Cereus Blooms at Night

In Shani Mootoo’s Cereus Blooms at Night, nature is as interwoven into the narrative as the characters themselves, and the character in whom nature comes alive most fervidly is the town's alleged mad woman, Mala Ramchandin. This “madness” originates from Mala’s childhood, when her mother leaves her and her father begins sexually, physically, and mentally abusing her, and this “craziness” continues after Mala supposedly kills her sadistic father. As a result, Mala's hearsay-loving, scandal-inducing

In Cereus Blooms at Night, Mala’s relationship with language, time, space, and species is explained through a narrative form that creates a literary strategy that represents trauma though the idea that death feeds life. This specific narrative form began in a series of passages that surround the moment when Mala relived a traumatic experience. In these passages, Mootoo’s diction changed in order to reveals this new narrative form. Mootoo began to switch from describing Mala as an individual to describing

with sexuality as a form of citizenship and the way in which that perception of women leads to unfortunate normalities when looking at how sexual violence is perceived through the law and through society. On the other hand, Shani Mootoo’s “Cereus Blooms at Night” translates these perceptions into a fictional story that shows sexual violence in the forefront of the plot. In doing so, the reader emotionally visualizes the harm of the act and the mobility of those who surround a victim and his/her abuser

Cereus is s strange plant from the cactus family with a beautiful white flower that only blooms at night. It can remain dormant for years with no beauty. It appears lifeless in the heat of the dessert. However, something is taking place that cannot be seen under the adverse conditions. During the summer months it blooms only at night in its entire splendor and last for a day. As I think of the Cereus, I think of our Christian life. We go through dessert experiences when the heat of adversity

The irony of the fact that he was doing such dangerous and masculine activities with a man who was secretly his lover perfectly exemplifies the complex nature of the book as a whole. Additionally, the imagery of the jungle is important. The jungle, where the men would go to be together represented the wild and carnal undeveloped human needs, and also their primal sexual desires. While they were hunting in the novel, the use of imagery made it represent much more than that. The jungle also becomes

The first chapter of The Bean Trees opens up to our protagonist Marietta who lives in a small town of Kentucky named Pittman. She gets the idea to leave home and head west. Her mother consults her about her decision and tells her to stay but Marietta ignores her request and leaves Pittman. Marietta decides to change her name to Taylor as she is starting a new life. On her adventure she stops at a bar to pick up coffee and continue her drive. While Taylor is leaving the bar a woman gives her an Indian