Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and analyzes the source text’s depiction of domestic abuse, racism, and institutionalized racist violence.

A central theme in Symphony of Secrets is that of racism enacted by both individuals and institutions. In the chapters set in the early 1920s, Delaney, a white man, steals the music written by Josephine, a Black woman. He rationalizes his theft by claiming that her songs “wouldn’t be worth as much” if Ditmars knew that a Black woman wrote them (282). In addition to refusing to give Josephine credit for her own music, Delaney also neglects to split the profits with her evenly. Delaney’s racism against Josephine escalates over the course of the novel, intensifying into outright physical abuse. When she doesn’t produce music fast enough for him, he locks her in his room. He believes he owns her music, as well as her. He tries to convince her that “Fred—and only Fred—was her lifeline. That the music she was writing was Fred’s and no one else’s” (508). After Josephine sells her music to Miles, Delaney murders her. Delaney’s discrimination and violence are comparable to the racism and violence of his descendant, Kurt.

In the chapters set in the 2020s, Kurt Delaney makes racist remarks to Bern and uses his power as a board member of the Delaney Foundation to harm him.