ABSTRACT
Yellow is the most diverse signifier of all the colors discussed thus far. The hue's negative meanings drift from one group to another in nineteenth-century fiction, often working to disassociate light-skinned others from whiteness and place them in the category of "colored." While Doyle makes use of yellow's cultural ties to the other of the Americas and mixed white and black ancestry in "The Yellow Face," Burnett's The Secret Garden references other ethnographic meanings of yellow, particularly its association with India and East Asia. The Secret Garden also continues Doyle's concern with reading the body as it uses health, climate, and complexion to set up a narrative triangle that measures whiteness and belonging. Jerry Phillips, for instance, discusses The Secret Garden's negative portrayal of imperial "blowback," a phrase he borrows from "espionage jargon," to reference the "unexpected—and negative—effects at home that result from. operations overseas".
