Essay Questions

What is the significance of the novel’s title?

It is a reference to the central plot of the novel where a scientist discovers a means to change a person’s skin color to white and a black man undergoes the procedure to “improve his life” as he is sick and tired of the prejudice that he has had to endure as a a black man. Once he undergoes the controversial procedure he is literally “black no more.” The novel’s plot however involves more than just the cosmetic change of a person’s skin color. Once the procedure is proven to be safe and successful, other people opt to undergo the procedure and soon the whole world has to deal with the consequences of their collective choices.

What do the Knights of Nordica symbolize?

The Knights of Nordica is a fictional white extremist organization in the novel. The author uses them as both an in-novel allegory for the Ku Klux Klan as well as a metaphor for ignorance and bigotry. The Knights respond in very similar fashion as their real-life counterparts acting paranoid viewing every other race as a threat to either their employment and quick to cast blame on other ethnicities for nearly every societal trouble. Their belligerence and tendency to look for a scapegoat for any perceived misfortune makes them ideal pawns for unscrupulous elements in the government as they are easily goaded into rioting and easily fooled into funding manipulative politicians thru funding rackets.

What was the greatest lesson that Max/Matthew learns after becoming white?

The greatest lesson that Max/Matthew learns after going through the controversial procedure is that problems exist regardless of race. White people have their own fair share of problems he soon realizes and soon he is facing a completely new set of woes, along with a couple of new troubles that he had inadvertently created by choosing to undergo the procedure and be it’s unofficial representative. He also learns much later on that the procedure only makes cosmetic changes. He eventually manages to win over his love interest and they have a child together. The child is, unsurprisingly, born with prominent black features to a pair of horribly racist parents.