As I scratched the surface of the pink book, it revealed a brilliant shine similar to na Hala’s rough pebbles. The story seems to occur on different levels, the surface story being the lives of the Norvals, their adopted Spanish child and the people around them. Gossip surrounds the adoption of Lola. Some link the increasing acquisition of the Norval’s wealth to the possibility that Lola directed them to gold. Reverend Hackwell contributes to more talk about the family through his sermons.
The novel is filled with all sorts of communication. Perhaps it is the author’s conscious choice that the story begins with a conversation between Reverend Hackwell and Reverend Hammerhead. But perhaps the unspoken should be given more attention to what is said.
Dr. Norval had asked Lebrun to transcribe the final words of Lola’s Mother. The letter gets lost and ends up in the dead-letter office. Isaac, Dr. Norval’s brother-in-law, stumbles upon the letter and decides to keep it.
A series of questions surrounded the disappearance of the letter in my head. It is almost too coincidental that a series of Isaac’s misfortunes ultimately leads to his discovery of the letter. At certain times, the author also makes her presence known for the second time by writing “[w]e will give a whole chapter to her patriotism in due” (69) despite the novel being written from a third person’s perspective.
The close proximity between the association between omnipotence of the narrator and God makes the author’s interventions almost seem miraculous. Perhaps it mirrors confusion. Is it the parent’s decision to choose the religion for the child?
The brilliance of the novel is seen through underlying layers of questions as such. Because of Lola’s dark complexion, Mrs. Norval automatically assumes that she is only either of African or Indian descent. She does not take into account any other race that falls in the non-white category nor is she interested in finding out. But perhaps the bigger question is that of class. Does social standing (defined by wealth) matter more than race or gender? Mrs. Norval was willing to be Lola’s servant after seeing the gold, diamond and opals. She even entertained the idea of being Lola’s mother-in-law. Perhaps on the same level, Dr. Norval thinks class is the bigger discrimination as well. He says that through Lola’s wealth, the color of her skin will melt and she will find a suitable husband.
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3 comments:
Your comment about Mrs. Norval not even considering another 'non-white' race for Lola is very true. It makes me wonder if many non-black, non-indian 'immigrants' were in New England at the time. If no, then it certainly explains much of Mrs. Norval's closed-mindedness. Her experiences don't seem to go much past her small hometown. The majority of the characters in the story seem only concerned with their petty yearnings and don't really look at the big picture.
Also, I enjoyed the final sentence in your comment of how the doctor views Lola concerning class, but I think that he should have a little credit in that he sees her more for her 'inner beauty' and was quite taken back by her unharnessed show of affection, which he was certainly lacking in his home life. He and Julian may be the only ones who don't see her for her money.
I haven't been able to read the book yet, but I wanted to say I think your post was excellent. I like the way you write and it made me anticipate reading the text its self.
Well, yeah, I think in the end, race is an arbitrary way to categorize people. The only reason it was (and still is) used as such is because it is visible (however, genetic research has shown that there is more genetic diversity between certain black ethnic groups than between these black groups and other white groups - so race isn't an accurate measure of genetic differences). Money, on the other hand, is not arbitrary. Because money equals power, this is what shows the true standing of people in society. This is sad, but universal. Great comment about the relation between social standing and race (as this question exists very much today).
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