.

“My dear, ‘You know the place between sleep and awake? The place where you still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you’…Peter Pan. I’ll be waiting, muse.”

The first time Lotus meets Dion, she is impressed by his outgoing attitude and his love of drawing. He quotes Peter Pan, which emphasizes his love of drama and his immediate attachment to Lotus. However, the allusion to this work also conveys the idea of the text as a Bildungsroman. In Peter Pan, the titular character is a boy who never grows up, sharing his youth and adventures with the other children. While Lotus is enthralled by her new school, a symbolic “Neverland,” the realities of the racism she will face as well as the larger issues of institutionalized racism will force her to grow and mature throughout the novel.

“[Maestro] gives me his semiamused look again. I feel love and death and agony and joy all at once. I am going to play for him. My idol. I want to float through the air. I want to sink through the floor.”

The juxtaposition of these ideas—love and death, agony and joy—and their existence all at once within Lotus emphasize two important components of her character. First, she prefers not to stand out, and she is overcome by fear at the idea of playing for Maestro and the entire advanced orchestra. However, it also shows her passion for music and her confidence in her ability to play. In this way, this juxtaposition highlights the importance of Music in Personal and Political Expression. While she may not be able to speak due to her overwhelming nerves and fear, she is able to express herself and show her passion by playing her music.

“His parents, the Doctors Cortez, are power obsessed. They see themselves as Titans. Big shots who helped make this school possible. ‘Dolpho seems to think he’s Prometheus, the Greek God who gave fire to humans, and he’s determined to show his Titan daddy that he is a musical star.”

The first time the reader is introduced to Adolpho and his family is through Lotus’s conversation with Tati. She makes an allusion to Prometheus, metaphorically comparing Adolpho to Prometheus and his parents to Titans. In Greek mythology, the Titans were the original gods who ruled Greece before they were overthrown by their children. Prometheus was a Titan who defied Zeus and gave fire to humanity, sharing some of their godly knowledge with humans on Earth. Through this metaphor, Tati conveys the power that Adolpho’s parents—“Titans”—feel: They created Atlantis and believe they are to be credited for anyone who has the privilege of attending. In turn, their son is a gift to those students, a “Titan” who conveys knowledge and bestows his gifts upon the school.

“All I know is you leaving gives the county one more reason to think they’re doing the right thing. And the fact that you want to act like it doesn’t matter at all, well, it makes you look really ignorant and unfeeling!”

When Lotus and Rebel argue about Atlantis, it emphasizes the complexities of their situation. While Atlantis is an important part of the community in that it affords students like Lotus a chance to pursue music, it also pulls those students away from MacArthur and gives them even more reason to neglect it. While Rebel’s thoughts may be in the right place, she ironically calls Lotus “ignorant and unfeeling”—while she herself is refusing to listen to Lotus and is ignorant of how she feels. Ultimately, this external conflict is a key motivation to helping Lotus with Finding One’s Voice in the Fight Against Prejudice. While both Lotus and Rebel are correct, they will ultimately need to find their own ways to stand up against injustice based on their own situations.

“Mom: (looking uncertain) ‘You’re not planning on protesting, are you?’ When I say of course not, she visibly sages with relief. No standing up to authority for my daughter! I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

When Lotus tells her mother and Granny what Rebel is doing at MacArthur, both of them immediately insist that Lotus should not be involved. Their beliefs emphasize Lotus’s internal conflict over how to handle her situation with MacArthur and Atlantis. She receives starkly different views from Rebel and her mother, leaving her uncertain how she feels and how to move forward. Ultimately, she will need to find a balance between the two to find her own opinion and her voice in standing up to inequality.

“It’s so weird, because when I was at MacArthur, I was like Okay, this is what I’m working with. So bring it on! Since going to a different school, a better equipped, more modern building, I realize a school could be so much more than what I was used to. And that makes me think about Rebel. Why can’t it be like that for all schools?”

Lotus has these thoughts after working with the children at the rec center. While she always thought that the school was good enough and she had to “work with” what she was given, she now realizes that more is possible for the students at MacArthur. These thoughts emphasize the role that the children at the rec center play in Lotus’s life. She sees other musically gifted children and, for the first time, wonders what their futures will be like if they are forced to deal with the poorly equipped MacArthur. In turn, this makes her reconsider Rebel’s perspective and her own role in resisting inequality.

“So I have to wonder: If I did share my innermost ideas or goals or philosophies or world views, what would that look like? It’s one of the things I admire most about Rebel. She always has a clear idea of where she stands and what she believes in.”

After Rebel walks with Lotus through town and tells her about the history of Miami, as well as her boyfriend Connor and what they are doing at MacArthur to bring change, Lotus stops to wonder about her own personal beliefs and who she is as a person. These thoughts mark the beginning of a change within Lotus. At the start of the text, she dismissed what Rebel was saying and played her violin, distracting her and diffusing the tension between the two. Now, she is realizing that there is more for her to be concerned with other than music, making her wonder who she is at her core.

