Danticat’s Use of Sublimation Through Writing

According to psychologist Harry Sullivan in his book Clinical Studies in Psychiatry,  sublimation is the “unwitting substitution of a partial satisfaction with social approval for the pursuit of a direct satisfaction which would be contrary to one's ideals or to the judgment of social censors and other important people who surround one” (14). A prime example of sublimation would be writing, which Edwidge Danticat, an immigrant author from Haiti, uses to express her grief and sympathy for the suffering Haitian citizens. We can see sublimation in two of Danticat’s works, Krik?Krak! and Create Dangerously, from two different perspectives: the immigrant artist and women. The goal of this paper is to perform a close reading of two excerpts from two of Danticat’s texts and analyze how sublimation is evidenced therein.

First of all, in Create Dangerously, Danticat writes several essays about the challenges and motivations that the immigrant artists face when creating. In the first extract, she is clearly expressing her personal motivations to write and share her stories, yet it is interesting how she universalizes all immigrant artists and writes as a representative of all artists who are taking risks: “The immigrant artist shares with all other artists the desire to interpret and possibly remake his or her own world” (Create Dangerously 18). By using “the immigrant artist” as the narrator instead of Danticat herself, she is putting the focus on the writers who have sacrificed their safety for the sake of literature. By narrating a big population’s story rather than that of one person, she is building up more pathos and causing a stronger emotional impact on readers. Narrating the story in a first-person-plural-point of view also shows the pride Danticat feels as an immigrant artist and how all the writers respect and understand each other. Due to the conviction and firmness with which she makes her statement, she sounds more trustworthy as a source of authority by generalizing the immigrant artists.

In addition, Danticat also criticizes people who insist that she should live in Haiti, not in the United States, to write. According to Danticat, she will not return to Haiti because her words are too risky to be written in Haiti. She is “exiled” from her home country so that she can continue doing two things: share powerful stories about the horrors of the harsh dictatorship and the courage of the suffering Haitians, and create awareness around the world about these issues. At one point, she even admits that she has questioned herself various times: “Do I know enough about where I’ve come from? Will I ever know enough about where I am from?” (Create Dangerously 18). However, according to her, the “guilt and self-doubt” she is feeling for not living in Haiti is what defines her as a writer. She is not “risking torture, beatings, and execution”(Create Dangerously 18), which makes her doubt herself at times, yet she proudly explains that she will continue to take on taboo issues and fight for justice in Haiti from another country. However, readers could speculate and remain doubtful regarding her justification: Is this merely an excuse based on her fears of torture and execution? After all, she could have gotten even more powerful stories if she wrote as a witness in Haiti.

As seen before, in Create Dangerously, writing is described as a sacrifice for immigrant artists. On the other hand, in Krik? Krak! writing is described as inappropriate for females. Krik? Krak! is a collection of short stories by females of different generations from the same family but also recounts some obstacles Danticat had to face as a female writer. In this second extract from Krik?Krak!, Danticat is remembering her first writing-related interaction with her mom: “Her disappointment when you told her that words would be your life’s work... She was angry at you for not understanding”(Krik?Krak! 221). Danticat shifts to a second-person point-of-view, pulls the reader into action, and directly puts the readers in the shoes of female writers who are challenged by their families. Writing “She was angry at you for not understanding” rather than “she was angry at me for not understanding” allows readers to understand how Danticat felt when she first told her mother that she wanted to become a writer. This demonstrates how unexpected it was for females to choose writing over cooking. Danticat is generalizing the experience of any Haitian women who wants to write instead of following the family’s legacy and being a dutiful mother through her use of the second person point of view.

