Christian on Praisesong

8/9/2019 Christian on Praisesong

1/12

Ritualistic Process and the Structure of Paule Marshall's: Praisesong for The WidowAuthor(s): Barbara T. ChristianReviewed work(s):Source: Callaloo, No. 18 (Spring - Summer, 1983), pp. 74-84Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2930523.Accessed: 30/04/2012 08:34

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2/12

74

RITUALISTIC PROCESS

AND THE STRUCTURE

OF

PAULE MARSHALL'S

PRAISESONG

FOR

THE

WIDOW

by

Barbara

T.

Christian

Praisesong

for

the

Widow is Paule Marshall's thirdnovel after

silence

of thirteen

ears.

Like her other two

novels,

Brown

Girl,

Brownstones

1959)

and The

Chosen

Place,

The

Timeless

eople

1969),

her short

tories nd her

collection

f

novellas,

Soul

Clap

Hands and

Sing 1961),Praisesong or heWidowexplores he ultural ontinuity

of

peoples

ofAfrican

escent,

rom

outh

o

North

America,

s a stance

from

which

to delineate he values

of

theNew World. Marshall's

n-

tire

pus

focuses

n

the onsciousness fblack

people

s

they

emember,

retain,

evelop

their

ense

of

spiritual/sensual

ntegrity

nd individual

selves,

against

the materialism hatcharacterizes merican ocieties.

Particularly

n her

novels,

Marshall demonstrates

ow the

"shameful

stone

of false

values,"'

can block life's

ight,

and how a visceral

understandingf their istorynd rituals anhelpblackpeopletrans-

cend

their

displacement

nd retain

heir

wholeness.

Like her first wo

novels,

Marshall's

Praisesong

or

the the

Widow

penetrates

ociety's

structures

hrough

he

illumination

f a black

woman's

xperience

hile

xtending

er

protagonist's

iscovered

ruths

to

an

entire

community.

But while

Selina

Boyce

in Brown

Girl,

Brownstones nd Merle Kinbona

in

The

Chosen

Place,

The Timeless

People

are

consciously

oncernedwith heir

evelopment,

hemiddle-

class,middle-aged, eeminglyontentAveyJohnsonppears,atfirst,

to be an

unlikely

eroine.

Yet

Praisesong

or

the

Widow buildson

the

world

of

characters

Marshall

reated

n

her

previous

works.Set

n the

U.S. and

the

Caribbean,

hisnovel

dramatizes

he

inksbetween

myths

of

both Afro-Americannd

Afro-Caribbean

ulture nd uses them s

thebasis for he

widow,

Avey

Johnson,

nd her

ssessment

f her ife.

And

n

naming

henovel

Praisesong,

Marshall eminds s

of the

African

orgin

f her

characters,

hile

nforming

hereader hatritual s at the

novel's core.

Avey

Johnson, middle-class,

middle-aged

widow,

abruptly

eaves

the

Caribbean

ruise he

s

on with wo of

herfriends.

olted

y

a recur-

ring

dream

n

whichher

ong

dead

great

unt

calls herback to

Tatum,

South

Carolina,

Avey

nsists

n

returning

o the

ecurity

f her

ubur-

ban home

in

White

Plains,

New York. Under the strain

f

recurring

hallucinations,

he misses he

plane

to New

York. Stranded

n

Grenada,

she is

drawn nto the

yearly

festival

n

nearby

Carriacou,

which for


3/12

75

island

people

s their

nnual

excursion f

spiritual

ejuvenation.

n

con-

trast

o

Avey's

artificially

atted

ruise,

his xcursion s rooted

n

the

rhythm

f

the drum nd the collective itualof the dance-similar to

the ritualsof Tatum and Brooklyn,New York, thatAvey has left

behind.The widow rediscovers ertrue

name,

her rue

lace,

obscured

for

years by

her

and

her

husband's

pursuit

f material

ecurity.

That is the

plot,

but

hardly

the

novel. For Marshall

develops Avey

Avatara

Johnson's

ourney

o

wholeness

y uxtaposing

xternal eali-

ty

with

memory,

ream,

hallucination-disjointed

tates f

mind-in

which he

past

and the

present

use.And

Marshall

uses

these

nternal

elements

o

guide

Avey

back

to

external

eality

nd

back to earth.

