March 14, 2012
Dear Alejo,
I recently read your novel, The Kingdom of This World, and wanted to
ask you about, what I find is one of the most interesting endings I have ever
read. On the final page of the novel the narrator says, “From that moment Ti
Noel was never seen again, nor his green coat with the salmon lace cuffs,
except perhaps by that wet vulture…” which can be taken to mean two very
different things. One perspective of the ending is that Ti Noel dies; this is
hinted at by the possibility that the last thing to see him was the vulture.
However,
this is not my personal belief which is that Ti Noel transformed himself into
the vulture. One reason I believe this to be the real meaning behind the quote
above is because Ti Noel is familiar with the art of voodoo and by the end of
the novel has transformed himself into an ant, a stallion, and a goose. Each
animal represented a different lesson on the different aspects of human culture
and society. The ant taught Ti Noel what it was to lose your sense of
individuality, which at the time was reflected as a negative thing in a culture
segregated. The stallion represented life as he knew it, a slave while the
goose showed him that even animals are not above a caste system. These three
animals were key to his development because it taught him that history is
always bound to repeat itself, regardless of who is king. This became ever more
apparent as the French were booted out to be replaced by Henry Christophe, a
former cook who should have treated his fellow Haitians fairly but treated the
slaves even worse than the French. The
reason this is important to my theory is due to Ti Noel’s rising disgust with
the human race in general. I believe he turned himself into a vulture because
as a solitary creature who feeds off of others useless forms he is able to keep
to himself and fly away from the life of hurt he previously endured.
This
idea is supported on the first page of the last section, pg 151, with the quote
from Calderon, “I had fear of these visions But since seeing these others, My
fear is grown greater”. I took this quote to represent Ti Noel’s changing
opinion of humanity. It is no secret that certain members of the human race
will always be despicable; this represents the first part of the quote talking about
the original visions that caused him fear. The other visions mentioned
represent Ti Noel’s change in views as he looks upon the world in each of the
animal forms. The fact that even the natural world was not free from
repression, segregation and enslavement pushed Ti Noel to his brink.
In
order to escape his reality Ti Noel used his gift of metamorphosis to transform
himself into a vulture. I believe he chose a vulture because of their ability
to fly away from danger and the fear they instill on the living as scavengers.
Ti Noel decided that after a life of repression he would finally break free,
and lived out the rest of his life as a vulture. Maybe he truly did die, but
the magical reality that surrounds and infiltrates the rest of this novel leads
me to believe otherwise.
With
sincerest regards,
Megan Barnes
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