Analysis of Self Discovery in the Film Skin

The movie “Skin” is about a girl named Sandra Laing. She’s born black, but to white parents, in South Africa. Sandra was born under Apartheid which was racial segregation. Under apartheid, people of different races couldn’t go to the same school or store and they couldn’t live under the same roof. Therefore, her parents wouldn’t allow anyone to think she’s black, so she could have the same rights as white people. That lead to Sandra having a hard life, where she had to fight for her whole life

At the beginning of the movie, Sandra Laing is an adult. She’s working at a factory and she is interviewed at some point by Journalists. After the interview, she meets two other black women, where they show her a news article about her life, and they ask for an autograph but Sandra walks away. 

The flashback of her early life then begins

Sandra arrives at the all-white school and Sandra notices how she’s getting met with cold stares by the white kids. The next day, Sandra gets to experience how she gets ignored by all the white kids and teachers. 

Sandra makes it through the school day but her dad gets called over by the principal. The principal tells the dad that the parents of the white-colored kids are calling the principal every day about how there is a black kid in an all-white school. The dad tries to show the principal a document, where it says that Sandra is white. But the principal still insists on Sandra leaving. The dad then tells the principal, that if the principal would just get to know Sandra a little better, then everything would be alright.

The Dad drives away from the school and drives to his shop. The mother is working in the shop and she’s talking with a black person, the dad sees it. He becomes furious and he tells the mother to just sell items to the black people and then just ignore them.

Meanwhile, in the school, Sandra Is getting checked by a man, and he’s checking her for signs of being black. The man writes down some things about Sandra, and she leaves and returns to the math class. Sandra at some point gets called up by the principal to do some math equations in front of the entire class. The principal at some point starts to hit Sandra, while he tells her to talk louder and louder. Sandra gets hit so many times that she ends up peeing herself. She gets sent home, and when she arrives at her home, her principal tells her parents that she’s getting classified as black and she can’t come back to the school. 

Some time has passed since the disastrous incident and Sandra and her mom are at the lake swimming. Sandra’s mom reveals to her daughter that she’s pregnant again, and Sandra becomes very happy. Sandra and her mom then go home and they see their house is surrounded by journalists. they’re asking personal things about Sandra and her family. The family tries to avoid the journalists by going inside the house and they succeed. 

The ashamed dad becomes so furious at all the insane things happening to Sandra, that he decides to make her classified as white again by fighting legal battles. But before going to court, Sandra’s dad is trying to put bleach on her forehead, so she can become white, but his plan doesn’t work.

The anxious family finally goes to court. At the court, there are white people but also the same man who checked Sandra at the school. The man writes down some things about Sandra again and he makes her go through the pencil test. After the test, he says to the dad that they will get an answer in some weeks. The dad became furious as he can’t understand, why his daughter can’t just get treated as a white person and the dad has a meltdown but the family calms him down and they leave. Sandra eventually finds out that she failed the test. 

Sandra becomes so depressed and desperate to become white, that she tries to bleach herself white. The struggling dad tries to make the best out of the situation and he decides to take her to a supreme court. At the supreme court, there is a man named Dr. Spark. The doctor studies genetics. The doctor says white parents can carry black genes, and the family starts to feel hope and the whole case goes well for the family. 

After the family has left the court, the mom needs to give birth and the dad drives her to the hospital and she gives birth to another black child. But not too long after the baby boy is born, the dad hears from a radio, that kids who have white parents are also white. The family is happy and Sandra and her little brother can finally have an almost normal life.

5 years have passed now, and Sandra is a teenager. Her parents have tried to make her date a white boy. She doesn’t seem to find the white boy interesting. But instead of finding a white boy to love, she finds a black man named Petrus Zwyane. She meets him for the first time at his shop. Then she meets him sometimes on the streets, and he even helps her. Petrus and Sandra’s relationship starts to develop so fast around everybody that the dad notices It and confronts Petrus about it, and the dad tells Petrus to stay five feet from her. 

Eventually, Sandra’s whole family finds out what Sandra is doing with Petrus and she gets punished by getting locked in her house because it’s not allowed for a white person to date a black person. After a few days, Petrus is close to Sandra’s house. The dad sees Petrus and he confronts him and he tells Petrus that he will kill him if he tries to do something with his daughter again. Petrus drives away but he decides to go back and the dad then chases him away with his rifle. 

Sandra eventually escapes from the house and her dad and her older brother Leon, drives to the town of black people, so they can find Petrus. They find out that they’re in Swaziland with some cousins. The dad and the brother then call the police. The police storm the house of Petrus and Sandra and they both get thrown into jail. She’s convicted for illegal entry and she’s sentenced to stay at her parent’s house until she’s an adult. 

Sandra and her dad get into an argument outside the court and the dad tells her that she will never see her family again if she goes with Petrus. Sandra reveals she’s pregnant and the dad and Sandra both go their own ways while the unhappy mom doesn’t know what to do. 

The dad comes home so furious that he burns every piece of paper that has something to do with Sandra and he tells his two other kids that they’re his only two kids now. Meanwhile, Sandra and Petrus move to a different place, and Sandra gives birth there.

Sandra and Petrus can’t keep the child legally, because she’s white and Petrus is black and they aren’t married. Sandra can’t get married without her father’s approval. She can’t get his approval so she fights and ends up becoming classified as black.

Sandra returns to her new place and the place is getting destroyed by white people. The white people are going to turn it into a white-only area. The place and Petrus’s shop are getting destroyed by a bulldozer, and Sandra and the other black people are trying to run away.

Sandra and the rest move to a new place. Petrus starts drinking and he becomes violent. He beats up Sandra. Sandra has two kids now and she ends up running away to Johannesburg in the middle of the night because she doesn’t feel safe living with Petrus.

Sandra is now trying to find her mother but she can’t find her address. 

Sandra eventually gets a letter after being on live television and she finally tracks her mom down. They have a good time and they talk about the dead dad and about how life has been. 

Sandra ends up opening her first store named Sandra’s truck. Sandra and other people celebrate it with balloons and they end up having a great time.