Readers can infer that Danticat had to face various obstacles to gain approval as a writer from her family only because she was a woman. She includes female stereotypes such as, “They carve onion sculptures and potato statues. They sit in dark corners and braid their hair in new shapes...” (Krik?Krak! 221) to demonstrate the type of behavior that is normally expected in Haitian women. She also uses parallel syntax to emphasize the five examples of expected female behaviors, and by the third example that starts with “they”, readers expect the syntax pattern to continue. Just like how readers expect a certain syntax, Haitian society expected women to “sit in dark corners”, “braid their hair”, and “carve onion sculptures” and not diverge from these established patriarchal norms. Readers also expect the syntax not to deviate from the established pattern, just as Haitian society expected women not to deviate from established ideals of female behavior. However, by challenging those stereotypes and deciding to be a writer, Danticat is criticizing patriarchy and the nation’s dependence on traditional gender norms. Danticat wanted to convey that women could and should do so much more than just braid and cook to fight for their freedom, and that they are as capable as men to write and change the world around them.

Based on the paragraphs analyzed, Danticat has a true inner desire: to “make a new world” (Create Dangerously 18). She wanted a new world in which there was political and gender justice. In the first extract, her inner desire was to criticize injustice, the corrupt government, and the violations of human rights. She makes a call to arms for the immigrants to unite into one group and gets the audience to understand their desire of wanting to reveal the injustices of their home country. However, that didn’t mean she was literally taking down the government or starting a riot with other people, as much as she may have wanted to, because that action would have been suppressed and threatened by the government who was contrary to her ideals. Rather, she was subliming and expressing that inner desire through writing to gain supporters and create awareness, which is a much more socially acceptable action that provided her “partial satisfaction” (Sullivan 14).

In the second extract, Danticat’s inner desire was for women’s freedom of speech to not be undermined by society’s expectations. However, her quest for women to hold a more active role in society strongly contradicted her mother’s principles. Instead of sustaining the family the way her mom wanted (cooking and braiding), Danticat starts going in a roundabout way and uses a different method to carry her family’s legacy and tradition forward: writing. Ultimately, she wanted approval and support from both Haitian women and men, but mostly from her mother. She was not completely satisfied because her mother and other close family members didn’t eventually approve of her passion for writing, but she was partially satisfied because it fit her ideals and she did what she felt was best, which makes it a perfect example of sublimation.

Sullivan states that sublimation is replacing a “direct satisfaction” for a socially acceptable partial one (14). In the analysis of these two texts from Danticat, sublimation can be seen as Danticat replaces the “direct satisfaction” she would have received from the specific goal of revolutionizing Haiti and gaining her mother’s approval for the “partial” but more acceptable and general goal of creating global awareness and gaining support from Haitian women. Thus, although Danticat cannot single-handedly change Haiti and change her mother's opinion of her life's work, through sublimation she has been able to reach a partial satisfaction in raising awareness on the injustice in Haiti and empowering Haitian women, slowly edging her way towards her larger, yet more specific, personal goals.

Works Cited

Danticat, Edwidge. Create Dangerously. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2013. Print.

Danticat, Edwidge. Krik?Krak! New York: Soho,Inc, 1995. Print.

Sullivan, Harry. Clinical Studies in Psychiatry. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1973.                    Print.

Living In a Biased World

Living in a Biased World

Malcolm Gladwell

Sarah Kim

285 pages, Little, Brown and Company, $16.99

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       Chris Langan and Robert Oppenheimer are two geniuses that are equally smart. Chris Langan has an IQ of 195, got a perfect score on the SAT, and taught himself to read at the tender age of three. Robert Oppenheimer was gifted in theoretical physics; he did full adult lab experiments by third grade and was invited to give a lecture at the New York Mineralogical Club at the age of 12. Despite their similar intelligence, Langan ended up working in factories and as bouncer for a bar on Long Island until he won the 1 vs. 100 game show contest during his 50s. In contrast, Oppenheimer was able to take a prestigious lead in the Manhattan Project during his 30s.

   How did this happen? How did one achieve success so easily while the other took so long?  Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, gives the answer to this question: opportunities. Gladwell argues that opportunities and surroundings have major influences on one’s success. He asserts that successful people don't rise out of the chaff simply based on the sum of their talent and intelligence.

