Ta-Nehisi Coates The Water Dancer

690 Words2 Pages

You know how annoying it is to forget something that you are supposed to remember, now imagine if you never forgot anything except for this one thing, now imagine if that one thing you can't remember is your mom, who she was, what she looked like, anything about her at all. Thats what I am hiring. In the novel The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates the protagonist, Hirem, has a photographic memory, but can't seem to remember much of anything about his mother. In the world of "The Water Dancer," memory is a double-edged sword. For the protagonist, Hiram, memory serves as a harsh reminder of the traumas inflicted by the institution of slavery. Yet, paradoxically, Hiram discovers that his capacity for recollection also holds the key to his path toward liberation. …show more content…

When Hiram puts on the shell necklace, it is “[the] lost jigsaw” of his memory. “The fog and smoke of [his] years blew away, so that [he] saw [his] mother in her full form, in all [their] short years together, and too, [he] saw her end, and [he] saw exactly how that end had come and [he] saw precisely who had brought it about”(387). At that moment, Hirem was filled with emotion and rage, and he says “it took all of my restraint to not rush down those stairs and into the garden where the spade and fork were still planted in the cold ground, pull them out, and relieve my father of that brief splash of life that remained in his mortal vessel”(387). Hiram's recollection of his mother's disappearance and the harsh realities of slavery weigh heavily on him, causing continuous emotional sorrow. The shell necklace serves as a catalyst, unlocking buried memories and emotions. The vivid clarity it brings fuels his rage and desire for retribution for his mother's demise, showcasing the profound impact of trauma on

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