The Might of the Mongoose in “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by: Abby Booher

Díaz’s book, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”, provides a real sense of war through the trials of life. The novel explores various characters who each face problems of their own. In particular, one character who must fight her own war in life is La Inca. The author describes La Inca as one who “had a mind like a mongoose” (p. 157). The theme of the mongoose floods the book. While it might seem odd, the footnotes explain how the mongoose was a creature who was a sort of enemy to authority and an ally to the common man. The mongoose could survive and persevere through much tribulation. The mongoose is also the creature that is renowned for killing snakes which are commonly recognized as a representation of evil. In this sense, the mongoose is a kind of hero.

In this phrase within the novel, this short excerpt sheds light on the character of La Inca and her approach to life. La Inca is a woman who is a fighter. She withstands tribulation and is relentless in survival. She is also a character who is an ally to the common man. An example of this can be seen with Oscar. He can be seen as a kind of average person who deserves no special attention. La Inca, however, shows special care to him, and Oscar’s time living with her is one of the best times in his life. In manners of looking after her daughter and granddaughter, La Inca is the type who will “fight off the snakes” to protect those whom she loves (or feels compelled to care for). In a war full of violence, pain, and war (in terms of personal struggles in life), La Inca is a warrior and a hero to other characters.

The Book of Night Women

Nicole Gilmer

            In Marlon James’ “The Book of Night Women,” there is a scene in which the narrator is describing Christmas on Montpelier Estate. She describes the preacher that comes and tells the slaves “that the Bible say them to stand firm in they suffering ‘cause that is they lot for being the cursed son of Noah” (149). I found this interesting because of the reference to Canaan. In Genesis, there is a story about Noah becoming drunk and his son, Ham, seeing him passed out and naked. When Noah wakes up, he curses Canaan and says that he will be as a slave to his brothers and will be the lowest of the low. Canaan was Ham’s son, and did not actually see Noah in his drunken/naked state. So it is interesting that Noah would choose to curse Canaan instead of Ham. But that’s part of why I find it so significant in the novel. The child is paying for the “crime” which their parent committed.

            Lilith specifically is a victim of circumstance. Because her mother was a slave, she too is “cursed” and relegated to slavery; even though her father was white. Further, there is a school of thought which states that, in the bible, Noah cursed Canaan instead of Ham because it is harder for the father to watch his son suffer than for the father to suffer directly. This also mimics Lilith’s experience at Montpelier. Her father committed the crime of having a child with a slave and because of his actions, his child suffered far more directly than he himself. This may be why the slaves are told to “stand firm” in their suffering. Perhaps the suffering of the slaves is God’s punishment for their fore bearers and not for them. 

The power of fate

During the time when the practice of Obeah is first noticed by Massa Humphrey, the narrator offers some incite to the life of a slave and says

“And when a negro walk, light get take away from him so he never know when he hit a curve or bend. Worse, he never see that he walking round and round and always come back to where he leave first. That be why the negro not free. He can’t walk like the freeman and no matter where he walk, the road take he right back to the chain, the branding iron, the cat-o-nine or the noose that be the blessing that no niggerwoman can curse" (121).

Obeah, or the “niggerwoman curse” in this passage, is the only power the slaves have over the white man when it is believed to be real. They believe that no white man can interfere with a curse that is already in place. Though this passage suggests that the only thing the women cannot curse is the power the white people have over the slaves and the unavoidable fate that he/she will be beaten or killed. This is an interesting paradox that emphasized the idea that “every negro walk in a circle” unable to escape their fate.

In this passage, James uses the word “light” as what leaves the negro as they walk. This suggested that the more action a slave takes to change is lot in life the blacker he becomes which only makes him more of a slave. It is also notable in the passage that the light is “taken away from him” that it is involuntarily removed by someone with more power, but it also suggest that the light is there originally and would be returned if the power could be returned if he be a free man.

The last line of the passage refers to the chain or noose as a “blessing.” This is not a term that one would typically associate with violence. It is more interesting that this word was chosen because it is associated with the European’s religious teachings. Later in the novel, the idea that good slaves go to heaven highlights that the slaves believe that are walking in a circle and the best thing they can do in life is be a good slave.

