The traditional qualities of a feminine woman usually include a beautiful physique, a kind and caring nature, and a certain degree of sexual reserve. Throughout literature and cinema, women who embrace typical ideas of femininity are also represented as members of the upper class and elite, while women who are less feminine and beautiful are represented as lower class or even ignorant and poor. Visions of femininity and class are not usually thought of as related ideals, yet they are often represented as such in contemporary art and literature. In Walter Mosley's Devil in a Blue Dress (1990), a dichotomy exists between two ideas of femininity embodied in a single woman to show how different representations of femininity are associated with class and status. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In the novel, Daphne Monet's character sometimes embraces and sometimes rejects traditional ideals of femininity. The reader is introduced to the character as a white woman with possible French heritage. When the protagonist, Easy Rawlins, is hired for a job that leads him to search for Daphne, he expects to find a sweet, delicate woman who has fallen in with the wrong crowd. The two eventually meet and form a connection. She is mysterious and seductive and serves to bolster Easy's ego with her need to be saved. He describes her dreamily with eyes that “were only a little closer than the eyes of most women; it made her seem vulnerable, it made me feel like I wanted to put my arms around her to protect her” (89). As long as Daphne plays the character of a shy, vulnerable girl who needs saving, she will retain her power. Her sexual allure and inability to walk away from troubling situations become so attractive to Easy that he forgets that he should see it as a job and not a sexual conquest. As a white woman who associates with politicians, gangsters, and businessmen, Daphne is a member of an upper class at Easy. Easy longs to be associated with her, and although he prides himself on being a loner, he seems to fall in love with Daphne and becomes willing to risk his life for her. As Easy gets to know her, however, he discovers that many of her traits reject typical ideas of femininity. This is represented in her promiscuous sexuality, the fact that she speaks frankly in a way that many women wouldn't, and is even vulgar enough to urinate in front of him. All of these episodes suggest that Daphne is not who she seems, and Easy soon discovers that she is actually a black woman who has transitioned into an upper-class white society. When Easy confronts Daphne, she explains to him, “I'm not Daphne. My birth name is Ruby Hanks and I was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana. I'm different from you because I'm two people. I am here and I am” (203). After describing how he contains such a dichotomy within himself, Easy no longer wants to be with her, or even associate with her. He realizes that he wasn't saving Daphne in a heroic way; he was simply using it. The mystery she was once shrouded in has disappeared, and Easy finds himself even more dissociated from his surroundings and alone than he was at the beginning of the novel. Once Easy discovers that Daphne is Ruby, a black woman who is just disguising herself as a woman. white woman, the notion of her belonging to an upper class has disappeared. Instead it is at the same class level, if not lower, than Easy itself. While he may have made more money than Easy through his escapades with gangsters and rich men, Easy sees through..