Makenna G. Horne
Professor Helms
Currents in Global Literature
13 October 2023
Sacrifice is central to our life, we sacrifice little things each day, less time for lunch because of a project deadline, and less time reading in the evening so you can call your mom. It goes around and around. This can be seen in literature also; your favorite character may decide to leave their hometown to pursue adventure instead. They may even have no choice in the matter, the character mindlessly makes a sacrifice that propels them into a spiral nobody saw coming. The sacrifices can be significant or insignificant but always expand and develop the narrative. The characters in Death and the King’s Horseman and The Dew Breaker both demonstrate acts of sacrifice voluntary or not; highlighting that sacrifice is essential for the development of their narratives through “The Carton Effect.”
Literature is not only sacrifice, but since sacrifice (even small sacrifices) is such a large part of life, they seep into literature. “The Carton Effect” is originally derived from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities’, Sydney Carton. “The Carton Effect” is the idea that sacrifice does not need to be triumphant and can often include “side characters” (Maurits). This is a simplified way of saying, that “Plan B,” as Maurits puts it, can still be heroic. In a very simplified lens, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities’ Sydney Carton dies for Lucie Manette, so she can live happily with her husband (Maurits). This non-triumphant but still “heroic” act gives Lucie the life she deserves, with her husband, Darnay. “The Carton Effect” is seen in many pieces of literature and can be put up to some of the characters we read about in The Dew Breaker and Death and the Kings Horseman.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES BY CHARLES DICKENS // ANIMATED BOOK SUMMARY
Death and the Kings Horseman has several characters that use sacrifice to continue the narrative while simultaneously being examples of “The Carton Effect.” We begin with Elesin promising sacrifice. The king is dead, and Elesin, as Horseman of the King, must commit suicide to help the king make it to the afterlife.
“ELESIN: This night I’ll lay my head upon their lap and go to sleep. This night I’ll touch feet with their feet in a dance that is no longer of this earth. But the smell of their flesh, their sweat, the smell of indigo on their cloth, this is the last air I wish to breathe as I go to meet my great forebears.
PRAISE-SINGER: In their time the world was never tilted from its groove, it shall not be in yours.
ELESIN: The gods have said No”.
(Soyinka, 10)
The Praise-Singer passively mentions his suspicions of Elesin, and the probability that he will not fulfill his task as The Horseman of the King. Later, Olunde, Elesin’s estranged son, takes his place in one of the final scenes of the play. He selflessly decides to fulfill the prophecy that Elesin was hesitant to finish. Elesin eventually commits suicide with his chains while he is in prison due to the shame of dying after his son, and not fulfilling his duties as the Horseman of the King. James Booth authored an essay about the sacrifice in Death and the Kings Horseman, one thing that is particularly interesting about this piece is Booth’s interpretation of Jane and Olunde’s conversation in on page 51. His interpretation reads:
“The theatrical effect of this interchange is clear. The audience sympathizes with Olunde’s sensitive approval of heroic self-sacrifice and condemns the white woman’s obtuse failure to recognize its spiritual nobility”.
(Booth, 534)
Booth’s reading is sensible, Olunde thinks Jane is “obtuse” for not understanding the spiritual and selfless act that the captain committed. This act of self-sacrifice is similar to what Elesin is needed to do, die to help another, in this case the King in the afterlife. Though Olunde eventually is the hero who dies to help the king in the afterlife after his father fails to do so, he believes the act of suicide in this manner is heroic, and Jane fails to understand the significance of it. Olunde concludes the story with the fulfillment of the prophecy that his father failed to complete, leaving only Elesin to sit in the fact that he was not selfless enough to sacrifice his own life. Olunde taking Elesin’s place aligns well with the self-sacrifice of “The Carton Effect.” Olunde is Sydney Carton, and the king is Lucie; Olunde sacrifices himself to give the king what he needs in the afterlife, but also to relieve Elesin of the responsibility he clearly could not handle.
The Dew Breaker has incredible examples of “The Carton Effect.” Ka’s mother, Anne, meets Ka’s father, Papa, (who remains nameless besides this) in the dark. Anne is in a rush, and unable to think clearly after finding out her brother is being held in prison and will die soon. Little does Anne know, her brother is already dead, and the man in the dark is the man who killed him. Ka’s father is assigned to kill the Preacher (sacrifice the preacher’s life) to get the country to follow the president without thought.
“He came to kill the preacher. So he arrived early, extra early, a whole two hours before the evening service would begin”.
(Danticat, 183).
It is unclear if Papa wanted to kill the preacher on his own accord, or if it was just another assignment from his job as a prison guard. The uncertainty comes from of victim’s experience, and even victims who did not know of his methods, suspected there would be torture:
“The preacher was feeling restrained in the little chair as if he were chained to it. The tiny bloodsucking pinèz bugs, which inhabited such chairs, were already digging through his now torn and filthy pants, mining his buttocks for their nourishment. The preacher didn’t dare move or scratch himself. Obviously the fat man had some childish game in mind for him. The fat man was going to give him hope and then take it away”.
