Blanca & Roja + ocean eyes
When I was halfway into reading Blanca & Roja, I was envisioning what song in my current playlist could represent an overarching theme in the novel. After finishing the book, I’ve concluded that “ocean eyes” by Billie Eilish is representative of a “prophecy” one of the señoras told Blanca, “if you can get a blue-eyed boy, then you will save yourself.” This idea of “getting the blue-eyed boy” was an influential concept in the novel as it drove the two sisters, Blanca and Roja del Cisne, to stop communicating with each other. They thought keeping secrets would be conducive to preventing either sister to turn into a swan. The swans wanted to stir up trouble between Blanca and Roja by making Blanca make the boy her sister is in love with, Yearling or Barclay Holt (the blue-eyed boy), fall in love with her despite having a strong emotional connection with Page. Like all secrets, the truth eventually came out, and somehow the sisters were able to avoid their fate by willingly turning themselves into swans before being transformed back into girls.
In the context of “ocean eyes,” Billie wrote it to reflect how it feels to be hurt by someone a loved one. Although the primary focus of the novel is on the del Cisne sisters’ family curse, I imagined the song depicts Roja’s relationship with Yearling. In the first verse, Billie compares her lover’s eyes to explosions while still associating their eyes with the ocean (usually described as blue). Readers of Blanca & Roja know that Yearling’s eyes are blue, but since his return from the forest, one of his eyes is difficult to see out. As a result, this causes Yearling to be frustrated despite his grandmother’s reassurance that he’ll gradually become used to his eyes. We can interpret Yearling’s inner turmoil about his eyes to be similar to the ‘explosions’ Billie refers to in her song. In the second verse, Billie talks about how this relationship has consumed her but made her stronger in the end, which accurately reflects how Roja and Yearling helped each other become better versions of themselves within a short time of knowing one another.
Personally, I believe the chorus of “ocean eyes” summarizes the last section of the book well. Billie’s lyrics reference how she’s scared of falling in love, mainly because she knows how much heartbreak the person can cause her if she loses them. Similarly, this is how Roja feels when Yearling assumes she has betrayed him by being friendly towards his cousin, who despises Yearling over attempting to expose their family of scamming innocent folks into buying worthless land. It pushes Roja to sacrifice herself (turning into a swan) so that her sister and friends have a chance of living happy lives. Although the lyrics, “I’ve never fallen from quite this high... those ocean eyes,” was a metaphor for falling in love, I thought it was quite ironic that this occurred in Blanca & Roja. The del Cisne sisters fell from the sky, transforming from swans back to girls, into the ocean. Yearling ends up being the person to find Roja in the ocean, further solidifying their feelings for one another, even though their last conversation was an argument.
In conclusion, “ocean eyes” reflects one of the many themes Anne-Marie McLemore introduces in Blanca & Roja. I liked how the book tells an interesting tale of two sisters and integrates topics like colorism and gender identity. Although reading four POVs was confusing in the beginning, McLemore’s choice to do so helped me understand each character’s motivations better. I’m ok with the ending being open-ended, as I would like to imagine everyone was ultimately able to make peace with their struggles.
