No one knows what happens after death. People can only speculate and hope that something better than their current life lies beyond. Different cultures offer varying interpretations as to white might lie beyond, often influenced by social and economic factors of the time. People often ponder what death means and what comes after through literature. It is through literature and analysis that we can see how attitudes towards death have changed, evolved, and contradicted each other. The novel The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat and the play Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka demonstrate how two different cultures perceived death as more metaphysical than literal. Both the Dew Breaker and Death and the King’s Horseman make an argument that death transcends physical bounds and represents a spiritual journey that maintains community connection and a sense of order in the world.
The Dew Breaker explores the concept of these metaphysical deaths through symbolism, but it is done so with specific Haitian cultural roots and connotations. In the novel, it is described that there are actually three deaths, and arguably only two of them are literal. The novel argues that the three deaths are, “…the one where our breath leaves our bodies to rejoin the air, the one when we are put back in the earth, and the one that will erase us completely and no one will remember us at all” (Danticat 177). The last death is the most compelling and abstract of them. This is demonstrated with the main character, known as the torturer or Ka’s father to readers. Ka makes a sculpture of her father depicting him as a victim, and her father throws it in the lake, effectively destroying it. Ka’s father does not want to be remembered, and he is wishing for that third death, which can be more important than the physical. In Marinda Quist’s literary criticism of the novel she argues, “…her father feels that being buried with the sculpture would permanently document him, along with all the pain he represents for others. After he dies, the sculpture would be a lasting reminder of the horrors he caused that could never be forgotten” (Quist 154). The concept of more abstract deaths has cultural ties and connotations that are not often depicted in Western media, or in a white context. In the novel, it is specifically in relation to Haitian people.
While the first death, “breath leaving the body” could be taken literally, Quist makes a compelling analysis that it transcends physical death. Quist goes on to argue that the first death is not physical either but rather, “Voicing the pain of trauma can symbolically be represented by ‘the breath leaving the body’ stage of death” (Quist 150). This interpretation is reflected by the character Freda in “The Funeral Singer” chapter. Freda bonds with other Haitians who have immigrated to America and is disappointed when they do not bond as much as she had hoped, “I thought exposing a few details of my life would inspire them to do the same and slowly we’d parcel out our sorrows, each walking out with fewer than we carried in” (Danticat 170). The text argues that death happens before even physically dying. By voicing their trauma and bonding, the characters are able to connect and release themselves from their personal worldly stressors. In this sense, death does act like a way to connect with those in her community. With Haitian culture having a unique, transcendental view on death, their rituals and funerals surrounding death also differ.
The Dew Breaker emphasizes the importance of spiritual rituals and funerals associated with death in their culture. In the novel, Dany is the main character of the chapter “Night Talkers”. Dany is visiting his aunt in Haiti when she unexpectedly passes away. After her passing, the village comes together, “His aunt’s house was filled with people now, each of them taking turns examining his aunt’s body for signs of life, and when finding none immediately assigning themselves, and one another, tasks related to her burial” (Danticat, 111). There is a sense of a large and close community and they all handle the aunt’s death sensitively. The community helps with her burial, and no one mentions payment for the services. Danticat portrays positivity even in light of the aunt’s death when the villagers “tell stories about the deceased, singular tales of first or last encounters, which could make one either chuckle or weep” (Danticat 114). This is reflective of real life Haitian practices. While Christian Haitians have a similar ritual to Christians in the West, Voodoo Haitians have a slightly different practice, “The soul of the deceased is believed to linger for about a week after the physical death, and in that time a priest or priestess will perform a ritual to release the soul from the body, allowing the soul to remain in dark water for the next 366 days.” (MacFarland). Danticat portrays direct parallels to this belief in the text when Ka’s father throws the sculpture of himself into a body of water to bring about a third death. It could be interpreted that Ka’s father wanted to cleanse or release his soul, as well. Danticat portrays the importance of these rituals in regards to not just physical death, but the death of the soul and memory of a person.
