Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution

Throughout much of the text, Adolpho is a primary antagonist. He is a flat character with little known about him, other than that he bullies several students in the school. He uses his parents’ privilege—as large donors to the Atlantis school—as a tool to get what he wants. However, when Lotus takes his position as concertmaster, he lashes out by bullying her, throwing paper airplanes into her afro, recording his friends tormenting her in the locker room, and comparing her to a racist caricature. Ultimately, he is motivated largely by jealousy and anger, taking it out on Lotus’s skin color and her appearance.

In the climax of the text, when Lotus attempts to get attention at the school board, she discovers a truth about Adolpho’s character: He is also motivated by pressure from his mother to be the top student at Atlantis. At the board meeting, Mrs. Cortez dismisses her son, and Lotus can see how uncomfortable he is, which is an instance of foreshadowing. It is then confirmed when Lotus witnesses Adolpho being slapped by his mother backstage. She hears Adolpho tell his mother, “I didn’t want to be in orchestra this year anyway. I wanted to be in visual arts and join the anime club” (244). This moment provides insight into Adolpho’s character and proves that he is, at least in one way, a sympathetic antagonist. While he still bullies Lotus and is racist toward her, his actions are also a result of the mistreatment that he suffers at home. In the end, Lotus’s acceptance of his apology and Adolpho’s encouragement that she “ha[s] to get ready to perform in Paris” (262) resolve their conflict, showing that he has learned about his ignorance and changed throughout the text.

Mrs. Cortez is Adolpho’s mother. She is a doctor, and she and her husband donated large amounts of money to Atlantis to open it. She is also on the Atlantis school board. As a result, she uses her money as a form of privilege, gaining power from it and using it to try to dictate the school’s policies and procedures to benefit herself and her son. While her son conveys the dangers of racism on a person-to-person level, racially bullying Lotus and her appearance, she exemplifies the insidiousness of institutionalized racism as she puts her opinions into policy to degrade, minimize, and change the Black student population. Unlike Adolpho, she is an unsympathetic character, fighting against Lotus until the moment when the school administration steps in to stop her.

Rebel is Lotus’s best friend. She is also in seventh grade but continues to go to MacArthur school instead of transferring to Atlantis. She is extremely opinionated, with Lotus explaining that “when it comes to causes she believes in—and there are many—Rebel’s intensity can be downright volcanic” (3). Throughout the novel, her central cause is the treatment of students at MacArthur Middle School, with Atlantis receiving millions of dollars in funding, a new building, and pristine equipment, and the students at MacArthur largely ignored. She is well educated in the history of racism and racist practices in Miami, often explaining to Lotus on their walks throughout town the different ways that the Black community has been ostracized and mistreated throughout the 1900s.

One key component of Rebel’s character is the fact that she is a flat, unchanging character throughout. In her fervor and insistence that Lotus is being racially mistreated, she refuses to acknowledge the complexities of Lotus’s situation or the value in compromising with Atlantis to receive better treatment for both MacArthur and Atlantis students. Instead, she is fixated on fixing MacArthur—even if it means destroying Atlantis and the opportunity it brings for students of performing arts. In this way, Rebel serves as a foil to Lotus to further explore the importance of individuals finding their voice in the fight for equality. While Rebel’s actions should be lauded, as she gathers an entire community, lawyers, and politicians to fight for equality, she also fails to understand how Lotus needs to discover in her own way how to fight back against the racism she faces.

Willow is Lotus’s mother. She was married to Lotus’s father until Lotus turned seven, then they divorced and Lotus’s father moved to Paris while Willow stayed in Miami to raise Lotus. According to Lotus’s understanding of her parents—influenced largely by Willow’s mother’s opinion—Willow was interested in studying computer science until she met Lotus’s father. Instead, she chose to pursue her art career, with Granny explaining that Willow turned into a “hippie” (49). As a result, Willow has much less of an interest in Lotus’s music career than Lotus’s father. She emphasizes the importance of Lotus’s other school work, stops Lotus from pursuing music school in Paris, and insists that Lotus not do anything to cause trouble or draw attention to herself at Atlantis.

When Lotus is bullied by Adolpho and told to change her hair by the school board, Willow initially sides with the school. She insists that Lotus should comply, with her opinions standing in stark contrast to Rebel. In this way, Willow serves as a foil to Rebel in the text: While Rebel takes every opportunity to fight for equality in open resistance, Willow insists that compliance and obedience are the answer. However, as a dynamic character, Willow changes throughout the text. When she attends the meeting with Mr. Mackie and Mrs. Cortez, the blatant mistreatment and racism directed at Lotus make Willow understand the seriousness of the situation that Lotus is in. While she initially dismisses Lotus’s bullying as Adolpho having a crush on her, Mrs. Cortez’s insistence that Lotus cut her hair and change who she is to fit in cause Willow to side with her daughter. In this way, Willow turns into a sympathetic character despite her initial ignorance to what Lotus is going through. Once she sees the seriousness of the situation, she adamantly defends her daughter and insists that she will support Lotus—no matter what she decides to do.