(Danticat, 224)
The Preacher is murdered in “self-defense,” and Papa is let free of his ties to the prison after disobeying orders to let The Preacher go. Papa sacrificed the preacher’s life for his freedom, even though this was an unintentional consequence. This unintentional exchange is a notable example for “The Carton Effect, because Papa’s release is not triumphant, it could even be labeled as confusing.
Anne, Ka’s mother, has a heart like no other, and drops everything to save a man she had never met. Even in his large stature, he looks helpless and could bleed out at any moment. Anne sacrifices the rest of her life for Papa, and builds a life “on wheels,” fleeing every time he senses danger in New York. In a sense, Anne has sacrificed her freedom to be with someone who deserves much less sympathy than she gives him. Anne, from The Dew Breaker: The Dew Breaker is a perfect example of “The Carton Effect.” Anne’s stepbrother is killed by Papa, a man, whom she did not know. She then finds Papa walking away from the prison in which her stepbrother was murdered, with a large gash in his cheek and she decides to save him instead of going to the prison to see her stepbrother, who she did not know was dead.
“In there,” she said. “I need to go in there.”
“People who go in there,” he said slowly, “don’t come out”.
(Danticat, 232)
Anne then follows Papa, back to his home, where she mends him and does not ask questions. Before this section, we learn that Anne, Papa, and Ka live in New York after Anne and Papa moved from Haiti. Papa confesses his many murders from being a prison guard, and Anne still stays with him, thus sacrificing her life to be with Papa, no matter how hard it is for her emotionally. Anne is an especially good example of “The Carton Effect” due to her selflessness toward Papa, who she saves and creates a life with after he murders her stepbrother, she is certainly a woman with a caring heart.
The Dew Breaker has several other examples of sacrifice besides those of Anne, Ka, and Papa. In The Dew Breaker: Seven “The Man,” who remains nameless besides this, works several jobs to make money for his wife to move in with him in New York after 7 years alone in Haiti. She (the wife) sacrifices her home in Haiti, to move to a place she does not know. This is a sacrifice for love, which is common in literature, what is less common, though, is the things the man sacrifices for his wife to move in.
“He told Dany not to mention those nights out again. His wife was not to know that he’d ever done anything but work his two jobs, as a night janitor at Medgar Evers College, and a day janitor at King’s County Hospital. And she was never to find out about those women who’d occasionally come home with him in the early-morning hours”.
(Danticat, 38)
The man, is no saint, however his wife may not be much better, sharing a similar experience with her neighbor in Haiti:
“He had knocked for so long that she’d finally opened the door. She was still wearing the dress she wore to see her husband off. When she collapsed in his arms, he put a cold compress on her forehead and offered her some water. She swallowed so much water so quickly that she vomited. That night, he lay down next to her, and in the dark told her that this was love, if love there was, having the courage to abandon the present for a future one could only imagine. He assured her that her husband loved her”.
(Danticat. 48)
Though this passage does not seem like there was a relationship between the wife and her neighbor, she feels guilty about the time she spent with the neighbor and yearns to tell her husband about it. She sacrifices this relationship for the love she has with her husband. Though, these instances are not blatantly “The Carton Effect” it still applies. The wife (Sydney Carton) leaves her home, and an affair to be with her husband in New York, she sacrifices her happiness to fulfill her husband’s happiness (Lucie). Though it is not as valiant as Sydney Carton’s sacrifice, the wife still leaves familiarity and comfort to aid the happiness of her husband.
“The Carton Effect” is not a simple sacrifice, it is self-sacrifice to aid another person without being wildly heroic or triumphant, but the reader believes the character to be heroic in a positive or negative sense. This phenomenon is found in many pieces of literature. The Dew Breaker and Death and the King’s Horseman both have instances of “The Carton Effect” in action. “The Carton Effect” propels stories forward and is essential for narrative development with sacrifices.
Works Cited
Animated Books. “A TALE of TWO CITIES by CHARLES DICKENS // ANIMATED BOOK SUMMARY.” Www.youtube.com, 24 May 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCK-43Zt0BY. Accessed 11 Oct. 2023.
Booth, James. “Self-Sacrifice and Human Sacrifice in Soyinka’s ‘Death and the King’s Horseman.’” Research in African Literatures, vol. 19, no. 4, 1988, pp. 529–50, www.jstor.org/stable/3819802. Accessed 29 Dec. 2021.
Danticat, Edwidge. The Dew Breaker. 2004. Vintage Books, 2005.
“LitCharts.” LitCharts, www.litcharts.com/lit/the-dew-breaker/themes/love-hope-and-redemption. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.
Maurits, Emily J. “The ‘Carton Effect’ (Or, Self-Sacrifice in Literature).” Emily J. Maurits Author, 5 June 2019, emilyjmaurits.com/2019/06/06/the-carton-effect-or-self-sacrifice-in-literature/.
Soyinka, Wole. Death and the Kings Horseman. 1975. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2002.
Sprockets and Springes 