Obviously, Awiti can be the main character who supports the Athenian thesis in the story. Although she is not in the "stronger" groups of people, she still acknowledges the fact that power does matter in society, and how African Americans do not have enough power to end the Atlantic slave trade.
"They say this is what happened in the beginning when I was simply a girl in my village. Random acts of evil descended upon African and cursed our people. We became slaves, and even when our chains were removed, our minds remained in bondage. The world continued to look down upon us and treat our descendants as though they should still be enslaved. ... The strange men took what was most valuable to our village, to any man, really---our freedom" (Patrick 293).
"They say this is what happened in the beginning when I was simply a girl in my village. Random acts of evil descended upon African and cursed our people. We became slaves, and even when our chains were removed, our minds remained in bondage. The world continued to look down upon us and treat our descendants as though they should still be enslaved. ... The strange men took what was most valuable to our village, to any man, really---our freedom" (Patrick 293).
In this part, it is clearly shown that she acknowledges that "the world continues to look down upon us", which her wordings does connect to the content of the Athenian Thesis that only the power matters. Also, in Chapter 24 Black Bird "I'm not weak, Grandfather. I just..." (Patrick 241), it shows off how Awiti is controlled by "power" by using the word "weak".
However, interestingly, it can be said that Awiti also supports the thesis by the Melians; that justice should be the primary consideration to be fair for all people. Although Awiti's first priorities were the psychological conflict she had by herself (of not being able to overcome the grief although she wants to and needs to sacrifice herself to achieve peace) and the desire to reunite with her family, she uses the stance of the Melians thesis for her outward principle, which might be to hide her true aim.
"I can end that. I can help people get to the afterlife. A place of peace. No more suffering" (Patrick 289).
How Awiti is trying to take responsibility of the African American slaves to not have the same experience as her, but failing by her strong desire of vengeance, might be one of the ways to show her justice.
Awiti is obviously the main character in the book, thus she brings different encounters to the readers. How Awiti is both attracted to power and justice, is definitely one of the topics the author wants to discuss with the readers, and the contradiction of Awiti trying to balance out the two but not being able to do that, is making the psychological conflict even harder.
I think it is really interesting how you provided an argument which demonstrated Awiti in both sides of the thesis. Power is very important to Awiti in the sense that it allows her to destroy or wash away people or places that she views as a source of evil. Her immortality could also be viewed as a power. If power is considered something unnatural than her immortality is one of her strongest powers since it allows her to continue waging her war against those who have hurt her people. Would you consider her immortality a main aspect of her power or is it completely seperate? And do you have any opinions on whether her ability to create storms is more for justice or does it demonstrate her power in the world?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment! It helped me think deeper about the novel :) I think her immortality was definitely one of the major powers. However, this ability was also one of her weaknesses because she could not grow up because of her immortality. This is shown in the novel how Awiti is said to be "childish". Also, I think she was trying to create storms and hurricanes for justice. However, her aim was vengeance, which she could not handle her power and the desire of vengeance to control her power of creating them for justice.
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