Authenticity in Trumpet Jackie Kay College

Jackie Kay’s novel Trumpet depicts characters who naturally challenge the conventional perceptions of race, gender, identity, and other socially constructed aspects of humanity. The text is set in the United Kingdom in the early to mid twentieth century, a time when being unconventional in these respects was particularly taboo. Kay's novel establishes that many facets of identity cannot be viewed through an essentialist lens, and Kay uses the believable authenticity of her characters to exemplify this idea by pitting authenticity against societal norms.

The main characters of the novel exhibit a variety of unconventional characteristics. Joss Moody, for example, is the biracial offspring of a Black man and a White woman, and the text frequently alludes to the inevitability of his parents’ marriage creating tensions and obstacles during his youth, even without directly depicting much of his childhood. Joss also marries Millie, a White woman, despite everyone perceiving him as incontrovertibly Black; Millie’s own family is reluctant to accept the aberrant relationship that she cements with Joss. Above all, though, the most pertinent challenge to societal norms is the fact that Joss is biologically female and living as a...