Final Essay Proposal

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Essay Proposal: After taking the feedback from peer review into consideration, for my final essay, I plan to close read “The Great Old Hunter” from Melusine and the poem “The Sea is History” by Derek Walcott. I’m going to borrow points from my second close reading of Melusine, where I explained that the chapter presents the forest as an evil entity within the community that then leads to the creation of heroes to protect the villagers. As a result, it highlights that humans exist within conditions of their environment that require them to overcome and adapt, which creates the heroic persona. I’m going to tie this into the poem “The Sea is History” since Walcott also weaves humans and nature together through the idea that the sea is a place of historical information about Caribbean history. This situates nature as a place where human identity can be formed and harbored because the sea holds narratives that help the people of the Caribbean understand histories that are often erased. I will also be bringing in the texts “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” by William Cronon and “Blue Humanities” by John Gillies as my scholarly sources. I think that both texts help strengthen the idea that humans are not separated from the environment around them but that it influences human identity by moulding their lives. These academic texts blur the boundaries by showcasing how the environment is not independent from humans and that they coexist together, which will hopefully help aid me in my close reading of the two creative texts.

Working Thesis: Within the chapter titled “The Great Old Hunter” from The Romance of the Faery Melusine by Andre Lebey, he interlaces humans and nature by depicting the forest as a place of danger that allows for the emergence of human bravery to arise. Similarly, “The Sea is History” by Derek Walcott continues this weaving of humans and the environment by characterizing the sea as a record of the history of Caribbean peoples. In both texts, the intertwining of humans and the natural environment positions nature as an entity that shapes human identity to then help move away from the belief that humans are independent from the environment.

“Who Is That Girl I See?”: The Search for Identity as a Form of Resistance

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In chapter 5 of The Deep by Rivers Solomon, the text explores the complicated relationship between identity and history as Yetu struggles to find herself and create a personal identity apart from being the historian and an archive of the struggles the ancestors of the Wajinuru had faced. The fight for identity and autonomy becomes an important part of the narrative because it helps serve as a form of resistance by not letting the trauma and collective history of the slave trade be the single element that defines who Yetu is as an individual.

While stuck in a small pool onshore, Yetu explains to her new friend Oori that it might not be a bad thing if one is not consumed by history because “Before, [she] was no one. When you’re everyone in the past, and when you’re for everyone in the present, you’re no one. […] [She] didn’t exist” (Solomon 95). It is here that Solomon posits the idea that it is dangerous for identity to be solely constructed of a traumatizing history. When Yetu was a vessel for “everyone in the past” as the historian, it essentially erased her personhood. She existed as a way for the past to emerge into the present and not as an individual who had needs. Despite her role being an important one in the community, Yetu as a person “didn’t exist” because she was only defined by the memories that she carried inside her. She is then positioned as a lost individual because she is constantly weighed down by the “Six hundred years of pain” (Solomon 94) that she is holding on to. It is no wonder then, that her subsequent rejection of her role as Historian becomes a way for her to explore who she is outside of the suffering of her ancestors. Yetu takes a bold act by moving away from being “just a shell for their whims” (Solomon 94) to an entity that is complex and multifaceted.

Yetu’s struggle with personal identity then transforms into a way to resist the narratives that try to define enslaved people and their ancestors solely through a painful history. By noting that her role as an archive of “everyone in the past” made her “just a shell” for the Wanjinru to use for their benefit, she is rejecting the same subjugation that her ancestors on the Middle Passage endured, since they were not given the ability to engage their autonomy and explore their own personality. This passage about the complexities of identity is then a form of resistance because it widens the narrow confines in which Yetu exists as a Wanjinru and allows for the expansion of what it means to be a Wanjinru through the idea that individuals can be more than their trauma. This then allows Yetu and her people to stop the cycle of oppression and suffering by not allowing it consume their personhood.

Feeling and Telling History

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In the novel The Deep by Rivers Solomon, “These rememberings, these secrets of their History, were for Yetu and Yetu only”, he uses the sentence’s unusual syntax, repetition, and emphasis on Yetu’s isolation to demonstrate how the wajinrus’s survival depends on forcing her to bear the entire weight of the trauma, revealing the profound injustice of inherited memory. The novel critiques patterns of placing the burden of remembrance on marginalized communities, challenging readers to reconsider how societies distribute the cost of historical pain.

The phrase “these rememberings” treats the word “rememberings” as a noun, creating memory as a type of substance, a weight that is carried. To make the word plural showcases that it’s not a single event but various multitudes of recollections, fragments, voices, and sensations. Solomon emphasizes the material weight to memory, as if it’s something Yetu must physically carry within her body. 

The repetition of “these” demonstrates the burden, pointing to particular highly charged memories, such as traumas of origin, ancestral suffering, and the collective past of the wajinru. This demonstrates that these memories are not abstract history, but dangerous secrets, something intentionally hidden from the majority. 