The

recurrent otif hroughouthenovel,thatthebody might e in one

place

and the mind n

another,

s characterized ot as

fragmentation

but as a source

of

wisdom,

stemming

rom

history

f

the

forced

displacement

f

blacks

n

the

West.

ronically,

ow to

recognize

where

one's

mind

should

be,

whatever he fateof the

body,

is

presented

n

the novel

as

one of

Avey's guides

to

becoming

centered,

o

being

restored o the

proper

xis fromwhichher feet an feelthe richand

solid

ground.

Thus,

anothermotif

n

the

novel,

a

decidedly

African

one, is therelationshipf one'sfeet o theearth, o thatone can stay

the

course of

history.2

The structure f

Praisesong

eflects hesemotifs.Marshall's

novels

have

always

emphasized

he

relationship

etween haracter nd

con-

text,

r

thatbetween

hape

and

space.

Some criticshave often om-

pared

her

iterary

orms o architecturer

sculpture.

raisesong

lso

sharesthis

quality.

The book is

divided nto four

parts: "Runagate,"

"Sleeper's

Wake,"

"Lave

Tete,"

and

"The

Beg

Pardon,"

titles

hatnot

only ndicateritualistic rocessbut also a change nAveyJohnson's

character nd context.

The

title,

Runagate,"

s takenfromRobert

Hayden's

famous

poem

of that

name,

poem

which

tresses

he

lave

past

ofNew Worldblacks

and

fugitivescape

from

ondage.

This

highly

oncentrated

oem

ux-

taposes

different

mages

f

escape

as a

runaway

lave

"runs, alls, ises,

stumbles

n from

arkness

o

darkness,"

n his or her

way

to Freedom

in

the

mythic

North.

Like that

rchetypal

lave

figure, vey

stumbles

from

arkness o darkness.ronically, erunconscious

unfor reedom

takesher

South,

physically

outh to the

Caribbean,

psychically

outh

to

Tatem,

South

Carolina,

while

consciously

he believesher

promis-

ed land to be

North,

her

afe,

omfortable ome

n

North

White

lains.

"Runagate"

s

appropriately

et

n

the

hip

called Bianca

white)

Pride,

and

is

concernedwith

Avey's

plans

to

escape

from er

physical

eeling

of bloatedness nd hermental

iscomfort

t the

recurrent

ream f her


4/12

76

dead Aunt

Cuney.

For

Avey,

the

antidote o such

dis-ease

s

another

haven

of

whiteness,

NorthWhite

Plains.

It

is

in

this ection

hat

Marshall stablishes he

pervasive

echnique

ofthenovel:the uxtapositionfsupposeddream nd supposedreali-

ty,

plitting vey's being

so

thather mind

may

be

in

one

place

while

her

body

s

in

another.

n

the

first ew

pages

of the

book,

as

Avey

sud-

denly egins

acking

t

night,

Marshall ells s that Her

Avey's]

mind

in

a

way

wasn't

even n her

body

or for hatmatter

n

theroom."

PS,

p.

10)

We

laterearn hat

Avey's

onsciousness

as,

n

fact,

een

disturb-

ed,

disrupted y

the

dreamof her

great

unt who

recounts

her

story

of bo

Landing,

mphasizing

ow

herold

gran'

old her he

tory:

Her

bodyshealwaysustasaymight e inTatem,but hermindwas long

gone

with

the bos."

(PS,

p.

39)

Like

the

Runagate

n

Hayden's poem,

Avey's

Great Aunt

Cuney

recalls

history,

his ime

n

theform f a

ritual,

which,

ike

the

written

poem,

has the

quality

of

continuity,

or t too can

be

passed

on from

one

generation

o

the next.

n

taking

her

grand

niece to Ibo

Landing

and to

church,

her

religion,Cuney personalizes

he oldest of Afro-

American tories.Like Toni

Morrison's

halimar,

he

black man who

flewback to Africa n Song of Solomon,Marshall's bos walkedon

waterback to theirhome.

"They

feets

was

gonna

take em wherever

they

was

going

that

day

..

Stepping."

(PS,

p.