“‘Class, we are reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.’ I feel my insides groan. My fifth-grade teacher tried to get me to read that book. I tried. I really did. But it was all about this poor Black girl growing up after the Great Depression in the Deep South. I got bored just looking at it.”

Lotus’s history and English teachers work together to get the students to work on projects related to revolutions in history. Lotus’s reaction to this book—her “groan” and dismissal of it as “boring”—emphasizes her immaturity and her lack of understanding of the importance of Black history and inequality. Additionally, this book specifically is an autobiography about the life of Maya Angelou, who uses her poetry and writing to deal with racism and trauma in the 1930s. This allusion links Lotus’s life to that of Angelou: She too will use art—her music—to help cope with and fight against injustice.

“A few kids, Mercedes included, snort as they try to hold back laughter. I am not laughing. It is humiliating. I feel violated.”

When Lotus first sees the meme of Buckwheat—shown to her by Mercedes—she is unsure how to react. A large part of her decision not to react comes from her lack of support from the people that she considers her friend. This moment shows the insidiousness of the racist bullying and the deep impact that it has on Lotus, while also giving insight into why she does not choose to report it. Lotus lacks support from everyone around her, including her family and the people she considers friends, thereby making her feel alone and powerless.

“Is that really how people see me? Do they look at my hair—which I love—as something dirty and unkempt?”

As Lotus still struggles with her feelings over the Buckwheat meme hours later, she tries to understand why Adolpho is targeting her hair as a source of insult. While it symbolizes her strength and pride, she begins to understand the perception that a non-Black student would have of her hair. The idea surprises her, conveying her innocence, while also highlighting the racism ingrained at Atlantis. With predominantly white or Cuban students, they have their own standard of beauty that does not involve a young Black girl’s hair.

“I feel like my insides are coming undone, and the people I should be able to count on are—what was that vocab word? Oblivious. They haven’t got a clue.”

As Lotus struggles with the most severe bullying yet—first the Buckwheat meme and then Adolpho’s direct confrontation in the locker room—she feels lost and without support. This shows an importance part of her character: until now, she has felt as though she needs to deal with the situation on her own, refusing to get any authority figure involved. Despite her pride and strength, however, she has failed to recognize the seriousness of the situation or how best to include a support group to help her handle it. She compares herself to Rebel in this moment, lauding her ability to “rip Adolpho to shreds without breaking a sweat” (116). However, because she is inherently kind and wants to give people the benefit of the down, she fails to understand how she differs from Rebel.

“Mercedes’ eyes glimmer from being the star of this little dramedy. When she grins, she reminds me of a shark. I suddenly feel like a clueless guppy.”

As the bullying escalates, Lotus looks to her friends for support. However, this simile—comparing Mercedes to a shark and Lotus to a guppy—emphasizes how fake and manipulative Mercedes truly is. While Lotus expects her to be a supportive friend, she is realizing that Mercedes has ulterior motives.

“A tightness enters my chest and squeezes so hard I think I’m breaking in two. I picture Adolpho’s smug grin. Mercedes’s smirk. The dean of students and his long, praying mantis limbs. And the uncomfortable feeling of anger is back, surrounding me like a cage.”

After Lotus receives a letter from the dean about her violation of the dress code, she begins to fully understand just how deeply rooted the institutionalized racism is at Atlantis. She thought that she was just being bullied by a classmate, but now she realizes that Adolpho has the support of both the other students—even Mercedes, who she thought was her friend—and the administration. This simile, which compares her anger to a “cage” surrounding her, conveys just how helpless Lotus feels: All she has is her own anger, which only makes her feel trap, as she does not have the tools or ability to resist. These thoughts convey the theme of Collective Support Against Institutionalized Racism. Several things have lead Lotus to this point, including her unsupportive mother, her manipulative friends, Adolpho’s bullying, and, to some extent, her own unwillingness to seek how appropriate support. As a result, she is left feeling trapped instead of having the support she needs to fight back.

“That poet she mentioned, Audre Lorde? I’d seen her poster in Rebel’s room so many times. But I never paid attention to it. I cringe. It feels like I’ve spent a lifetime not paying attention.”

As Lotus struggles to find support against Adolpho and the school, she sees Rebel on television quoting Audre Lorde. She has spent much of the novel—and her life—ignoring the things that Rebel finds important, like Black history in Miami, Maya Angelou, and poets like Lorde. Now, however, she recognizes her own immaturity, which highlights a change within Lotus. She is beginning to understand the importance of Black history and the Black community—and standing up with each other in fighting injustice.

“I hadn’t thought about how much Rebel scares me when she gets in attack mode. I remember why I didn’t tell her before. Once I let her loose on this, she’d be full-tilt. What if she tries to make me do something I might not want to do?”