Once again, “History” is referred to with a capital “H”, elevating the word beyond factual record, allowing it to become a sacred archive, cultural origin myth, and the traumatic truth of the wajinru’s creation. To call their History “secrets” showcases the community’s deliberate decision to forget in means of survival. History is treated as something both sacred and destructive that must be contained.   

The isolation in the phrase “for Yetu and Yetu only” exclusively assigns the task of memory constructs Yetu as both indispensable and abandoned, emphasizing the injustice of the Historian’s role. The doubling of Yetu’s name conveys an almost existential significance, as this realization highlights her role as the sacrificial vessel of generational trauma used to tell wajinru history. 

Often, the history of the marginalized communities is placed upon them to educate. In which it is very important to hear history from the perspective of those who truly lived, we have to be open to the truth, the real traumas, and pain they experienced. When people tell their narratives, they should not feel they need to leave out details in fear of making the listener uncomfortable.

A Greater Good?

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A line that stood out to me in this week’s reading was from a memory Yetu had with her amaba as she tried to help her understand the weight of the role of the Historian. “Her amaba didn’t want to believe that things Yetu spoke about were true. I they were, what would it say about her as a parent to have consented to her becoming a vessel of such ugliness?”(99-100).

It caught my attention not because of the question of parental responsibility, but from the systemic structures that are trusted but still inflict pain that is not shared or understood. The role of the Historian is honored and exalted by the wajinru. The role’s importance keeps their community together and brings them history that nourishes their present and future. But it is also a heavy burden that Yetu must carry alone, as it has been done for generations.

When Yetu tries to share her experience with her amaba, her mother is confronted with the truth of this role that her daughter endures. She denies it could be like that, because it is so horrible. Her amaba was told by the system that Yetu is part of that it is necessary role and at this point amaba believes that the system is there to protect all of the wajinru. It is an honor to do this, taxing but something that must be done and needs to continue. There is also the threat that her daughter’s refusal to do this chosen role would result in the predicted end of their people. So Yetu’s amaba must believe that it is for a greater good, but still she is not trusting the individual.

When Yetu approached other wajinru about giving up this role, they rejected as an act of “blasphemy”. Does their system function on the elongated sacrifice of the chosen? Why is this not a term of Historian, so that one life might not be sacrificed in its entirety? There is an element of this dynamic that makes me ask where that last Historian is and why is there not a shared process, also was there any type of training for this role?

This book discusses generational trauma and how it is held and weighted in the body and mind. Yetu has been the Historian for 20 years, but it seems to be breaking her down faster than previous Historians. The system of the wajinru have her believing it is a personal failing, her struggle to hold this history alone and feed her people in measured sips, but I have my doubts.

Final Essay Proposal

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My final project will be an essay about the novel The Deep, elaborating and researching the concept of History. Within the story, I will analyze and explore the scenes of ‘Rememberance,’ and its impact on Yetu physically and emotionally. To navigate intergenerational trauma and how we tell these narratives ethically and fully, discussing how the body holds memories, trauma, and history.

Below is my working Thesis:
In The Deep by Rivers Solomon, intergenerational trauma surfaces as a living archive, revealing how bodies carry and transmit historical memory. Through Yetu’s anguish, showcased in her collapse under the weight of Rememberance, reveals how bodies become living repositories of history.  By examining the ethical responsibilities of narrating such inherited pain, this essay argues that the novel redefines history not as a fixed record but as an embodied, collective experience shaped through storytelling, silence, and survival.

A Moral Dilemma

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Something I thought was exciting, even though this entire book has been captivating. I thought it was super interesting when it states that Yetu “[would] have to live with that for the rest of her days. Her bid to save herself, to save her life, would have the unintended consequence of killing others”(123). I was drawn to this conflict because it frames self-preservation as connected to, or in control of, communal harm. The repetition of the word save in both saving herself and her life draws attention to the amount of desperation in her escape. I think the idea of blurring the line between survival and selfishness is very intriguing. It’s a situation no one would ever want to be in, choosing between one and many. The concept of playing God, having the lives of others in your hands, and at the risk of losing your own.

The choice of the word “unintended” highlights the moral weight being placed on Yetu. This further provides a vivid picture of how the lines between collective and individual responsibility have almost completely disappeared. I also liked the way it states that Yetu would have to live with this decision for the rest of her life. It highlights how guilt itself can become a lifelong inheritance, much like the communal memories that she has to carry as a Historian.

I liked how this short sentence exposes a great tragedy built into a very popular situation. (The train scenario of saving one or many) Seeing how the decision of one person is threatening to affect the lives of so many others. This small quote shows so much, the pain and confusion Yetu has to deal with in seeing how her plan to escape might replicate the very harm she is trying to flee.

So far, this book is very interesting to me, which, if I’m being completely honest, I thought I might get bored a bit. I am loving every part of it. I knew the story was going to be interesting, but sometimes the writing doesn’t do the story’s justice. But this one is amazing so far!