39)

Neither the

slaveship,

hains,

nor

the

water ould

stop

them.This

story

f

Africans

who wereforced o come acrossthe ea-but

through

heir

wn

power,

a

power

which

seems

rrational,

were

able

to

return o Africa-is a

touchstone f

New

World black folklore.

hrough

his

tory,

eoples

of Africandescent

emphasized

theirown

power

to determine heir

freedom,hough heir odiesmight e enslaved.TheyrecalledAfrica

as the source of their

being.

But

the

middle-class

vey

Johnson

as

forgotten

his

tory,

he ore

of the

strong igger eeling"

f

Baraka's

poem

which

lso

prefaces

his

section.

We

know

this

rom he

est f

Avey's

dream,

n

which he

resists

her

dead

aunt,

fearing

amage

to

her

lothes,

hermaterial

ossessions.

Avey

s

primarily

oncerned

hather

open-toed

atent-leatherumps

she was

wearing

forthe

first imewould

never

urvive hatmud

flat

which had once been a rice field" PS, p. 40). And it is theduston

her

new shoes

that

auses her

to

"refuse o take even a

single

tep

for-

ward. To ensure

his,

he

dug

her

hoe

heels

nto

hedirt nd lost tones

at

her

feet."

PS,

p.

41).

Unlikethe

bos,

Avey

refuses o take a

step,

until

herdream

of

heraunt'sassault

on

her

body

causes

her

to

change

her mind. She

suddenly

eaves her Caribbean cruisefor

the

safety

f

her well-furnished

ining

room.


5/12

77

It

is the

memory

f

her

past,

the

memory

f

a

ritual

n the

past

that

forces

Avey

to

embark n her own

personal

ritualof

cleansing,

heal-

ing

nd

enpowerment.

hus

thefirst

tep

n

theritual f

healing

s often

thefelt eedforhealing, lthoughhe auseofdiseasemaybeunknown.

Often

hatfelt

need,

as

in

African

itual,

s

expressed

n

theconfusion

of the

enses

or

of

outer

nd inner

eality.

While

Runagate"

s

thefirst

step

n the

ritual alled

Praisesong,

his

ection,

ike all the other ec-

tions of the

book,

is

a

ritual

n

itself.

or at its center

s Great Aunt

Cuney's

ritual

xpressed

n

Avey's

dream.

ronically,

t is dreamthat

startles

Avey

from

her

ong

unnatural

leep.

The

second

section,

Sleeper's

Wake,"

is

just

that-a wake for

the

past,

as well as

awaking

from he

past. Again

themotif f therelation-

ship

betweenmindand

body

is

sketched

ut.

"Sleeper's

Wake"

is the

most

ntrospective

ection

f

thenovel. The actiontakes

place

entirely

in

Avey's

mindwhileher

impbody

is

stranded,

isplaced

n

a

Grena-

dian hotel. Because her

body

is

cut off

from

normal

routine,

Avey's

mind s free o

roam

through

ime

and

space.

In

reviewing

er

marriage

o

Jerome

ohnson,

vey

both celebrates

the

oyful

ituals

f

their

arly

ife

ogether

nd

begins

to understand

how

they

dishonored

hemselves,

nd

lost

trackof their

pirits

ntil

their aceswereno

longer ecognizable

vento themselves. o

my

mind,

this ection

ncludes ome

of Marshall's

best

prose

in her 25

years

of

fiction

writing.

he is one of a fewAmericannovelists

who

respectful-

ly penetrates

he

complex

nteraction f black women and

men,

and

who

demonstrates

ow

race

and

gender

fuse

to

affect

he

quality

of

their

elationships.

n

describing

hedecline f the

pirit

f a

marriage,

as she does

in

Brown

Girl,

Brownstones,

he recounts

ow female nd

male roles

help

to determine

vey

and

Jay's pecific

eactions

o their

condition.Butwhilethe

marriage

fSilla and

DeightonBoyce

nMar-

shall's first

ovel

is

overtly

ragic,

he

Johnson's

marriage

ppears

to

be

successful

o the

outer

world,

even to

the

participants

hemselves,

because

they

ccept

the

"shameful toneof falsevalues."

In

accepting

and

achieving

he

American

ream,

hey

ishonor

hemselves,

s

black,

as woman and

man.

