Jane absorbs many of Vida’s values, but she is willing to take some risks that her mother was unwilling to take. As an independent woman, she chooses to marry a dark-skinned man, which goes against the teachings of her mother and that part of her family background; however, she takes no risk when it comes to the possibility of abandoning her class. She marries a dark man, but she marries a physician. She leads much of her life as if she were a white middle-class woman. When her husband’s deep devotion to black people requires her to accept her race openly, some of her mother’s teachings of self-hatred surface. Jane has been taught by Vida to reject authentic black culture, especially that which emanates from the black masses. She does not always like the soul music that Greer plays, the African and African American history quizzes he gives to the children, his attention to the black community, and his complete acceptance of those African Americans who are not of his class. Jane struggles to understand her husband’s allegiance to race and to figure out her own. If she can settle these social-racial-cultural issues, she feels, then her marriage will be all right, for she and Greer have a wonderful physical relationship and communicate adequately with each other; they need only a bit more romance in their busy lives.