Symbolism In Pinky

The fence motif is one found most frequently in the film Pinky. Pinky rams through a fence to escape the clutches of two white male rapists. Pinky reminisces about never being able to enter Miss Em’s property as a child, the fence being the boundary in which she couldn’t pass. And lastly, Pinky even passes a little child waiting outside Miss Em’s fence, just as she did in her younger years. All of these examples circulate around the idea of Pinky being incapable of passing the line of race and social status, but one must not forget who lives entrapped on the other side of the fence Pinky once stood outside of as a child, the woman desirous to be black but confined by her own “fences”, both literal and metaphorical, to fade away into whiteness Em is a failed passing character in Elia Kazan’s Pinky prevented by the fence encircling her house, her sickness “fencing” her to remain in dismay, and her cousin Melba Wooley who encloses Miss Em into white societal norms.
This fence that kept Pinky out gave her a hatred for a woman whose house was “built and run by slaves” and created a predetermined image of a white woman who supported discrimination and slavery. Yet, the viewers find no black slaves working in Miss Em’s house except for the work of Pinky and Dicey Johnson during Miss Em’s sickness, secretly alluding to Miss Em’s aspiration to be seen as equal to the black race. Furthermore, Miss Em’s mansion seems to be a “white oasis” in the middle of the black side of town; Miss Em wants to be a part of this community, but her fences create an illusion of white isolation that Miss Em has to live with until her