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Maryse Conde's Windward Heights is filled with opposing forces. Set in the tropical melting p... more Maryse Conde's Windward Heights is filled with opposing forces. Set in the tropical melting pot of the Caribbean, Conde creates a region which is embroiled in constant dichotomies--white versus black, rich versus poor, and perhaps most fundamental to our understanding of the novel, Christianity versus Vodou. For readers unfamiliar with the Vodou religion, the intense battle between Christianity and Vodou loses its overwhelming significance. Certainly, many of the references to Vodou are often indirect, a single word or phrase inserted in the text never to be mentioned again. To understand the complexity of religion in Windward Heights, the reader must play an active role in the text and examine three distinct influences on the novel. First, the reader must draw from the usual method of examining historical and religious sources. A greater understanding of contemporary Caribbean literature is also required, including earlier works by Conde as well as the works of Derek Walcott, M...
Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, 2013
African American Review, Sep 22, 2011
African American Review, 2011
Maryse Conde's Windward Heights is filled with opposing forces. Set in the tropical melting p... more Maryse Conde's Windward Heights is filled with opposing forces. Set in the tropical melting pot of the Caribbean, Conde creates a region which is embroiled in constant dichotomies--white versus black, rich versus poor, and perhaps most fundamental to our understanding of the novel, Christianity versus Vodou. For readers unfamiliar with the Vodou religion, the intense battle between Christianity and Vodou loses its overwhelming significance. Certainly, many of the references to Vodou are often indirect, a single word or phrase inserted in the text never to be mentioned again. To understand the complexity of religion in Windward Heights, the reader must play an active role in the text and examine three distinct influences on the novel. First, the reader must draw from the usual method of examining historical and religious sources. A greater understanding of contemporary Caribbean literature is also required, including earlier works by Conde as well as the works of Derek Walcott, M...
Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, 2013
African American Review, Sep 22, 2011
African American Review, 2011