The play Death and the King’s Horseman explores death as something metaphysical that goes beyond the initial death as well, with Yoruba death rituals. When the main character Elesin will not commit ritual suicide the woman Iyaloja scolds him, “Who are you to open a new life when you dared not open the door to a new existence?” (Soyinka, 67). Death in other cultures is not seen as the end, there is some form of existence beyond it. The Yoruba people feel they need to guide the one dying into this “new existence”. Elesin’s ritual death is a large and boisterous event, garnering lots of attention. The Yoruba people will attend the suicide, and there are a crescendo of drums. If Elesin doesn’t commit ritual suicide, he is actually failing his people, and it is seen as an honor rather than something solemn. The whole ceremony gains so much attention that the white District Officers feel compelled to intervene, not understanding the ritual as important to their culture. In both the play and the novel, funerals and death are reinforced as enlightening moments, rather than somber ones.
Death and the King’s Horseman especially emphasizes how the Yoruba culture sees death as an important connection to the world, unlike white colonizers. In a literary analysis done by Lokangaka Losambe, they describe the dynamic as, “…the Pilkingses have turned death into a space of power contestation between themselves and the natives” (Losambe 23). The Pilkingses seek to stop Elesin’s death because they don’t understand the importance of the ritual. Iyaloja steps in to critique them, “To prevent one death you will actually make other deaths? Ah, great is the wisdom of the white race” (Soyinka 73). Iyaloja points out the often contradictory attitudes towards death and life that colonists have. Pilkings stopping Elesin from committing ritual suicide is not to “save” Elesin, but rather to assert white dominance and control over the Yoruba culture. The white people turn the sacred ritual into a gross display of power. This becomes especially apparent in a conversation between Elesin’s son, Olunde, and Pilking’s wife, Jane. Jane describes it as a, “barbaric custom. It is even worse – it’s feudal!” (Soyinka 53). She is depicting it as barbaric, but the Yoruba people understand it as positive or honorable; a “new existence” as Iyaloja puts it. After Pilkings succeeds in stopping Elesin from committing ritual suicide, Elesin tells Pilkings “You did not save my life District Officer. You destroyed it” (Soyinka 62). Even Elesin, the one who is supposed to die, acknowledges the importance of his death and that it is not the end of his life. Elesin then goes on to express his anger with Pilkings by telling him “Yes white man, I am sure you advised it. You advise all our lives although on the authority of what gods, I do not know” (Soyinka 64). Pilkings is a colonizer who feels entitled to the way other cultures should not only live their lives, but how they should perceive death. He disregards and disrespects their customs. Not only is death not sacred to Western white people, it is perverted into a means of control over the colonized. However, Soyinka and Danticat express death as something that goes beyond any form of human control; for the cultures they depict, death is a means of connection with community and it helps them make sense of their world. To Yoruba culture, the ritual suicide is an honorable act of helping their deceased king. It is not something to be feared, but to be embraced.
Both The Dew Breaker and Death and the King’s Horseman depict a unique, cultural take on death that puts an emphasis on connection and a transcendent journey. The literature describes death as not an end, but a continuation of life afterwards by a spiritual sense and through memory. Literal death is a hard enough concept to grasp, but these pieces extend the conversation and understanding of what death truly is. They also challenge a white, Western perspective of death, specifically the way the afterlife is viewed and how they conduct funeral rituals. The pieces both view death in a more positive context, often showing it as admirable or as a journey. Both pieces of literature are insightful and compelling with their interpretations and portrayal of death in a way that forces the reader to question what death really means for themselves.
Works Cited
Danticat, Edwidge. The Dew Breaker. Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, 2004.
Losambe, Lokangaka. “Death, Power, and Cultural Translation in Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horsemen.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Vol. 42, no. 1, 2007, p21-30.
MacFarland, Amanda. “Death in Haiti.” The Crudem Foundation, https://crudem.org/death-haiti/. Accessed 16 October 2023.
Quist, Marinda. “The Death of Trauma: Mourning and Healing in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker,” Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism, Vol. 6, no. 1, 2013, p147-156.
Soyinka, Wole. Death and the King’s Horseman. W. W. & Norton Company, 1975.
Sprockets and Springes 