Jerry Swedberg
Professor Nic Helms
Currents in Global Literature EN3515.01
18 October 2024
Toxic Masculinity and Violence in The Dew Breaker and Death and the King’s Horseman
A defining characteristic of masculinity throughout many facets of media and culture has long been the idea that the capacity for violence is an inherently masculine trait. Suzanne Hatty, in Masculinities, Violence, and Culture examines the cultural, societal, and physiological that have led to a “gendering” or “masculinization” of conflict, aggression, and violence. Violence, especially as a response to anger or frustration, is normalized and more than often accepted as a “reasonable” response in masculine cultures. This normalization is a symptom of toxic masculinity throughout cultures, the prevalence of which is because a majority of cultures are constructed out of existing patriarchal systems. When defining toxic masculinity in Gender and Identity, the authors note that “[…] militaristic and totalitarian societies are where we are most likely to witness and experience ‘toxic masculinity’[…]” (Moodley 246). Both Danticat’s The Dew Breaker and Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman exist within cultural spheres that are patriarchal. Death and the King’s Horseman takes place in a society with a male-led monarchy pitted alongside the still patriarch-led colonial government. The Dew Breaker, because of the non-chronological structure of the novel, takes place both during and after the father characters experience with living in a highly masculinized, violent, and militaristic government. These cultures value violence as demonstrations of masculinity. Moreover, what both these works have in common is how they portray toxic masculinity as a violent form of self-destruction, violent being the key word. Both works use this theme of self-destruction in a way that subverts the toxically masculine, idealized and celebrated use and demonstrations of violence to show that they are horrifically detrimental and destructive to the individual and society at large.
Starting with Wole Soyika’s play Death and the King’s Horseman, the first act sets up the plot that revolves around a celebrated and masculinized ritualistic suicide, of which the character Elesin Oba must complete following the death of the king as custom. Elesin is accompanied by a male character referred to throughout the play direction only as “Praise-Singer,” the lack of an assigned name signifying the celebratory relation between men when it comes to masculinized violence. Returning to Gender and Identity, perpetual relationships of violence like this are a key symptom of toxic masculinity best surmised by the quote, “Within many masculine cultures and value systems, male aggression is not considered problematic; indeed, it is actually lauded” (Moodley 246). The Praise-Singer assures Elesin of the importance of undertaking ritualistic suicide and his own confidence in Elesin’s ability to, saying “In [Elesin’s forebears] time the world was never tilted from its groove, it shall not be in [Elesin’s]” (Soyinka 10). The Praise-Singer is lauding Elesin with full understanding of the violent implication of his actions, encouraging, and perpetuating them. With the beginning basis of the plot being based on a violent act being of high importance to “keeping the world on its axis,” the play constructs the former notion of violence, catalyzed by toxic masculinity, a normalized function built into a patriarchal culture. The following acts of the play and the direction of the plot then are structured as a way to show that toxic masculinity, particularly the perpetuation and celebration of violence and aggression, lead to destruction. Going back to aggression, which is different from violence but encompassing of it, Whitehead writes in Toxic Masculinity that “Toxic masculinity is nothing if not aggressive in essence[…]” (Whitehead 38). Aggression is shown throughout the rest of the play from male influences, and the collision of these different influences leads to destructive outcomes. Pilkings, one of the other central male characters existing in the cultural sphere and influence of the colonial occupier, colonialism being patriarchal in nature, demonstrates toxically masculine aggression in his own influence over the plot. His resolve to interfere with Elesin’s ritual through jailing Elesin is vying both for control over Elesin and to gain the approval from the Prince clash with Elesin’s own resolves and wanting rooted in his cultural idea of masculinity. The result of this clash leads back to the destructive power of toxic masculinity in the final acts of the play. Elesin’s son Olunde, when faced with feelings of shame and failure stemming from the failure of his father in completing the act of ritual suicide, chooses to commit suicide himself as expected by his culture. Elesin commits suicide soon after being confronted with his personal feelings of failure. The final acts of the play come together to show how toxically masculine elements of culture, and the perpetuation and acceptance of male aggression and violent behavior result in the violent destruction of self and adhering to the definition of toxic masculinity as “[…] corrosive to society and individuals, including those who perform it” (Moodley 246).
