The Kingdom of This World Study Guide

The Kingdom of This World

The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier

Reactionary vs. revolutionary

The Kingdom of This World has a deep focus on the nature of revolution, and the novel itself can be viewed as a reflection of Carpentier's ideological perspective towards revolutions. Carpentier tries to establish the idea that a distinction must be made between revolutions and reactions. While a revolution produces progress, a reaction does not.

In the novel, the Afro-Caribbean slave population violently react to the oppressive regime imposed on them by the French colonials. The end result of this armed reaction is the emergence of a brutal regime in which the oppressed become the oppressors. Sadly, the leaders of the newly produced regime fail to break the mold imposed by the French colonials. The ruling Afro-Caribbeans end up enslaving and oppressing their own kind and the resulting social situation is devoid of any progress. Carpentier's perspective on the Haitian revolution is revealed in the way that he portrays the cyclical nature of reactionary violence.

Hybridization

Hybridization, or the formation of a hybrid identity, is a theme commonly found in texts that deal with cultural differences. The theory of hybridization was originally developed by Homi K. Bhabha in an effort to explain the effects of interacting cultures. Bhabha's theory contends that, through the process of what he refers to as cultural translation, the interactions between two distinct cultures result in the formation of a hybrid identity. As the word "hybrid" suggests, the new identity is a mix of the two original cultures and the end result is a new unique cultural entity.

In The Kingdom of This World, Carpentier writes about the struggles and conflicts that arise between the French colonials and the Afro-Caribbean population in Haiti during a time of revolution. Carpentier's prose is rich with examples of hybridization. One of the most striking examples is found in the chapter titled "San Trastorno," where black priests combine Voodoo and Catholic religious practices to form a hybridized religious entity. The hybridized religious entity can be viewed as heretical since it is a blasphemous, bastardized departure from both pure Voodoo and Catholic practices. Carpentier also has a tendency to hybridize many other components of his novel. The titles of the chapters themselves provide further examples of hybridization. Carpentier creatively chose chapter titles that had a well established connotative significance and distorted their meaning. For instance, the chapter titled "Las metamorfosis," does not tell the mythic stories of Ovid, but rather speaks of the metamorphosis of the slave Mackandal.

Carpentier's fascination with the notion of hybridity, and the associated cultural distortion is inevitably a reflection of his own search for a cultural identity. During his time in Paris, there was a profound public interest in the Americas. Although well versed in the French surrealist tradition and possessing a deep mastery of the French language, Carpentier never fully identified himself as a French writer. Instead, he preferred to define himself as a Spanish American writing in French. Furthermore, Carpentier was known to shuttle between claiming French or Spanish as his mother tongue, which further illustrated his cultural indecisiveness. In the end, due to his conflicting cultural influences, Carpentier's own feelings of being somewhat of a hybrid entity himself are mirrored in his prose.

Nature

Mackandal has expert knowledge of the nature of the forest, using its herbs and fungi as weapons against the planters. The ecological landscape of Haiti is used to represent the wreckage of the Revolution, being initially described as fertile and bountiful with the plantations, but later as worn down and bare. The powerful climate of the Caribbean is more similar to Africa than Europe, making nature an ally of the slaves. Natural elements also act on their own, with Henri Christophe's Citadel being attacked by fungi and thunderstorms before its completion.

Voodoo

Although Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a pivotal figure in the Haitian Revolution, is barely mentioned in the novel, the one page dedicated to him emphasizes his connection to African gods while neglecting to mention any of his other features that made him an effective leader. While Dessaline's belief in African gods is highlighted, Henri Christophe's abandonment of the religion is stressed, being identified as the reason for his downfall.

The drum is the main feature of Voodoo in the novel, always accompanying the slaves. Drums, including conch shells and even thunder, announce all the armed revolts by the blacks and serve as a means of communication during war.

Contrast between black and white ethnicities

Carpentier’s historical account is greatly simplified in order to increase the contrast between the white land owners and their black slaves. The marvellous, one of the most notable features of the novel, is used as a marker of contrast between the two groups: firstly, because mention of the magical alwaystakes the form of the slaves' point of view, while the more real interpretation of each event is from the whites' perspective; secondly, because the marvellous is used as a weapon to fight injustice. Instances of cruelty and violence between the groups are recounted grotesquely in great detail, which enhances the rivalry.

History and destiny

A sense of destiny is present in the novel through patterns of repetition, including reversals of destiny in a number of characters. Characters who are paired together tend to suffer the same destiny: Ti Noel and Monsieur Lenormand de Mezy both witness the marvels of the age and slowly decline; both Pauline and Solimán indulge in their wealthy positions and then sink into madness. There is a clear pattern of succession from fortune to misfortune.

There is a socio-political cycle of order and disorder where, regardless of who is in power, the same injustices take place: when the blacks take control, they betray their own traditions and follow the example of European states. By means of these repeated scenarios, history is presented as a cyclical re-enactment of the same human dilemmas.

Confusion

The theme of confusion appears through the transplantation of characters from one world to another, for example from the characters' childhood culture to the one imposed upon them as occurs in The Kingdom of This World . Often, the characters find that reality does not lie entirely in either world. It is possible that this theme is well-developed in Alejo Carpentier's work because of the author's own personal experience with cultural transplantation (Carpentier grew up in Havana but later moved to France for six years and travelled extensively).

Violence and sexuality

The brutality of the Spanish American dictatorship is omnipresent in The Kingdom of This World through the images of torture, fire, suppression, and hungry dogs for example. Carpentier's characters often find consolation in sexuality (which is closely related to the sadism of the violence theme) after experiencing violence.

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