Here's a link to a video with pictures of what Haiti and Puerto Principe used to look like in 1981. The song that is being played in the background is by a canadian band called "Arcade Fire" but the lead singer is of haitian descent.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
After reading "Sab C'est Moi," I thought it was interesting to find out that Gertrudis Gomez was a wealthy, white, woman. The story of Sab originally made me think the author was an average to poor white man writing a story that showed the empathy and maybe even admiration he had for slaves. However, it was interesting to find out that the author was someone so physically different from Sab, yet so similar in sentiment. I think the the author was very effective in making Sab's character almost inhuman. He had characteristics of a woman and a man, a slave and an educated man, a child and an adult. By doing this Gomez achieved an intensity felt by the readers throughout the whole book. It kept me more interested and made me feel as if I could not predict the ending of this story, which made it more enjoyable.
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As I was reading this novel,I also thought that Avellaneda was a person that was very poor and that was trying to show what she went through during the slavery period. An interesting connection I found is that Avellaneda's novel conveys the same message as Uncle Tom's Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Both of these women were not slaves, nor were they extremly poor, but they were both againist slavery. I also enjoyed the mystery and intensity that surrounds Sab's character. It gave the readers a sense of suspense to find out what would happen at the end of the novel.
It's interesting that say "inhuman", I would have suggested that all of the ambiguity surrounding Sab's character makes him seem more human. He is less apt to be defined, put in a box, as you say, and in my opinion this makes him a rounder, more emotional character. In the end what makes us human are our emotions, which can only really be categorized and defined by approximation.
The video link wouldn't work for me. Youtube says that it isn't available. Be careful though, the Puerto Principe in the novel is now called Camaguey, Cuba - it isn't the Haitian Captial...which isn't to say that period images of Haiti aren't relavent to the study of this book. They are.
I thought we had to read the autobiography part of Sab, so I already knew about Avellaneda's pain that she went through being forced to marry a man, and then having the "love of her life" run away from her. At one point, she mentioned how she would never love again and she just wanted to live in peace WITHOUT boys complicating things.
I too was surprised when Sommer's found comparrisons between Sab and Avellaneda, but for a different reason. While Sab and Avellaneda both suffer because of love, they mend their aching hearts in different ways. Sab bottles his feelings for Carlota up and does everything in his power to make her happy, while Avellaneda gives up on love and says she would be content without it in her life.
So, I guess I understand the connection that Sommers made, but only because Avellaneda doesn't really paralell any other character.
...but I am kind of cheating because I read the autobiography and we weren't suppost to.
I really love Sab's character, and i think Avellaneda does an amazing job with his development throughout the story. He is so mysterious and unpredictable, i agree, and it absolutely does make the outcome of the book unpredictable. I think she must have been trying to create some sort of suspense by making his character so versatile and spontaneous. As we have pointed out, Avellaneda makes it impossible right at the beginning to categorize Sab and assign him a specific race, we also learn that he thinks like a white man on the topic of race, is very well educated but is also a slave. However, he has it very easy for a slave and is also frequently offered his freedom, but is reluctant to accept it or follow up on the offer because he doesn't want to part with Carlotta. Emotionally, Sab being a very "girly man" or emotional man makes him very easy for the audience to like and feel pathos for. Women readers may feel a connection or appreciation for Sab because some of his characteristics are so contrary to those of most men, and they're innocent, pure, and romantic. His character is refreshing mainly because it is so much more complex and admirable than Enrique's. I think most males would share some of the same opinions as women as far as respecting, admiring, and appreciating Sab's character and his virtues, and I think that was something Avellaneda was aiming for too. Not only is he emotional and pure-hearted, he's also mentally strong and in complete control of his actions and his decisions.
In response to Tessie's comment about how Sab and Avellaneda deal with their frustrated love lives differently, I have to disagree. As we can see in her Autobiography, she deals with this pain by writing. Sab too puts the pen to paper to express his feelings. It's almost as if he literally pours his life into the letter that we read at the end of the novel. In the end, both Sab and Avellaneda suffer heartbreak and both turn their feelings into writing.
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