By Amber Dimaculangan
2020
When dealing with traumatic experiences, there is a saying that “time heals all wounds,” that simply pushing forward through life will eventually cause the pain to go away. However, how long does it actually take for this hurt to subside? The circumstances people find themselves in are not all the same, thus warranting different coping mechanisms and the time it takes to heal emotionally. Going through hardship as a group, such as the Antiguans did in Jamaica Kincaid’s novel A Small Place, may form a sense of community within members of that group, bonding over their shared feelings of oppression. Unfortunately, as Teju Cole touches upon in his novel Open City, those on the outside fail to notice many of these groups’ struggles, and their histories are eventually forgotten altogether. The oppressors of these peoples ultimately have two choices: confront the past and change for the better or avoid it for their own benefit. What they decide to do, or not do, directly affects the lives of these communities who are now forced to live by a decision that was out of their control.
For some, the past affects peoples’ lives to an extent that the difference between past and present is almost indiscernible. The history of Antigua as illustrated in A Small Place is a dark one, with colonizers taking over the island in hopes of bettering a place that did not ask to be fixed. They used their power to silence the colonized, and when they left, the effects of this rule remained. Kincaid says, “It is as if, then, the beauty-the beauty of the sea, the land, the air, the trees, the market, the people, the sounds they make-were a prison, and as if everything and everybody inside it were locked in and everything and everybody that is not inside it were locked out” (74). Antiguans are forced to live with the consequences of colonization every single day and have no means of escape, both physically and mentally. The effects of trauma on a community can also affect those within the population more individually. In Open City, the character V tells Julius about the Native American population in New York City and how the number of these peoples living in the Northeast has dwindled over time. She says, “It isn’t right that people are not terrified by this because this is a terrifying thing that happened to a vast population. And it’s not in the past, it is still with us today; at least, it’s still with me” (Cole 24). An entire population was driven out of their homes because of colonizers, and the Native Americans present day are left to deal with the loss of their community. What these people go through is out of their hands, and they are forced to give in to the choices that others have made for them.
In an attempt to bury these issues, oppressors may try to ignore them and leave the affected groups to deal with the hardship by themselves. Outsiders who are privileged enough have the opportunity to relish in blissful ignorance of these problems, for they do not affect them personally. Tourism as a major business in Antigua allows for tourists to view only the beauty of the island, enjoying the aesthetic and nature sites all while ignoring the fact that it was built upon the suffering of the natives. For example, the construction of the Mill Reef Club and shopping center in Antigua can be considered a cover-up, ways to distract travelers from seeing the struggles Antiguans must live with. In reference to a park in New York City, Julius in Cole’s novel says, “Into this earth had been interred the bodies of some fifteen to twenty thousand blacks, most of them slaves, but then the land had been built over and the people of the city had forgotten that it was a burial ground” (199). Underneath the serenity of the park lies the bodies of thousands of black people, and it is no surprise that passerby would rather see this park in the middle of a city rather than a graveyard. History is being pushed away in favor of those who fear the discomfort of confronting the past, and the names of people who died are being forgotten because some are too afraid to acknowledge the past that was detrimental to so many people who still walk the earth today. Through the past being ignored, oppressed groups experience a sort of “loss” of their power to speak up and may cope with this in several ways. Some may seek comfort in gathering with others who share the same past and live with the consequences today. Sigmund Freud’s essay, “Mourning and Melancholia,” highlights the ways in which people deal with loss, defining melancholia as pain dealt with by the ego, or the unconscious mind (246). People belonging to these groups may be in melancholia, internalizing their struggles and associating the hardship they go through with their own worthlessness and feeling of shame. Their having to deal with stereotypes and other forms of disrespect only adds on to these feelings, fueling the negative views they may already have of themselves.
This issue begs the question: how reasonable is it to believe that change can happen? Positive outlooks to this situation exist, and as time progresses, people are becoming less afraid of bringing up the past and all of the atrocities associated with it. It is now desirable to be less ignorant of issues that plague the lives of minority groups, and society is now more willing to deal with the discomfort of confronting horrific pasts like these. Ultimately, though, change comes through the collaboration of both the oppressed and the oppressors. If the oppressors do not wish to cooperate, change can be virtually impossible. The Antiguan government, for example, prioritizes money over all and how the island can make the most profit from their tourism and exports. Little to no attention is brought to the various social, environmental, and political problems that concern the natives. The higher-ups have little regard for their people, and their main concern will always be how to earn money in the most efficient way. The government’s lack of willingness to even acknowledge their people’s issues singlehandedly diminishes the chance of change occurring, keeping the Antiguans stuck living in their prison-like past. Similarly, when Moji confronts Julius about her sexual assault, he has nothing to say to her. He does not apologize and is called out for avoiding this problem for almost two decades. Moji says, “Things don’t go away just because you choose to forget them” (Cole 222). Even in more individual cases, the oppressor’s willful ignorance perpetuates the hurt that the victim feels. Without this needed collaboration, change is difficult to achieve in most situations.
As displayed by the groups discussed in Kincaid and Cole’s works, “forgiving and forgetting” events that happened in the past is not as easy as it may seem. While novels such as Cole’s may be fictional, they still shed light on issues in recent history that people continue to struggle with by writing characters that readers will learn to sympathize with and learn from. It is almost impossible to ignore the negatives that occur in daily life because of traumatic events, and while humans do have the ability to grow and learn from the past, it is necessary that they take advantage of this opportunity to do so, rather than just acknowledging that a problem exists while doing nothing to solve it. As Professor Saito in Open City says, “forgetting doesn’t take long” (Cole 154). It is important that society continues to bring awareness to the wrongs that have occurred in human history and work to achieve a better world, one that everyone is proud to call their home.
Works Cited
Cole, Teju. Open City. Faber and Faber, 2011.
Freud, Sigmund. “Mourning and Melancholia.” Merck, Sharp & Dohme, 1972.
Kincaid, Jamaica. A Small Place. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1988.