      Outliers is a book that made me feel a little better about my own failures. I reevaluated the special Korean math education I received after reading the chapter “Rice Paddies and Math Tests,” and after reading “The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes,” I gained insight into the kind of authority-centric society I grew up in. I began to notice the small opportunities that I had, which made me thankful for them. Before reading this book, my conception of success was a combination of hard work, talent, and a little bit of luck. However, after reading it, my view has shifted to a combination of hard work, talent, opportunity, and a strategy to seize that opportunity. Malcolm Gladwell left me reflecting on the special rewards our society grants to a chosen few people and how the world could advance in massive leaps and bounds if more kids were granted the opportunities to fulfill their potential.

       Outliers has a very straightforward style with a journalist’s point of view. Gladwell uses concrete examples full of references, research and statistics, explaining every detail of each account of a success or a failure. His opinion is well supported by the ample research; however, the examples could have lost a little bit in length. It seemed that Gladwell was supporting his point with somewhat redundant examples written in different words. Gladwell’s definition of success also seems quite narrow. According to him, you are successful if you are smart, famous, and rich. However, I think that you also have to be happy in order to be successful. Are Asian students really successful in math if they are constantly pressured by the competition of their high achieving peers? Is Robert Oppenheimer truly successful even if he tried to kill his tutor because he was unsatisfied with the education he received? I believe how successful you are also depends on how happy you are, and Gladwell failed to include happiness in his definition of success.

     However, in general, the book is laid out well. It leads readers smoothly to his main point: Intelligence and personality traits aren’t everything when it comes to success. He successfully explains new theories, such as the Matthew Effect and the theory of plane crashes, to readers who may not have previously encountered these theories, much less thoroughly understood them. He also analyzes a well-known theory - 10,000 hours of work are required to master any skill - through a fresh perspective, thus making the book original and less cliché in comparison to other stories of success.

     Outliers succeeds in not presenting itself as a typical story of how successful people worked so hard or how smart they were, thus making it different and special. Readers could efficiently use the suggestions and information Gladwell offers and achieve excellence themselves. I would classify the book Outliers as an outlier itself, because it gives readers a new insight into success.

      

Develando las pasiones humanas en el mundo mitológico

El objetivo principal del presente trabajo es explorar las pasiones más sobresalientes en algunos mitos griegos, hebreos, y sumerios, explicar a qué personajes se les atribuyen tales pasiones y de qué forma las manifiestan. Como objetos de estudio examinaré la historia hebrea de Dalila y Sansón, el mito griego de Pandora, el mito sumerio de Ishtar y Tamuz, y los personajes de la guerra de Troya, Helena y Menelao. He escogido estos mitos porque cada uno representa diferentes pasiones como la traición, la curiosidad, el amor y la venganza. Una pregunta que surge con la lectura en estos mitos es ¿De qué maneras estos personajes proyectan sus conflictos no resueltos, sus temores, o anhelos? 
Analizaré esta pregunta desde una perspectiva sicoanalítica porque las pasiones y las emociones son unas partes de la sicología humana.

Traicionar es renegar un compromiso de lealtad y defraudar a otro. Normalmente uno traiciona al otro por nuevas oportunidades y ambición. Por ejemplo, la historia hebrea de Dalila y Sansón representan la traición tras el amor (Castellanos, 19). Sansón era un juez sobresaliente, poderoso y enamorado de Dalila, pero tenía una debilidad: si él fuera afeitado, sería como todos los demás hombres. Los filisteos estaban ansiosos de matar a Sansón y ofrecieron dinero a Dalila para que preguntara el origen de su poder y lo matara. Sansón creía tanto en Dalila que le contó el origen de su poder y fue traicionado y matado por ella. Dalila proyectó su anhelo (ganar plata) y traición en la forma de seducir a Sansón y hasta dijo que morirá si no le contaba su secreto. Después, llamó a los servidores para que cortara las siete trenzas de la cabellera de Sansón. La historia de Dalila y Sansón es una representación de los amantes. Cuando formamos un vínculo emocional con otra persona, normalmente abrimos nuestro corazón y nuestra confianza. Compartimos nuestros secretos, debilidades y sueños porque uno confía completamente en el otro. Cuando la pareja se separa por causa de la traición y las mentiras, el dolor se multiplica (pero en este caso Sansón no sabía que Dalila lo traicionó porque él estaba dormido). La traición es una de las acciones más destructivas en las relaciones humanas porque generalmente creemos que el otro nos ama del mismo modo hasta que nos traicionan.

