Dear Alejo Carpentier,

I have recently read your novel, The Kingdom of This World, and I have run across a few questions regarding certain images in the novel. I have interpreted the image of the pheonix to hold important symbolic meaning, however the image could be representative of multiple ideas which are conflicting. The pheonix as a  symbol could either be referring to the cycle of oppression or to breaking the cycle of oppression through metamorphosis.

The pheonix that is described on Henri Christophe's coat of arms has a meaning whose origins is intertwined with the mythological pheonix and its association in the novel with the oppressor Henri Christophe. Traditionally, the pheonix is a symbol of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. However, when the pheonix is associated with Henri Christophe, the meaning of the pheonix could be the cycle of oppression. Like the never ending cycle of life and death, the pheonix as a symbol could be stating that oppression is a never ending cycle. As the pheonix can also never truly leave this world, neither can oppression.

However, the coat of arms could also hold the opposite meaning, that it is possible to break the cycle of oppression through transformation, just as the pheonix undergoes transformations. The coat of arms reads “I rise from my ashes” (140), which not only refers to the pheonix but could refer to man's ability to transform into something more or better than what he once was. Thus "I rise from my ashes" (140) could be referring to the metamorphosis that Macandel and Ti Noel undergo in the novel. Even in association with Henri Christophe, the pheonix could represent the changes that he has undergone, as he has risen from a cook to a king. Thus in these terms, the pheonix could be representative of spiritual and social change, breaking a person's personal cycle of oppression.

I hope that you are well and I thank you for taking the time to read my letter and consider the question.

With regards,

Alina Venick