Religion and Wisdom - The Book of Night Women

In Marlon James' The Book of Night Women, near the time of the ball, a preacher is paid to come and speak to Humphrey's slaves. The narrator claims this happens ten times a year, introducing the native Jamaican peoples about the English God. The narrator is confused by their idea of a God: "But then he say God is father and he is son and he is spirit. That sound like he breed himself to get himself, then kill himself. White man God perplexing like the white man. Then when it be Easter, they say that people kill him and then he rise up from the dead and he in heaven now" (James 146). If this sentiment is mirrored by the slaves being presented to, this draws an interesting picture of logic and education. The white men are looked upon as the educated, as the logical beings ready to set forth on all the world their right and true beliefs. However, their religion is included. What's interesting about this is that the slaves are able to use logic to determine, with their experience, that such a description of God doesn't make sense in the world we live in. This ability shows the slaves are fairly educated in the ways of the world, despite the common idea that a native slave needs to know the white man's way of school. That the slaves look up to the white men for wisdom is also presented in Adichie's "The Headstrong Historian" in which the natives of Nigeria laugh at the same concept of three Gods, and the natives dismiss the idea. The narrator of "Historian" comments that the natives decided that this wasn't wisdom after all. In Night Women: "Preacher say there be only one God right after he explain that there be three God and look up in the sky when he say so" (146). I find the idea that the white man has the intention to bring education and wisdom to the peoples of foreign countries without such education fascinating, as part of that education is something unprovable. Not being able to prove something is the antithesis of education. So perhaps these natives with their curious nature and doubt of such claims of God are the wiser party after all.

A bloody mess

     As discussed in earlier passages, blood is an integral thread line throughout The Book of Night Women thus far. In the beginning of chapter 10 Andromeda's bloodied corpse is found by her daughter. As Lilith, Homer, Quinn, Humphrey and Miss Isobel look upon the corpse, there is a debate whether or not the body is experiencing the flux. Massa Quinn is sure of it while the othes, more experienced with the dealing of death and the effect it has on the human body, think othe raise. There is a dynamic in this passage that shows that it is not the slave owners or even the men in general that clearly see what is happening and how to react in such situations. The women are the ones who dare to get close to the body while Quinn stays away, wary of the orifices of spitting blood at him (107). When Quinn sees that the blood has touched his shoe he becomes very upset. Miss Isobel and Homer almost telepathically understand the situation and Quinn understands and sees this, further blurring the line from white and black and connecting genders, in spite of race (110). When Quinn gets angry, James describes him as getting redder (109), more connection to color and to blood. Andromeda herself and the possibility of her literally bursting with blood is an ideal metaphor for the setting and circumstances of the novel thus far. Anything could happen at any moment and tensions rise as The blood boils to the surface threading to douse everyone and spread further through the colony. Blood is a metaphor for eventual uprising. Without blood,  Revolution cannot begin.

Exceptional article on maroons in Jamaica

This is an excellent article about Jamaica during the period in which The Night Women is set:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40212041

It's a good example of the kind of thing that you should use for your research. 

Slave-life: An Ill-fated Circle of Existence

By Christina Weir Thorpe

Lack of enlightenment and autonomy of the negro slave lends to the doomed cycle of existence in Marlon James’ The Book of Night Women.  Repetitive language and imagery portray the slaves as uneducated, uninformed, and seemingly without choices, their lives circumscribed by the demands of their white owners.  Partway through the novel, the narrator utilizes these literary devices to reaffirm the ill-fated circumstances of the Jamaican slave:

Everything negro walk in a circle… And when a negro walk, light get take away from him so he never know when he hit a curve or a bend.  Worse, he never see that he walking round and round and always come back to where he leave.  That be why the negro not free (188).

The life of the negro slave is devoid of the episodic “light,” or awareness that allows one to persevere in a life shrouded forever in darkness.  Without this illumination of circumstances, the slave cannot foresee his path changing or “curv[ing]” or “bend[ing]” away from progress to circle in oppression.  Every attempt by the slave to enhance this hopeless existence and escape the savagery extended to him pushes him further along this enslaved cycle.  Not only is the slave blind to his circumstances, this knowledge or "light [that] get take away" further demonstrates the slave's lack of autonomy.

          For Lilith, this cycle commences in adolescence and perpetuates in her attempts to rise in the hierarchy of servitude.  Though she is out of the fields and into the safety of a higher position as a house slave, Lilith’s actions return her to the lowly existence of the condemned.  She fails to recognize she “hit a curve” or the futility of her efforts until she is brutally raped and repeatedly whipped.  Too late, she realizes her fruitless endeavors for autonomy; for a negro slave cannot be free.