Glass Bottle Trick: Magical Realism Cloak

     "Today she was going to make her husband very happy, break that thin shell of mourning that still insulated him from her" (Hopkinson 259). Here Beatrice learns she is pregnant with her husband's, Samuel, baby and hopes that telling him will shake his pained and lethargic feelings. Unknown to Beatrice under such a spell, magical realism dictates, "disruption of the ordinary logic of cause and effect," (Fairs 168) that news of a baby that traditionally causes joy and happiness will cause them both quite the opposite. She does not make the connection between her husband's hatred and disgust for his own skin color and race and the mysterious deaths of his two former wives. With an analytically trained eye, a reader can tell something nefarious happened with the ex wives and a hidden side of Samuel begins to peak through as we learn he has a bit of a temper.
    Although Beatrice wants to believe the news of their child will bring him happiness she is still fearful knowing in her heart this probably will not be the case. The baby will not be enough to break his veil of hurt. Beatrice in this quote is referring to the death of his wives, but she is assuming he is still more in love with them causing him to not be entirely in love with her. Another point of magical realism not connecting the correct cause and effect. There could be truth to the logic of Beatrice but the reader knows beyond Beatrice can recognize for herself until she enters the locked room. When she unlocks the door she is disturbed to find the dead bodies she can figure to be Samuel's ex wives, with their abdomen's torn open and fetuses laid beside them. Then in turn the thin shell of Beatrice's understanding of Samuel is then broken, "still insult[ing] him from her".

The Glass Bottle Trick : Magical Realism

               This story was full of situations in which the rules of magical realism would apply.  One specific example would definitely be the glass bottles themselves.  These bottles contains the dead wives spirit.  This takes the gap between the real world and the spirit world and only separates them by a layer of glass.  the escape of the spirits then makes these dead bodies come back to life.  This whole scene creates allows the living and the dead to exist in the same realm at the same time.  This falls under one of the categories of magical realism.

The Glass Bottle Trick: Magical Realism & Race

    As we have discussed race and skin color often in this class, I naturally found connections between this short story and other works from our syllabus. However, this work in conjunction with Faris' essay on magical realism, I uncovered a new level of understanding behind the immensity of skin color and the unique relationship individuals may have with it. In Hopkinson's take on it, it is young wife Beatrice who uncovers older husband Samuel's hidden obsession for light skin color even though he is a "Black beauty" according to his wife. Although the story also touches upon other issues of identity (in particular gender and education), Samuel's distaste and hatred for dark skin is clearly the key topic of discussion.

    The motif of magical realism comes in when we reach the climax of the story as Beatrice uncovers Samuel's dead wives. Up until now, Beatrice assumed that they died in some sort of accidental tragedy, when in reality, Samuel took their lives so that they, and their unborn children, wouldn't carry on his dark skin. Although other factors in the text suggested his distaste for dark skin (like Beatrice admiring his dark complexion or her not being able to tan in the sun) and fear of white people were mentioned, it is this scene that shows the gravity this situation has on Samuel. Up until this point, we have mostly read about women trying to find their identity and hide something they are shameful of, usually from men. However, by means of magical realism mirroring the stronghold color can have on a person mentally and physically, we can see that this is an identity definer and defiler for men as well. The color of one's skin shouldn't matter, but the way that this essay is written shows that it is still a serious problem that goes beyond a realistic world of understanding.

Desa Rose: the power of a narrator

So far in the novel the narrator is a man that one would typically think would be the villain of a story like this.  I find it interesting how different a novel can turn out based on who is narrating it.  Nehemiah is a white man who's only real concern involving race if finding a good story to print.  He tries to find out about slave uprisings before they happen and write about them.  This kind of selfishness especially around race is a characteristic one finds in a bad guy.  If the story was told through the eyes of Dessa Rose there would be so much more insight and emotion into the story.  Nehemiah is a man all about the facts and while there are hints of perhaps foreshadowing toward him truly liking Dessa Rose, he needs her for nothing more than her knowledge about the leaders of the uprising.  This novel is like a mystery slowly reviling itself.  If it were told though Dessa Rose, it would be more of an action story as we would know first hand of the uprisings and would be on the edge of our seats hoping she gets out of her locks and chains.  All the same story with the same information, when told through different narrators can change the whole thing.

