The passage outlined in the question (p. 118 - 9) deals with Maryse Condé’s reaction after reading La Rue Cases-Nègres, it makes her reflect on different themes. The themes brought up in Zobel’s novel cross over with those raised by Condé in her own text. In Le Cœur à rire et à pleurer, Maryse Condé deals with many different themes, but there are three that are arguably the most notable: cultural identity, the history of Guadeloupe and the idea of “geographical space”. The above extract intertwines all these themes. I will discuss these three themes by referring to examples from not only the passage mentioned in the question but also how these themes are dealt with throughout the entire text.
Firstly, the idea of cultural identity is paramount in the text. Race, colour and class are topics dealt with abundantly. Maryse’s mother plays a very important part in the text to illustrate these themes. We should note at this point that Maryse’s mother was a woman of great pride, she wanted success for her and her family and this want of success is seen throughout the text. She wanted her life to be different to that of her own mother and grandmother: in Bonne fête maman (p.81), Condé tells us that her mother was adamant not to die like her own mother Élodie. We also see that Maryse’s mother marries a man not because of love, but because he was an ambitious man (and ambition/a desire to succeed was the most important thing to her). It is clear that this is a woman that does not want to identify with the same culture as her ancestors; she wants to make a difference and to mean something.
We see the idea of négritude appearing during the text – this is possibly the most important (and most nebulous) topic dealt with in the text. Négritude ...
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...erall society in Salut Galarneau! and her “reprieve” in Guadeloupe is similar to François’s retreat inside his walls, away from everyone else. There is an overarching common theme between all three texts on the course: the authors’ search for (and a struggle for) a cultural identity. All three authors explore this in different ways but the theme remains the common denominator.
It is clear that in the passage outlined on p. 118 – 9, Condé brings up very important issues that are central to the text. Her overall attitude towards her cultural identity is heavily influenced by colonial history (slavery, racism, prejudgements) and in Le Cœur à rire et à pleurer, she makes known her desire to leave this behind and become just as successful as others in the Western world (négritude), however as we see throughout the text, this is more difficult than she would have liked.
In the very first page of Letter I, Leonora Sansay gives insight on the reason for her arrival in Haiti. “The society of my fellow-passengers was so agreeable that I often forgot the inconvenience to which I was exposed. It...
To summarize the book into a few paragraphs doesn't due it the justice it deserves. The beginning details of the French and Ind...
Madame Ratignolle simply does not understand Edna; to her, sacrificing one’s life is the utmost that a mother can do for her children. It is as if Edna was not even “talking the same language.” In fact, the two women might well be speaking different languages. Unlike Madame Ratignolle who seems to have a baby every couple of years, Edna’s head is not filled exclusively with thoughts about her children. Whereas Madame Ratignolle is motherly at all times, Edna often seems irritated by her role as mother, and her attentions to her children often occur as an afterthought. Madame Ratignolle’s entire being is bound to her children; Edna’s being is of her own design. For her there is more to life than marriage and babies and social obligations. Edna might well, at least in this passage, be asserting an early version of what Betty Friedan discusses in The Feminine Mystique.
Initially, Elisabeth is the matriarch of the four generations of women talked about in the story. Elisabeth works in the house, but she’s married to a field slave and has three daughters. Not much insight is given on Elisabeth and her feelings, yet through the narration it is as if she lived vicariously through her youngest daughter, Suzette: “It was as if her mother were the one who had just had her first communion not Suzette” (20) Even though Elisabeth too worked in the house, Suzette had more privileges than her mother and the other slaves. Elisabeth represented the strength and the pride of her people: “You have a mother and a father both, and they don’t live up to the [plantation] house” (25). She would constantly remind Suzette of her real family, which signifies the remembrance of a history of people and their roots. It is up to Suzette to keep the heritage even through the latter miscegenation of the generations to come.
In 1998, Francine du Plessix Gray, prolific author of novels, biographies, sociological studies and frequent contributions to The New Yorker, published her most acclaimed work to date: At Home with the Marquis de Sade: A Life. A Pulizer Prize finalist that has already appeared in multiple English-language editions as well as translated ones, Du Plessix Gray’s biography has met with crowning achievement and recognition on all fronts. Accolades have accumulated from the most acclaimed of eighteenth-century luminaries, such as Robert Darnton, in a lengthy review in The New York Review of Books that compares her biography with Laurence Bongie’s Sade: A Biographical Essay, to the list of scholars whom she thanks in her acknowledgements for having read the manuscript: Lynn Hunt, Lucienne Frappier-Mazur, and Marie-Hélène Huët. Surely, any scholar can appreciate the vast amount of research that undergirds Du Plessix Gray’s narrative, and indeed, she takes great pains to meticulously inform the reader who might care to look at her sources and read her acknowledgements that she has done her homework and knows every inch of the scholarly terrain. Du PlessixGray wisely begins her acknowledgements with a debt of gratitude to Maurice Lever’s studies, which rest on years of archival research.
Truly, it is impossible for her to write in any language, but “Maryse Conde” for her expression of herself is not just an expression of generalized Creole or French culture.... ... middle of paper ... ... It is clear that Conde favors multiplicity when it comes to ideas of language, narrative, culture, and identity.
Heckel, Dr.. "Notes on Themistocles." Humanities Class. N/A. Heritage Classical Christian Academy, St. Louis. 13 Nov. 2011. Class lecture.
