Parenthood
This novel features pretty poor examples of parenthood, but in a way, that strengthens the abstract imagery of parenthood in the text, because the potential that exist in parenthood for raising loving and successful children is amplified by its absence. As the novel continues, the reader watches as an essentially innocent child warps and bends beneath the weight of her confusion. Why did her mother leave? Why does her father hate her? She does not understand adult concepts, so she internalizes this hatred and then develops a personality in defense of the shame that arises from that internalization.
Toxic masculinity
The portrait of fatherhood is the first portrait offered, because the mother vanished from the picture before the novel begins. The father is a portrayal of weak patriarchy struggling to keep its grip on whatever power they manage to attain. For Markham's childhood, that meant that he was rude and threatening, dominating her by intimidating her so that she would be scared to do what he does not want. That leaves her with serious sexual repression, because she comes to associate her own happiness and pleasure with the act of rule-breaking.
Toxic femininity
After childhood is done, the pendulum swings and the reader sees Beryl's own capacity for toxic femininity. The toxicity is pretty clear from the onset. As a woman, she has power that men do not often have to resort to—she can be punishing and cruel is silent ways that she gets away with later. For instance, she slips a snake into the bed of another woman who has more power than she does. The snake-in-the-bed motif is commonly associated with toxic femininity. She lies to men for sex and breaks their heart by leaving once she has attained their trust.
Pathological fantasy
The reader learns about Beryl's sexuality throughout the novel. The psychological association she grows to assume is that if she wants pleasure or happiness, she is going to have to break the rules to get it. This is because of terrible dominating abusers in her personal history, but the association is stuck. When she is raped at a young age, she develops affection for her rapist for any number of possible reasons. The novel is full of sexual endeavors and desires that would be dangerous and unhealthy to explore.
