Hopkinson Story and Farris Essay Response

One moment of magical realism that occurred within the Hopkinson story was when the main character discovered the deceased women in the room of her and her husband's house. The women were awakened from the dead, and the link between the women and the glass bottles within the story was revealed. What was interesting is that the main character seemed more worried about her husband's reaction, who was just arriving home. There seemed to be little emphasis of shock actually placed on the deceased women who were now functioning (somewhat) as alive human beings.

One question that I have about the Farris essay is in regards to linking magic to reality. She discusses the elements of magical realism, but I wonder more about readers response to this concept. In other words, when readers read magical realism, why is it that the story is not questioned for a logical basis? Is it because readers know that the story is just that, a story? Or is it because parts of magical realism, or magic in general, are somehow believable by readers?

Dessa Rose: Flashbacks and Narration

This book, titled Dessa Rose, is about her journey, however unlike traditional novels where the main character is also the narrator, she only plays minor roles in narration when she is telling stories and having memories and flashbacks of Kaine and her journey while on the coffle. These small passages that Dessa narrates are imperitive to understanding the full story, but it is also important to hear the perspective of the people around her, especially the whites, to understand completely the two sides involved in slavery. Dessa's flashbacks are most important in her experience with the coffle, because that seems to be the major episode that causes her to be on the path she is on now, and is also important in knowing that Nathan and Cully survived, which allowed them to help her to escape and lead heto Rufle. If Dessa's perspective of the story was left out we wouldn't know anything that happened to her except that she escaped and then she ended up on a plantation with a white woman nursing her baby.

Dessa Rose: Kaine's death and subsequent rebellion

It was clear from the first sentence that this was a book about slavery. The incorporation of song and song as a form of talking or 'calling' to each other is always a large part of literature on slavery, mostly because it was such a large part of the culture in those times. The prologue seemed to jump right into Kaine and Dessa's relationship and it really gave the reader a look into their love and affection for each other, and it was taken away so quickly. In chapter one, we find out Kaine was killed, Dessa is pregnant and the leader of a slave rebellion against her white masters, she is now waiting in jail to give birth and then to be executed.

 What I found slightly confusing was if Kaine was apart of the same rebellion Dessa was apart of and subsequently killed, or if he was killed which was the event which spurred Dessa to convince the other slaves to rebel and kill 5 white men and cut the hand off of their master. If Kaine's death was the event that spurred Dessa to rebellion, was he killed because he chose her as his wife? Or that perhaps he just took her as his wife without the permission of his masters and was therefore killed, because in these days the master arraigned marriages to create the "best" offspring for sale.

The Antelope Wife: Twins

I think it is very interesting that in every generation there must be a set of twins names Mary and Josephette (or Zosie) and when they are not named as such something bad happens, as shown in the case of Cally and Deanna. Deanna's death was caused by her father and his suicide attempt that he abandoned, Deanna's death is somewhat of a symbol of her father's stupidity and his wrongness for the family. Cally does not die but is on the brink of death when she becomes extremely ill, where Deanna's death was to teach her father a lesson, I believe Cally's almost death was to teach her mother a lesson. After Deanna died, Rozin barely payed attention to her living daughter and just focused on the dead one, Cally's sickness was to teach Rozin to value the living more than the dead because you can still help a living child whereas you can do nothing for a dead child but mourn their loss. One thing I didn't understand about this part of the book was how Almost Soup said he had taken Cally's spirit into his body to protect her. I wonder what this symbolizes or if this is just a spititual reference to what powers white dogs are capable of in the Native American culture.