Yellowface

While June may consider Athena Liu an antagonist, she operates more as a foil in Yellowface. At no point does Athena actually prevent June from succeeding, but she does embody everything that June perceives herself to lack. Where June experiences professional failure, Athena achieves immense success. Athena is the object of June’s jealousy, and this is clear in June’s descriptions of her: “tall and razor-thin, graceful in the way all former ballet dancers are, porcelain pale and possessed of these massive, long-lashed brown eyes that make her look like a Chinese Anne Hathaway” (5). Athena is everything that June is not and everything she aspires to be. June chases the literary success that Athena has throughout the novel but can never achieve it. After Athena’s death, she haunts June, becoming the critical voice in her head that prevents her from writing and even manifests as a physical ghost in June’s life.

Athena is only alive for one chapter of Yellowface, and yet her presence is felt throughout the novel. She is characterized primarily through June’s memories, which paint her as a villain who uses others’ stories to inspire her writing. Both June and Geoff remember times when they would have deeply personal and private conversations with Athena, only to later find their words replicated in her writing. Athena is portrayed as a thief by June, making her name off the pain of others. June uses this to justify her theft of Athena’s work, but June’s unreliability casts her motivations and memories of Athena into question. Athena is the victim of June’s skewed worldview; therefore, despite being the true author of The Last Front and the guiding hand behind June’s literary career, Athena is trapped, unable to tell her own story. June’s attempts to villainize Athena emphasize the way scandals and racial othering both reduce people to flat depictions rather than highlighting nuance.

Candice Lee is June Hayward’s secret antagonist in Yellowface. Despite not making a physical appearance until the penultimate chapter, she exerts quite an influence on June and her career. Candice is first introduced as Daniella’s editorial assistant and conflicts with June over the matter of a sensitivity reader. During this conflict, Candice is portrayed by June as a stereotypical marginalized writer whose role is to criticize June’s whiteness. The conflict starts when Candice suggests the use of a sensitivity reader in an email. Candice’s lack of trust in June casts her as a villain in June’s eye, despite her concerns being legitimate. June, who feels threatened by the presence of marginalized voices in publishing, does her best to remove Candice from The Last Front’s proximity. She even later comments to herself that “Candice exists entirely to complain about microaggressions” (65). June’s perception of Candice exemplifies the racism in the publishing industry, in which a suggestion for responsible publishing can be seen as an attack on an author’s ability.

The transformation of Candice into June’s true antagonist arrives at the end of the novel when it is revealed that Candice has been haunting June via Athena’s old Instagram account. Candice lures June into a confession to not only bring June down but launch her own career as a writer. This action casts her as a villain in June’s mind, and yet she cannot help but recognize herself in Candice: “If I were in Candice’s shoes right now, if I had the same kind of narrative gold she’s carrying in her backpack, of course I’d do the same” (308). Candice is a way for June to not only cast blame on another for targeting her but to recognize the toxicity of publishing and the desperation it instills in its authors. From June’s perspective, Candice is trying to take her career from her and make it her own, just as June did to Athena. June, who has spent the entire novel defending herself, realizes that she would do the same if she were Candice. In these final scenes, Candice is both villain and hero, creating a rivalry that will play out between the two beyond the novel’s conclusion.