The motif

hroughout

hissection

s

Jay

Johnson's

words

to

Avey

on

that ateful

uesday

night:

Do

you

know

who

you

sound

ike,

who

youeven ook ike," PS,

p.

106),words hat ncespoken re thebegin-

ning

f

Jay

Johnson's

ransformationnto

Jerome ohnson,

black

man

of

property

who

leaves his

heritage

ehind.

Like Silla

in

Brown

Girl,

Brownstones,

Jay

knows

poverty

and its

possible

attendants

of

dehumanization

nd

spiritual

eath.

ronically,

n

trying

o avoid such

a

fate,

he

and

Avey

commit

kind

of

spiritual

uicide,

for

they

give

up

their

music,

heritage,

ensuality,

heir

xpression

f themselves:


6/12

78

Moreover

and

again

she

only

sensed this

n

the dimmest

way),

something

n those

small

rites,

n

ethos

they

held

in

common,

had reached

back

beyond

her ife nd

beyond

Jay's

o

join

them

to thevast unknown ineage hathad madetheir eingpossible.

And

this

ink

these

connections,

eard

n the

music and

in

the

praisesongs

f a

Sunday.

"

. . .

I

bathed

n the

Euphrates

when

dawnswere

/

young

..

"

had both

protected

hem nd

put

them

in

possession

of a kind of

power

....

(PS,

p.

137)

And

Avey,

recalling

er

great

unt's

words,

concludesthat a certain

distance f the

mind

nd hearthad been

absolutely

ssential . .

(PS,

p. 139), f heand herhusbandwereto have retained heirenseof self.

But

Marshall

oes not

present

he

Johnsons'

ailure

ither

s inevitable

or as

theresult

olely

of weakness.She is able

to

maintain,

n

hernar-

rative,

tensionbetweenblack

people's

need

to survive

nd

develop

in

America,

nd their

ven

more

mportant

eed to sustain hemselves.

Unlike Morrison

n

Tar

Baby,

Marshall does not

present

hese two

elements fblack

ife

s

mutually

xclusive;

ather he

shows

how com-

plex

and interrelated

hey

re.

In

her

description

f the

Johnson's

arly

marriage,hepointsup their ommonheritage: hemusic, hepoetry

of

Hughes,

Dunbar, James

W.

Johnson;

heir ituals

hat

cknowledge

their wn

beauty

and

richness,

lements hat are

one

strand f

their

culture.But Marshall

also

presents

nother

trand,

he

screaming

f

the

woman

in

the

street

hasing

her

no-good

husband

(the

woman

whom

Jay

ccuses

her

of

resembling),

he

beating

of a

black man

by

a

cop,

the racismthatbites at

their

heels and eats

into

their ives as

woman and

man.

Marshall

xpresses

oththe

pleasure

nd

pain

of be-

ing poorblackcouple nAmerica, ndhowprecarious veyandJay's

footings-precarious

f

hey

uccumb

o the

poverty,

recarious

f

hey

lose their

ooting

n

"the

ich

nurturinground

romwhich

they]

ould

always

turn

for

sustenance"

PS,

p.

12).

Avey's

mourning

f

her married

ife

s,

as it mustbe-a

raging,

release of

anger

at the loss of her

husband,

at

the

loss of herself.

"Sleeper's

Wake,"

ends

with

Avey peeling

off

her

gloves,

hat,

girdle,

the

material

rappings

ver which he and her

great

unt

fought

n

her

dreams ndwithher ngrywords, Too Much Too Much Too Much

Raging

s

she

slept."

t

s

therelease f

anger,

n

this

cene

of traumatic

reawakening,

hat

llows

her,

his ontainedwidow

from

White

lains,

to

"open up

the

bars

of her

body"

(PS,

p.

148)

so

that

her

mind

and

body

can be healed.

In

"Lave

Tete,"

the

bars

of

Avey's body

do

begin

to

open,

as

her

mind

wipes

tself lean. This section

egins

with

Avey's

dream f a soil-

ed

baby

who needs

changing, baby

which

Avey

discoverswhenshe


7/12

79

awakens,

s herself. he title f this ection eferso theHaitian

voodoo

ceremony

n

whichone is washed clean.3 t

is

an

appropriate

itle or

this

ection,

ince

n

reviewing

nd

assessing

her

past

Avey's

mind s

"like slate hathas

been

wipedclean,

tabula

rasa

upon

which

whole

new

history

ould be written."