Indeed, much of Malidoma’s purpose is to allow the audience to enter temporarily the realm of his culture in order to educate any outsider, specifically the Westerner, of the importance in the preservation of his culture as well as all indigenous cultures. He accomplishes this task by trying to note the oppression he felt in a Jesuit missionary and reveal aspects of his tribal life by delving into his emotions during initiation, in a captivating story and a warm voice.
Restraint and Activism Judicial activism is loosely defined as decisions or judgements handed down by judges that take a broad interpretation of the constitution. It is a decision that is more of a reflection of how the judge thinks the law should be interpreted, rather than how the law has or was intended to be interpreted. There are many examples of judicial activism; examples include the opinions of Sandra Day O'Connor in the Lynch v. Donnelly and the Wallace v. Jaffree trials. Sandra Day argues for the changing of the First Amendment's ban on "establishment" of religion into a ban on "endorsement" of religion. Others include the U.S. v. Kinder, where Congress passed legislation that would require a minimum sentence for persons caught distributing more than 10 grams of cocaine.
...spoke a Spanish Creole. This made a clear distinction between the two and made it easy for the government to identify the difference. The reader sees how such themes of Birth and Death show so prominently throughout the characters that one must focus on how birth and deaths affect the concept of the individual relating to their own Negritude. It is culture, not skin tones but rather the beliefs and values that each country be it Haiti or Dominican Republic relate to. Danticat’s novel helps us understand the strengths and limits that Rene Depestre states in The Birth of Caribbean Civilisation “there is a progressive ‘negritude’ that expounds the need to rise above all the alienations of man . . . and there is “an irrational reactionary and mystic version of ‘negritude’ which serves . . . as a cultural base for neo-colonialist penetration into our countries” (244).
French occupation of Haiti began in the mid seventeenth century. For the next century and a half, the people of Haiti were forced to abandon their livelihoods and instead take up residence on namely sugar, indigo or cacao plantations in order to generate exports for the French market. Conditions on these plantations were often so cruel and oppressive that the common cause of death was exhaustion. No longer able to yield to the terms of their exploitation, Haitians participated in a string of slave revolts, the most prominent of which was led by Toussaint Louverture from 1791, which paved the road for Haitian emancipation. This essay will advance the idea that colonialism has impeded the political stability of Haiti during the nineteenth century, particularly from when Haiti formally declared independence in 1804. It will cover how issues such as; despotism, conflicting economic institutions, the militarization of the political system and racial supremacy, have negatively affected nineteenth century Haitian politics. Moreover, it will also elaborate on how these issues are, in effect, actually insidious derivatives of French rule during pre-independent Haiti.
A poem that incorporates the oppression of the people living in Martinique, and the political uprising of Martinique during French colonization would be “Out of Alien Days” by Aime Cesaire. Cesaire especially uses examples of imagery and tone to express the ideas of oppression and political revolution to focus on the forms of literature he describes. Along with examples of the literary elements, there should be an explanation of Cesaire’s usage of image and tone that explains the author’s main message in “Out of Alien Days.” In “Out of Alien Days,” Aime Cesaire uses the concepts of imagery and a revolutionary tone to illustrate the problems of the French colonization in Martinique. Cesaire constructs a definitive path in his poem where he is calling for change in Martinique, and rallying his people against the French empire. This paper is about introducing the concepts of imagery and a revolutionary tone along with examples used by Cesaire in “Out of Alien Days,” and an interpretation of the literary elements in connection to Cesaire’s theme in the poem.
In the story of “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, there are many literary themes that can be analyzed such as love, racism, gender inequality, and miscegenation. What this analysis will focus on is primarily on the central male character, Armand Aubigny, and on his views towards racism. More specifically, what this essay will aim to prove is that Armand Aubigny looked down upon the African race to the point where he hated them. One of the biggest driving points to aid this idea is how his family name shaped his behavior and actions according to the societal normalities of his time period. Another important aspect that will be considered is his very relationship towards his slaves in how he treated them cruelly even to the point where he is described as “having the spirit of Satan” (Chopin 3). In addition to this, the reader will also see Armand’s negative reaction to being aware of the implications of his son and wife having mixed blood in where he practically disowns them. With all this culminating to Armand finding out the ugly truth that the race he had treated so horribly is actually a part of his very own blood as well.
Men are represented as the authority and the head of the family, without giving the woman the opportunity to contribute with her ideas and opinions. Armand, as many man in his time, sees woman as inferior not only physically but also intellectually. This notion of man superiority is also a problem that current society confronts, and it is more commonly present in lower classes. There are still cases in which men insult and hit woman because they see them as inferior and not worth of respect. Furthermore, in the story we have the case of black servant women. Who besides of having to deal with all the abuses a slave suffers, have also to confront the discrimination that their sex inherently has. This group suffers the racism of the entire white society, and also is discriminated by white woman who do not treat them as equals. Even though slavery is not currently allowed, there is still discrimination towards women who work as maids in houses or companies. For instance, sometimes they are denied basic rights such as medical insurance or a minimum
The relationship shared by Pierre and Helene is best described as a lustful charade. It is no coincidence that Pierre, one of the most introspective characters in the novel, first marries a shallow, inwardly-ugly adulterer. His first recorded attitude towards Helene is one of admira...