Por su parte, el mito griego de Pandora representa la curiosidad de la humanidad (33). La curiosidad es un comportamiento inquisitivo natural que engendra la exploración, la investigación y el aprendizaje. Pandora fue la primera mujer, hecha por orden de Zeus para introducir males en la vida de los hombres.  Como regalo de bodas, Pandora recibió una caja que contenía los males del mundo (La vejez, la enfermedad, la fatiga, la locura, el vicio, la pasión, la plaga, la tristeza, la pobreza y el crimen) con instrucciones de no abrirlo. Dominada por la curiosidad, decidió abrirla para ver qué había dentro. Cuando lo hizo comprendió el grave error cometido y rápidamente cerró el recipiente. Sin embargo, era demasiado tarde, pues los males ya habían sido liberados. En la historia de Pandora, la curiosidad es algo negativo porque esa cualidad se puede convertir en un arma muy peligrosa y puede causar muchas desgracias para la humanidad. En la historia de Pandora, el deseo de saber que se siente lograr algo nos lleva a probar cosas que sería mejor nunca saber. Gracias a Pandora, la curiosidad es algo innato en el ser humano y, personalmente, creo que es útil e indispensable para el desarrollo de la humanidad, aunque también pueda ser una causa de nuestra desgracia.

Por otro lado, la historia de Ishtar y Tamuz representa el amor (71). Ishtar, la diosa babilónica del amor y la guerra, se enamoró locamente de Tamuz, dios de la primavera en la misma cultura. Cuando Tamuz murió, ella decidió buscar y salvarlo en el inframundo, gobernado por Ereskigal, su hermana celosa. Amaba tanto a Tamuz que podía perder su poder y sus joyas para él.  El amor y la necesidad de afiliación son emociones inherentes en el ser humano que no pueden ser controladas fácilmente. Casi todas las personas tienen una idea del amor idealizada que pueda superar cualquier obstáculo y barrera. Y en este caso, Ishtar mostró su amor y dedicación en forma de rendir su poder para estar con Tamuz. En el mito de este personaje, una de las manifestaciones de que el amor continúa hasta ahora es representada por el invierno, significando que Ishtar no está con su amante.

A su turno, la Guerra de Troya empieza por celos, resentimiento y venganza de Menelao hacia Paris cuando éste (con la ayuda de Afrodita) seduce a Helena, la mujer más bella de la Tierra y se fuga a Troya con ella (101). Cuando Menelao se entera de esta traición, decide vengar a Helena y Paris, atacando a Troya con la ayuda de su hermano Agamenón y hombres de Grecia. Los celos son una emoción negativa en respuesta a la infidelidad de su pareja y surgen cuando una percibe una amenaza hacia algo que considera de su propiedad. Los celos involucran el miedo, la sospecha, la desconfianza, la ansiedad y la rabia. Menelao venga a Paris más por su reputación de rey de Esparta y hermano de Agamenón que su puro amor a Helena. La frase “ojo por ojo, diente por diente” resume el origen de la venganza que desarrolló las primeras leyes. Por una parte, la venganza es una manera de aplicar la justicia. Sin embargo, según Beatriz Quintanilla Madero, una sicóloga y profesora que investigó el temperamento, las emociones, sentimientos, pasiones, e impulsos cuando uno venga al otro no quedan necesariamente satisfechos por la aplicación de una ley aunque sea justa.

Hasta la palabra sicología tiene origen mitológico: Psyche (el alma) y su amante Eros, dios del amor. La sicología entró en los mitos griegos, hebreos y sumerios para explicar los temores, anhelos, y conflictos humanos. Los mitos expresan la sicología de la antigüedad y las pasiones expresadas en los mitos siguen representando a la humanidad hasta hoy en día. Por eso, desde que la raza humana subsista sobre la tierra, los mitos seguirán siendo leídos y analizados para entender mejor la naturaleza de los comportamientos humanos.