Song of the Week: MILK OF THE SIREN by Melanie Martinez (This one I can’t believe I forgot about, but OMG I think it fits very well. This song connects on a more lyrical aspect than the others. I think everyone should give this one a listen!!)

Final Essay Proposal

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I plan to focus on the reading, “The Day After the Wedding” from Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque, examining how he uses Huldbrand’s nightmare of women transforming into monsters not only as a foreshadowing but as a symbolic dramatization of the emotional strain already present between Undine and her husband. By clarifying how the supernatural reflects the couple’s unspoken fears–specifically Huldbrand’s anxieties about female power, intimacy, and the instability of his new marriage–I argue that the nightmare becomes a way for the text to surface the tensions neither character can articulate. Because Fouque blurs the line that is between dream and waking reality through Romantic imagery–“pale and cold” moonlight, shifting feminine specters, and Huldbrand’s momentary fear of Undine–the story ultimately suggests that love becomes most unstable when desire clashes with suppressed emotional fears. In this way, the story uses the supernatural not simply for atmosphere, but to highlight the emotional vulnerability at the core of relationships in the Romantic era.

I will be honing in on how the nightmare functions not just as a foreshadowing but as a window into Huldbrand’s suppressed fears about women and marriage, showing how Romantic literature uses the supernatural to expose emotional tensions that characters cannot openly express.

Week 15 Reading Response

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In chapter 5 of The Deep by R.Solomon, there is emphasis showing how being in the sea is prison-like for Yetu. “She needed to go closer to the surface yet if she wanted to escape her people entirely (p.68)”, she is painted as a prisoner escapee trying to flee law enforcement (her fellow waijinru’s). This quote provoked for me to think of the ocean as a restraint (negative) rather than a museum of history (positive) because Yetu has actively showed her disdain for being in the sea with her people. The only way to escape because they will find her in the darkest parts of the ocean is to breach the border between land and sea, where no waijinru would dare to go. Yetu having to leave to uncharted and potentially dangerous territory to escape her life as a Historian reminds me similarly of an immigrant needing to cross a border to a new unknown land trying to escape their past and rebuilding from scratch a life that they are in control of. The thought of having to physically move oneself from their current environment to a new one is a debilitating one that evokes so many emotions to rise out of the person because they have nothing and no one and are placed in a survival mode to not succumb to moving back to their old life which is stagnant and draining.

Final Essay Proposal

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For my final essay, I am going to sort of combine my ideas from discovery 2 and a blog from week 13. I want to focus on how both Emmett and Nye and the reading on African water spirits rethink the relationship between humans and the environment, especially through the idea of water as something alive. I’m planning to use close readings from both texts to show how each one gives water a kind of identity. I’ll use Emmett and Nye’s line about managing behavior and the examples of water spirits who “personify the source of water” to show how these ideas challenge the mindset of controlling or using nature. My argument will be that both texts suggest environmental problems come from culture and imagination, not from nature itself. By treating water as a being we’re in relationship with, these offer a more ethical and sustainable way of thinking about environmental responsibility.

Yetu’s Empathy

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Yetu going above the surface is an unpredictable predictable Western mermaid story: A mermaid going to land, falling in love with a human. Yet, with a queer love story and a human transitioning into the world of merpeople, Solomon subverts Western mermaid stories. On page 129 Solomon writes, “This truth, that two-legs were cruel and unusual, was the most important lesson of the History” In The Deep humanity is the other, the monsters. Yetu being the main Historian of the story line is significant because her character demonstrates an overwhelming sense of empathy. With her empathy, Yetu shows the reader how to overcome monstrosity by relinquishing hatred. In contrast with Basha, who’s experience as Historian leads them to vengeance: “In the old days, when we discovered a ship that threw our ancestors into the sea like refuse, we sunk it. Now we will sink the world.” (128) Yetu’s empathy eventually leads her people to mental peace. She leaves her home, the deep, because of her empathy. It is clear that she cannot handle being the Historian because she feels the pain of her ancestors in a tremendous way. After she leaves, she gains perspective. Not just from conversing with humans, but literal perspective. “The vastness of the ocean looked so different from above, so much less comprehensible.” (77) Yetu gains a human perspective of the ocean, but more than this she shows how easy it is for humans to misread the ocean. An ocean dweller who recognizes the incomprehensibleness of the ocean when viewing its surface gives the reader perspective. How could a human ever understand the vastness, the importance, or the creatures of the ocean from their surface knowledge.

Like “The Water Will Carry Us Home”, The Deep gifts life, History, and descendants to people who experienced attempted erasure. But it also endows mermaid stories with a quality that has seriously been lacking. Throughout the semester I have been yearning for a mermaid tale that designates a human into the mer-world. A human into the mer-world as invitation, not punishment. I have been wanting this story not only for myself. I think inviting a human into a mermaid’s world will help to decentralize Christianity’s dominion over Earth.

“This time, the two-legs venturing into the depths had not been abandoned to the sea, but invited into it.” (155)