Blooms Literary Themes - THE TRICKSTER.pdf - ymerleksi - home

182
Toni Morrison and Paule Marshall
of past and present, though achieved through dreams and memory, is a
conscious adaptation of the concept of time in the African worldview.
In that view, time is cyclical but centered on the past. Just as there is
a profound and necessary connection between present activity and the
past, the future is conceived only with reference to the past. As Dominique
Zahan explains, “what is” and “what will be” achieve meaning
only as they blend into “what already was.”
Being oriented towards the past, the African fi nds the
justifi cation and meaning of his actions not in the future but
in time already elapsed. . . .“I do this because my forefathers did
it. And they did it because our ancestor did it.” Th e profound
and necessary connection between present activity and the past
thus appears. Th e aim is to trace the present from the past and
thereby justify it. 17
Th us, while Avey is “dragged forward” to a future, to the fulfi lling
of the mission entrusted to her by Aunt Cuney, she is dragged in
the “direction of the Landing,” that is, to the past, to her familial,
communal, and ancestral past.
As the journey back is initiated by Avey’s family ancestor calling
her back to Ibo Landing, the fi nal return is achieved by Lebert Joseph,
a communal ancestor, who the narrator describes as one of those
“old people who have the essentials to go on forever.” Th e “essentials”
Lebert represents, in the scheme of this novel, are the fundamentals
of continuity: the vigilant safeguarding of the customs and traditions
that mark identity along with a vital concern for human regeneration
and healing. 18 Recognizing and understanding Avey’s spiritual
and psychic dis-ease, Lebert Joseph, from the fi rst drink of coconut
water and rum he gives her in his shop, undertakes the responsibility
of helping her to “cross over.” But as Avey resists her Aunt Cuney’s
call back, she also resists Lebert’s invitation to join the excursion.
Th e resistance to Lebert’s call is ineff ectual, for like the Ibos, Lebert
has “special powers of seeing and knowing.” He intuits and meets
Avey’s objections before “they were even born in her thoughts.” And
she is weary. “She felt exhausted as if she and the old man had been
fi ghting—actually, physically fi ghting, knocking over the tables and
chairs in the room as they battled with each other” (184).