Crossing The Mangrove Summary

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Note the use of Creole (and other languages) in the text. Maryse Condé's writing about the diversity in America guided her to investigate the diversity of her own island to further her understanding of the Caribbean identity. Her 1989 novel, Crossing the Mangrove, takes place in Guadeloupe. Crossing the Mangrove is structured around the voices of Indians, Blacks, Dominicans, Haitians, and Békés; people coming from Caribbean white upper class. These voices are all part of the social fabric of Guadeloupe. Each chapter of the book is expressed from a different cultural point of view. These characters all talk about Francis Sanchez, the man that brings them together at his funeral and reveal something new about Francis' personality. Their attempt to determine what Caribbean identity is. One of the…show more content…
He also reveals his attitude towards the various migrations that affect Guadeloupe. When he said “really, this country is going to the dogs. it belongs to anybody now, French from France, all types of whites folks from Canada or Italy, Vietnamese, and then this one comes and settles down in our midst, regurgitated by I don’t know what bird of ill omen”(112). I realize that the Caribbean identity is difficult to define because of the complex history and cultural of the Caribbean islands. The Caribbean island’s population is mostly made up of blacks who are the descendants of enslaved Africans. That why many Caribbean feel their true origins are in Africa where their ancestors came from. Talking about their religion, it is a mix between Catholicism and voodoo because they have always lived among Indians and whites who also claim to be Caribbean. Caribbean spoke Creole; a language developed from a mixture of different languages. Some Caribbean islands speak English, some Spanish, some French and each island has created a different

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