PS,

p.

151)

She

is,

formuch of this

section,

child.

In

dressing

erself,

he acts

like

a two

year

old,

no

longer

oncernedwithhow she

looks.

Her walk down the

Grenadian

beach is like that

of

a

baby

seeing

ach

shell,

each

leaf,

each

tree,

for

the

first ime. t s the

eeminglyontradictory

tate,

n

whichhermind

is

suspended

o

her usual

reality,

yet optimally

wake to what

really

exists round

her,

hat

ives

her

he

feeling

f

being

child.This trance-

like state

of mind

moves her towardthechildhood

memories f

com-

munity

ituals hat orm he ore ofthis ection, ndtowardsher hild-

like

relationship

ithLebert

oseph,

he

dominant

erson

n

this ection.

After er

great

unt

Cuney,

old man

Joseph

s

Avey's guide

to

the

wholeness hat he

s

unconsciouslyeeking.

ike

her

great

unt,

Joseph

is "oneof

those ld

people

who

gave

the

mpression

f

having

ndergone

a

lifetimef trial

y

fire

which

hey

omehow

managed

o turn o their

own

good

in

the nd

. .

.

Old

people

who have the ssentials o

go

on

forever."

PS,

p.

161)

And

like

Cuney's

home

n

Tatum,

his Grenadian

"dirt loorunderAveyJohnson's eetfelt s hard and smooth s ter-

razzo and as cool."

(PS,

p.

159)

He is an

apt parent

for the bloated

Avey

who has lost her

footing

n

the

nurturing

round,

or,

ike

Aunt

Cuney,

he revers he Old

Parents,

nd is concernedwith

dentity

nd

its

relationship

o

continuity

nd

regeneration.

s

Aunt

Cuney

s her

spiritual

mother,

o this

old man

is her

spiritual

ather. ut theseOld

Parents have also been able to

go beyond

gender

and conflict o

something

eeper,

more essential.

Thus

Cuney

strides he field ike a

warriornherhusband'sbrogans ndLebert ancestheJuba n an im-

aginary

kirt.

Like a

parent,

ebert

Joseph

ives

Avey

shelter,

ustenance nd rest.

Partly,

because he

is

an

elder,

iving

n a

place

of

special

light

nd

silence,

partly

ecause

of herchild-like tateof

mind,

Avey

is able to

confess erdream

of theold aunt. Elders

n

Africa nd

in

New World

Black communities

re

knownfortheir

bility

o

interpret

reams.

t

is no wonderLebert

Joseph

s able

to

perform

hisfunction. ut what

is importanto thenovel's ritualistictructures thatAveymust ake

a

step

that

learly

divides

her recent

ast

fromher

present.

n

calling

herto theexcursion n

Carriacou,

n

calling

her

back to

Ibo

Landing,

Avey's "parents"

re

guiding

her to

a

deeper

state of

being

thatwas

always potentially

ers.

Thus,

ike

Cuney,

Lebert

s

willing

o

struggle

with the

Avey

Johnson

hiswidow

imagines

herself o

be:


8/12


9/12

81

Thus

Avey's body,

through

nausea and excretion

supposedly

shameful,

etthoroughly

atural

cts)

relieves

tself,

ven as

hermind

grasps

her

relationship

o

those round

her,

thoughhistory,memory,

experience.And bystressinghesimilarities etweenAfro-Caribbean

rituals,

hoseof

blacks

n

Tatum and

in New

York,

Marshall

helps

us

to see

the

nterrelatednessnd

depth

of the black

past. Avey

is

now

the oiled

baby,

thedreamwithwhich

his

ection

egan.

Now she can

be

washed

clean n mind

nd

body

and

pass

on to

thefinal

nd

deepest

level of the

ritual,

The

Beg

Pardon."

In

a real

sense,

the restof the novel is a

preparation

or "The

Beg

Pardon,"

heritual t the nd which s thenatural ontinuation fAunt

Cuney's

ritual

which

dominates

he

beginning

f the

book.

