Symbolism In Crossing The Mangrove

“Often, it’s not about becoming a new person, but becoming the person you were meant to be, and already are, but don’t know how to be” (Buckmaster, Heath). This quote portrays how humans need to go through a process of self realization in order to change, or at least acknowledge their faults. As seen in the novel Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condé, Francis Sancher, the protagonist, is found dead, and each supporting character recounts his/her experience with him through vignettes. As a result, Maryse Condé explores the idea that foreign and unfamiliar influences can overcome personal blindness and result in the self realization of the necessity for personal growth through the use of personification, similes, and questions within vignettes

Mira describes herself as doing “nothing but shoot up joylessly like a plant going to seed” (36) before she met Francis. Condé makes use of this simile to develop a view of Mira’s life before she ever met Francis. Later, when describing Francis, Mira says “suddenly someone knocked on a wall that cracked and crumbled and [she] came face to face with a stranger, as solid as a tree, who rescued [her]” (36), and this simile is part of a dream she has every night, until she meets Francis, who is portrayed many times as a “heavy-built man as tall as a mahogany tree” (15). Through these similes which describe Francis Sancher, Condé’s goal to portray Francis as a catalyst is achieved; the reader is able to determine Francis is the one who took down Mira’s confining walls, pulled her out of her blindness, and forced her to realize what she had been missing. Furthermore, Mira falls in love with Francis and says “love, like death, takes you by surprise” (42). Condé’s personification, then comparison, of love and death suggests both concepts could be considered “levelers”, which means they tend to put all humans on equal ground, so when Mira realizes she loves Francis, she and Francis become leveled, and, as a result, she does not feel the need to be prideful or arrogant anymore because her heart has been opened to outside influences. Francis acting as a catalyst for self realization can be seen further when Dinah, Loulou’s oppressed wife, has similar experiences with Francis. Before meeting Francis, Dinah’s loneliness can be seen, especially at night: “once darkness has fallen [she] lock[s] [her] door and curl[s] up like a fetus between [her] sheets” (79). This simile, in which Condé compares Dinah to a fetus, reveals Dinah’s state before Francis- without a specific goal in life, childlike, ignorant, and protected against the