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Themes 2: 1. Doubling and Insanity

1. The women in the novel have experienced trauma and mental health issues due to the way they are treated in society and violence against women. Doubling is a practice in Vodou where people split themselves to commit acts like murder and rape and still function normally otherwise. Women who experience sexual abuse may also use doubling to detach from the trauma. 2. Haitian culture has influences from both Africa and France as a result of its history of colonization. Women are torn between submitting to ideals of the Virgin Mary or embracing strength as represented by Erzulie. Sophie dresses her mother's body in red to reject a life of submission and claim freedom. 3. Death is seen as a release and

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199 views2 pages

Themes 2: 1. Doubling and Insanity

1. The women in the novel have experienced trauma and mental health issues due to the way they are treated in society and violence against women. Doubling is a practice in Vodou where people split themselves to commit acts like murder and rape and still function normally otherwise. Women who experience sexual abuse may also use doubling to detach from the trauma. 2. Haitian culture has influences from both Africa and France as a result of its history of colonization. Women are torn between submitting to ideals of the Virgin Mary or embracing strength as represented by Erzulie. Sophie dresses her mother's body in red to reject a life of submission and claim freedom. 3. Death is seen as a release and

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Themes 2

1. Doubling and insanity


Atie, Sophie, Martine, Buki and Devina are all emotionally damaged. Atie (
jilted by Monsieur Augustin, and abandoned by Sophie) is severely depressed
and turns to alcohol, Sophie has bulimia and a dread of sexual intercourse, and
Martine actually goes over the edge into full – blown insanity and suicide.
Danticat links these mental health issues with the way women are treated in
society and with the phenomenon of violence against women.
Doubling is a practice in the voudou tradition , Danticat tells us. Even
Presidents would split themselves in two. “ That was the only way they could
murder and rape so many people and still go home to play with their
children and make love to their wives” . Women who have been subjected to
rape, ‘testing’ or other kinds of sexual abuse may also resort to doubling in
order to remove themselves from an unbearable experience.
2. Submission or rebellion?
Historically, Haitians trace their ancestry and cultural heritage back to
Africa, but the culture of the French colonizer has made its impact too.
While the Virgin Mary is the ideal for womanhood as presented by the
Catholic church, Erzulie, the goddess of love, is her African counterpart. “
Erzulie, our goddess of love… doubled for us as the Virgin Mother”. The
word ‘doubling’ suggests that both the Virgin image and the Erzulie image
coexist in each woman, but that one dominates. Danticat gives great
significance to the choice a woman needs to make between those two role
models. Will she assume the meek, submissive, suffering face Mary ( which
is what society seems to require of her), or the strong, independent,
beautiful face of Erzulie, the healer? When Sohpie defiantly dresses her
mother’s dead body in red, she is claiming for her the freedom to escape
her life meekness, suffering and submission, and claim her freedom to be
like Erzulie. Sadly , though, for Marine that freedom comes only with her
death.
3. Death
You have perhaps been surprised at what seems to be a preoccupation with
death in this novel. Grandmother Ife is in lifelong mourning (deuil)for the
passing of her husband, and is making careful plans for her own funeral
Martine wanted to be buried in Haiti so Sophie take her mother’s body
home for interment, and defiantly dresses her in red to celebrate her final
release from the anguish of living. We hear bells ringing for funerals, and
we visit the cemetery, where Tante Atie names all the ancestors with
respect. Joseph’s parents have both died, and Sophie learns, on her return
to Haiti, that Man Grace has also died.
Death is seen as a release into freedom; to die is to embark on the journey
to be joyfully reunited with loved ones who have passed on before. Haitian
folklore has it that when a star falls, someone will die, and that when
people die they at last can return to Guinea to be with the ancestors. For
this reason , as the body is placed in the ground, loved ones call out “ Ou
libere? Are you free now?”. Seeing her mother in her coffin, Sophie thinks,
“She looked as though she was dressed for a fancy affair and we were all
keeping her from going on her way”.
4. The mother and daughter bond
Danticat’s focus is on the pain that mothers cause their daughters, but also,
paradoxically, on the healing that is to be found in the community of
women. Believing that they are acting in their daughter ‘best interest, they
mutilate their genitalia or surround their teenage years with shame,
suspicion and humiliation. Generations of women have been damaged for
life through such practices and indoctrination. Nevertheless, the strong ties
of love that exist between mother and daughter also have the potential to
bring healing and strength. The novel celebrates the healing power that
resides in communities of women. The presence of little Brigitte hints at a
future where women have learnt that a woman’s body is her own. “It was
up to me,” says Sohpie, “to make sure my daughter never slept with
ghosts…”

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