Dessa Rose: The Class Divide

     Obviously class is a theme throughout this book and in some way supersedes the themes of race and ethnicity. In the last portion of the book, this is particularly emphasized as the relationship between slave and slave owner is explored further. On page 206, Williams writes, "...slavery was ugly and we felt right to soak the masters for all we could get," showing the great divide between not only the classes, but the values of each class. Both classes used each other, and while one was more successful and violent, the other was better at manipulation and ability to change their identity. 

     Once a slave owner always a slave owner, but a slave has the ability to change who they are. Sure, the ability to be a better carpenter, farmer, or cook didn't help one move up the class system, it allowed them to fit into any society as a valuable member. Whether tied up by a rope or auctioned off based on their "story" (page 206), slaves were ruled by their owners unless they ran. It isn't easy to jump the classes, and in this case, the only way to escape these societal constraints are to pretend to be someone you aren't or run until you can be the person you want to be.

     

Dessa Rose: Language

     The language of the novel Dessa Rose depicts the dialect of the deep south when slavery was still legal. In modern society such dialect and language is considered unintelligent sounding and crude. Slaves have the harshest sounding speech due to their illiteracy and lack of proper education. Slaves were not allowed to read how to read and write, most learn English as a second language or from other slaves that have English as a second language.  Slave owners don't even bother to try and teach them proper English or expand their vocabulary because they only want them to do manual labor. It also could be due to the fact that they believed educating someone in a lower class could make them realize their standings and cause them to demand more. To keep people in their place is as easy as keeping them ignorant. The slave master's use the saying "a loud nigger is a happy nigger," (29), but they do not understand that "loud" could mean being able to communicate with other slaves to plan a rebellion or up rising. Communication can open many doors and accelerate many effects. 

    The language of the slave owners is also rough and harsh, but should have be allowed to have an excuse of being a farmer or merchant for their dialect deficiency? They are white and have access to education. They do not take advantage of the resources they are permitted. "How else kin a nigger in her condition keep happy, cept through singin and loud noise?" (29), is spoken by the Sheriff. The Sheriff is a man of power and authority but only sounds slightly more intelligent than the slaves. To discourage African American men from voting officials would administer literacy tests, but there were a sizable amount of white men could not even pass the tests. The system could have been attempting to keep the small farmers, merchants and small business white males in their place as well. The power of dialect and language can be a tool for keeping an order or hierarchy that allow the most educated to govern those with less academic intelligence. 

Dessa Rose: Point of View

     Unlike many of the other novels we have read thus far, one of the points of view for this novel comes from that of a man. In this case, the man is an outsider looking into a world in which he can never truly connect with as he is racially, ethnically, socially, and biologically the opposite of Dessa Rose. Here we see another component of identity come into play as Nehemiah attempts to piece together someone else's identity; one which makes his own pale in comparison. They say that "those that can't do, teach" and I think that for Nehemiah, he used his class and cultural advantages to explore the world of a female slave and educate others. Even though he may not consciously acknowledge it, his life has not been as challenging or as colorful as his "main character" and in some ways he lives vicariously through her.
     Williams tries to unify these two worlds early on, both contextually and structurally. On page 25, she tries to show how Nehemiah's struggles to become a writer are comparable in some way to Dessa's life as a slave. By having him throw in his own experiences, it gives more value to Dessa's story, but also shows how gender, class, and ethnicity gaps contribute to a communication and understanding barrier. As a white male who was neither a slave or slave owner, Nehemiah will never be able to be a part of Dessa's world, nor will she be a part of his. Williams' efforts to make this connection shows that the only way to know what it was to be like Dessa was to walk a mile in her shoes; not just retell the journey.