After being forced to change her hair, Lotus reaches out to her friends and family for support. From Rebel, she is met with anger and aggression, with Rebel trying to convince her to start an all-out fight against the school. However, the idea of it still makes Lotus uncomfortable, especially if she is forced by Rebel to “do something [she] might not want to do.” These thoughts convey the importance of Lotus finding her own voice. While Rebel’s action may work best for what Rebel wants, Lotus has to find her own way instead of immediately following what Rebel thinks is best.

“All I’m saying […] is no matter who’s breathing down your neck, your future is yours. It would be nice if everything just magically happened just the way you’d like, but sometimes you have to work for it.”

After Lotus braids her hair and returns to school, she finds support for the first time through Fabiola. Instead of getting angry that Lotus changed her hair as Rebel did, or insisting that Lotus needs to follow the rules as her mother did, Fabiola reminds her that her life is going to be difficult and sometimes she will need to ruffle feathers or demand change. While Lotus would like to pacify everyone and not make waves, she also knows that she is being disloyal to herself by changing—something that Fabiola reminds her of. Fabiola, then, provides much needed support for Lotus as she considers what to do next, which she is largely lacking elsewhere in her life.

“I look at Mr. Mackie, doing his best to ignore this unhinged woman altogether. But I need him to do more. And the Cobra isn’t finished, not yet. Now the tune switches from merely menacing to downright killer. The shower scene. Psycho.”

As Lotus suffers a racist attack from Mrs. Cortez—and her school dean sits by and allows it to happen—she compares Mrs. Cortez to a cobra, then thinks of the movie Psycho. These thoughts emphasize the importance of music to Lotus’s life. In order to better grasp and comprehend what is happening, she thinks of music, comparing Mrs. Cortez’s actions to the musical score that plays during the infamous murder scene in the film.

“When Adolpho and a few of his friends enter the café and immediately get paper airplanes zinged toward their heads, I get a bad feeling. Adolpho’s red face looks around angrily. […] We all look up in time to see the planes flying in from everywhere. The room goes silent, then there is an eruption of laughter. ‘Serves ‘em right,’ says Benz.”

After Lotus returns to the school with her afro back in place, she is surprised by the amount of people who side with her and stand up to Adolpho. This is a key moment in her characterization, as she realizes the importance of collective support. Until now, she felt as though she could not tell anyone about Adolpho’s bullying or that it would just go away if she ignored it. Now, however, she realizes that several people are also victims of his bullying—and they all wish that he would be punished for his actions instead of protected by the school.

“Oh, how many times I’ve imagined having this conversation. Saying these words. Always, I’ve talked myself out of it because I was afraid doing so would create some sort of cosmic rift. I thought confronting people would bring more problems. I never realized that there’s a certain peace that comes with confronting what’s wrong, and making it right for you.”

This first moment of true change comes in Lotus’s character when she confronts Granny about the way she talks to Lotus’s mother. To this point, she has always seen the way that Rebel has handled things—with anger and aggression—and recognized that that is not how she wants to deal with situations. Instead, she has defaulted to letting things go and acting passive, like her mother. Now, however, in expressing her feelings to Granny and standing up to her in a respectful way, she has started to learn the value of finding her voice and using it how she needs to, not how Rebel or her mother want her to.

“I feel like I’ve walked too close to the edge of a pool and accidently fallen into the deep end. This whole situation is drowning me. I fight the urge to give in to the drowning sensation.”

When Lotus arrives at the board meeting, this simile—comparing her feelings to the feeling of drowning in a pool—conveys how overwhelmed she feels by the situation. While she wants to give resources to MacArthur and still support Atlantis, she is realizing that she is becoming a pawn in what Rebel has created: a lawsuit to vilify Atlantis. Using what she has learned throughout the text, Lotus will need to navigate her feelings of “drowning” to use her voice and advocate for herself, despite the pressure she feels from everyone else to do something different.

“I look out over the room, and what I see is a war. Not the bullet kind, but the social kind. People are shouting at one another, but no one is listening. My most important tool, I tell myself, is my music. No matter what, music lives inside me, grows in my soul. No one can take that away.”

Just as Lotus has done throughout the rest of the novel, she turns to music at times when she is overwhelmed or stressed. When the board meeting breaks out into chaos, she leans on her music to be heard above everyone else. In this way, her actions emphasize the theme of Music in Personal and Political Expression. Even though no one listens to what she has to say, she forces them to listen by playing her music and leaving them in awe of her talent.

“For the next hour, we talk. Really talk. And I’m as honest as I know how to be. We’re all learning still.”

After Lotus resolves the situation at the school by speaking out at the meeting and demanding to be heard, her change as a character is then reinforced in her conversation with her parents. Instead of letting them fight at lunch, she speaks her mind and forces them to listen. She then insists that they discuss things and “really talk”—instead of fighting like normal.