Thus this

section

begins

differently

rom he

other ections-not

with

disrup-

tion

n

Avey's

consciousness

ut with

description

f the

preparation

for he

ritual.Peace rather han

disruption ermeates

his

ection,

he

shortest ne

in

the book and the one most

rooted n the

present.

n

"Runagate,"

Sleeper's

Wake,"

and "Lave

Tete,"

much of the action

takes

place

in

Avey's

head and

in

relation o

her

person.

n

"The

Beg

Pardon,"

though

Avey

s still

ocal,

the

mphasis

s on a whole

people,

on their

xpression

f the inks between

he

present

nd the

past.

Still,

Avey

s a

novitiate,

nd must e

prepared

orherfirst

ig

Drum.

When she awakens

n

Carriacou,

her

body

feels s her

mind

had

felt

on her first

morning

n

Grenada:

"Flat,

numb,

emptied,

t had been

as

her mindwhen she awoke

yesterday

morning,

nable

to

recognize

anything

nd with he enseof a

yawning

ole whereher ifehad

once

been"

PS,

p. 214).

Likeher

mind,

her

body

must

e healed.The

bathing

rite,

he

aying

on of hands whichRosalie

Parvay performs

n

Avey

is sensual

n a

pleasureable

way,

as

Avey's expulsion

f

artificiality

s

sensual n a

horrifying

ay.

Centralto African itual s the

concept

that

he

body

and

spirit

re one.

Thus

sensuality

s essential

o the

pro-

cess of

healing

nd rebirth f the

pirit.

Just

s the

mothers n the

Em-

manuel C

shored

Avey's body up,

so Rosalie washes

her

body

as

if

she were

new-born,

tretching

er imbs he

way

she

did thoseof her

own childreno that heirimbswould

grow

traight.

he

bathing

itual

also takes

Avey through

hildhood o womanhood.

Rosalie kneads

her

thighs reating

he ensation hatradiates ut

intoher oins.

t is

only

then hatherbodybecomesthoroughlylive: "Allthetendons, erves

and muscles

which

trung

er

ogether

ad been truck

powerful

hord

and

the

reverberationould

be heard

n the

remotest

orners f

her

body"

(PS,

p.

224).

That

Avey

is

now

ready

to assume

her adult role

is

emphasizedby

Rosalie's

utterance,

Bon"

(Good),

the

same

word

that he

presiding

mothers

ad

uttered

ver the ickwidow

on theEm-

manuel

C.


10/12

82

The

slave

"runs,falls,

rises,

tumbles romdarkness o

darkness,"

in

Robert

Hayden'spoem.

Darknesswhichhas itsown

light

s

the on-

textfor the

Big

Drum in

Carriacou,

a land

which

for

Avey

is "more

a mirage han n actualplace" (PS, p. 254). LikeherdreamofTatum,

Carriacou

eems o have been

conjured

up

to

satisfy longing,

need.

Gone

is the sleek

whiteness

f the Bianca

Pride,

NorthWhite

Plains,

thewhitehotel

of

Grenada,

nd

in

ts

place

is

a

naturaldarkness.

And

climb

Avey

must,

withher

own

feet,

f he s

to

reachthe

healing

ircle

of

The

Big

Drum.

The ritual

which

Avey

observes,

imly

emembersnd then

articipates

in,

is

a

collective

rocess

of

begging ardon,

correct

aming,

elebra-

tionand honoring. t is also a ceremony hat combinesritualsfrom

several

lack

societies:

he

Ring

Dances of

Tatum,

he

Bojangles

f

New

York,

thevoodoo

drums

f

Haiti,

the

rhythms

f the

various

African

peoples

brought

o theNew World. Here elements re fused nd

pared

down to their

ssentials:

It was the

essence

of

something

ather han

the

hing

tself

he

was

witnessing"

PS,

p.

240).

But

t s

also

specifically

the mbodiment f the

history

nd culture

f New WorldBlacks.

Avey

hears

thenote that

distinguishes

fro-American

lues,

spirituals

nd

jazz, Afro-Caribbean alypso and Reggae,Brazilianmusic,a music

that

s

almost

non-music,

which

ounds

ike the

distillation

f a

thou-

sand

sorrow

songs

.."