In Death and the King’s Horseman, destruction of self is portrayed through the literal, violent suicides. Edwidge Danticat’s novel The Dew Breaker portrays the destruction of self from the violence and aggression associated with toxic masculinity through the characterization of Ka’s father. By not giving a name to a character so central to the novel and themes throughout, Danticat demonstrates the “corrosion” of the individual. Ka’s father, influenced by a culture of violent and militaristic Haitian leadership, was once one of those males that have been indoctrinated into accepting toxically masculine behavior as status quo and participating in it. Similar to Pilkings desire of approval from the Prince, Ka’s father sought the approval of his cultural ideal of a patriarch. The theme of desire of acceptance and approval of those within masculine cultures is shown in both works as a contributing factor to a violent loss of self. This reflects back to the presented definition of toxic masculinity, that “[…] such behavior continues to be expressed by, indeed attracts to it, males of all ages, cultures, ethnicities and social statuses” (Moodley 246). This desire can also be interpreted as an invisible “Praise-Singer” for the respective characters, an unnamed but masculine presence that perpetuates toxic masculinity. The “suicide” or better described “loss of self” Ka’s father undergoes is similar to Olunde and Elesin’s in Death and the King’s Horseman, beginning with a feeling of failure to appease or adhere to a toxically masculine culture. Upon having his face lacerated and executing the Preacher, some of the first thoughts of Ka’s father are, “Since he’d disobeyed the palace’s orders twice now, it was possible that he would be arrested, even executed. (Danticat 229). The recognition of the failure and his following fleeing and concealing of past and identity are meant to symbolize a loss of that identity. It is the suicide of the toxically masculine and aggressive part of himself in leaving and not participating in that culture of violence anymore. The novel’s other characters and sections showing the personal and generational trauma caused by the violence of the culture and the actions of Ka’s father participating within it communicate the corrosive nature to society that toxic masculinity causes.
Toxic masculinity is presented as an issue in both works through many facets. Central to the plot of Death and the King’s Horseman is Elesin and Pilkings’ misogyny and how ingrained and accepted into their cultures it is due to the normalization of toxic masculinity. In The Dew Breaker we can see the emotional unavailability of Ka’s father that is normalized in cultural spheres with masculine influence. In both works, aggression and violence is gendered because the primary perpetrators of said acts are male and influenced by the toxically masculine values of their cultures. The plots of the works unfold in ways that are meant to supply commentary on all these aspects of patriarchal or masculinized cultures that result in toxic masculinity, and to demonstrate the corrosiveness of the individual as Moodley notes in Gender and Identity the works use some form of self-destruction. The use of suicide in Soyinka’s play as a response to failure from both Elesin and Olunde and the lack of name and concealment of identity from Ka’s father in Danticat’s novel are reflective of the destruction of the individual. Both result from patriarchal cultures built on value systems that promote and encourage violence and aggression as positive traits for males. Consequently, the same systems that promote their engagements in violence also result in the reasons that drive each respective character to self-destruction. The theme of violence resulting from a culture with deep roots in toxic masculinity leading to the destruction of the individual is meant to show the negative, or corrosive, nature of cultures that value or celebrate gendered violence.
Works Cited
Danticat, Edwidge. The Dew Breaker. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 2004. Print.
Moodley, et al. Gender and Identity. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
Soyinka, Wole. Death and the King’s Horseman. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1975. Print.
Hatty, Suzanne. Masculinities, Violence and Culture. Sage Publications, 2000,
http://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=996988.
Whitehead, Stephen M. Toxic Masculinity : Curing the Virus: Making Men Smarter, Healthier,
Safer. AG Books, 2019, https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=6109088.
Sprockets and Springes 