The theme of

separation

and loss the note

embodied,

the

unacknowledged onging

t

conveyed

summed

up

feelings

hat

were

beyond

words,

feelings

nd a host of subliminalmemories

that verthe

years

had

proven

moredurable nd

trustworthy

han

thehistory ith tstrauma ndpainoutof which heyhadcome.

After enturies

f

forgetfulness

nd even

denial,

they

efused o

go away.

The

note

was

a lamentation

hat

ould

hardly

ave

come

from

he

rum

keg

of a drum. ts source had to be the

heart,

he

bruised

till-bleeding

nnermost hamber f thecollectiveheart.

(PS,

p.

245)

As

with he

music,

o too

with

he

dance,

o

pared

downto tsAfrican

essentials,

hat t

is

a

non-dance,

n

whichthe

body

is

unleashed,

but

the oles of

one's

feet

mustnever

eave

the

ground.

t s this

knowledge

of the

body

as

well

as

of themindthat

takes

Avey

across

to

thecon-

fraternity

he

had

once known

n the

Robert

ulton,

o the

Ring

Dances

of

Tatum,

the dances she shared

with her

husband,

the essence that

had

always

been there-"the shuffle

esigned

to

stay

the

course of

history"

PS,

p.

250).

That

Avey

now

recognizes

erself s

Avatara,

is also essential

o the

ritual,

for

n

African

osmology

t is

through


11/12

83

nommo,

hrough

hecorrect

aming

f a

thing,

hat

t comes

nto ex-

istence.

By knowing

her

proper

name,

Avey

becomes

herself.

Avey

Avatara

Johnson

must,

s we

all,

Beg

Pardon,

forher

xcesses,

if he s to be free nherselfnd intheworld.AndyettheBegPardon,

though

triumph

f

humility,

s not a humiliation.

As

Alice Walker

learnsfrom

er

mother

n

the

poem,

"Good

Night

WillieLee

. . . "so

Avey

finally

earns

from he Old Parents

that:

the

healing

of all our wounds

is

forgiveness

that

permits

promise

of our return

at

the end.4

Marshall's

novel is indeed a

praisesong:

t is an African

itual

hat

shows

the

relationship

etween

he ndividual nd the

community y

recounting

he ssence

f

a

life o that uture

enerationsmay

flourish.

It is a

praisesong,

not

only

for

Avey

Johnson,

ut

for the

perennial

Avey

Johnsons

n Afro-American

istory,

who

succumb

to the

"shameful tone

of

false

values,"only

to seek

theattunement

f

body

and

spirit

ecause

of an

insistent,

eemingly

rational

memory

fcol-

lectivity

nd wholeness.

Unlike

Toni Morrison's

keptical

Tar

Baby,

Marshall's

Praisesong

nsists

hatNew World

black rituals re

living

and

functional,

nd that

they

ontain,

whether

hey

re

in North

or

South

America,

n essential ruth: hat

beyond rationality,

he

body

and

spirit

must

not be

splitby

the "shameful

tone of false

values,"

thatwe must

feel,

with

humility,

the

nurturing

round

from

which

[we]

have

sprung

nd to

which

we]

can

always

turn

or ustenance."

Thus,

Paule

Marshall,

ike

Avey

Johnson,

mustcontinue he

process

by passing

on the rituals.

And

thisfunction

s

finally

he essence

of

her

praisesong.


12/12

84

Footnotes

1Paule

Marshall,

Praisesong

or

The

Widow

New

York: G.P. Put-

nam'sSons, 1983), p. 201. Subsequentreferencesre included n the

text.

2For

general tudy

f African

osmology,

ee

John

Mbiti,

African

Religions

nd

Philosophy

New

York:

Doubleday/Anchor,

970).

For

a

study

of ritual n African

iterature,

ee Wilfred

artey,

Whispers

From

a

Continent

New

York:

Vintage,

1969).

3

For a

general study

of

Haitian

Voodoo,

see Michel

Laguerre's

works,

especially

Voodoo

Heritage

Sage

Press, 1976).

4AliceWalker,"Good Night,WillieLee, I'll See You inThe Morn-

ing,"

Good

Night,

Willie

Lee,

I'll

See

You

in The

Morning

New

York:

Dial

Press,

1979).

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