Author: Francie Nolan

   Throughout Cereus Blooms at Night, nature is often used to convey morals or portray characters in a certain light. “Mala’s companions were the garden’s birds, insects, snails and reptiles” (Mootoo 127). In this passage, the living things Mala is described to be friends with are organisms that which most people are disgusted by. All of these creatures are viewed as dirty, useless, and inconvenient, yet Mala gives them love. She takes care of things that others do not think about. This could reflect her own experience with others misunderstanding her. Mala, rumored to be a murderer, gets tossed aside by practically all other faculty besides Tyler. Mala also gets forgotten by members of her family. These creatures symbolize their connecting with misunderstanding and abandonment. Earlier in the novel, Ambrose describes Mala as a “protector of snails and all things unable to defend themselves from the bullies of the world” (Mootoo 119). Because these creatures are not well-liked, they are often vulnerable. This passage portrays the creatures as vulnerable—the protected—, and Mala as powerful—the protector.

   I believe these creatures Mala cares for reflect her own vulnerability to her father’s abuse. In a way, Mala is attempting to protect herself by moving this idea into other habits in her life. Because Mala understands things like abuse, misunderstanding, and abandonment, she relates to these creatures others hate so much. Perhaps Mootoo is suggesting that often it is those who suffer that are the most charitable because they have true empathy. Those who suffer are those we will find protecting others.

I chose to use Written on the Body to look at The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo through the lens of queer theory. Throughout Written on the Body, readers call into question the narrator’s gender. There are what society would call contradicting clues, clues that could potentially give the narrator’s gender away—if the narrator identifies with one at all—but said clues are never consistent. This absence of gender also makes for an absence of sexuality. Is the narrator’s relationship with Louise a heterosexual one? A same-sex one? Neither? This is what I would like to attempt to apply to Lizbeth’s sexuality from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Perhaps Winterson did not include the narrator’s gender or sexuality to make a point about the unimportance of them. Not in a sense that gender and sexuality aren’t valuable parts of a person’s identity, but that from an objective point of view, they should not matter. In The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, we are made aware of Lizbeth’s fluid—and very active—sexuality towards the beginning of the novel. She has had many lovers, mostly female. However, she also begins a sexual relationship with Blomkvist. The novel does not make Lizbeth’s sexuality something of importance, however the audience seems to have an inherent need to analyze it.

To go even further, both Winterson and Larsson could not only be making a statement about the objective unimportance of gender and sexuality, but also about society’s need for labels. When a person begins to struggle with their sexuality, they often attempt to fit it into one of the boxes society has created for queer persons (These persons are queer, why are we trying to box them again? This goes against the definition of queer.). This is because society has not only taught this person that being queer is not normal, but that this person now must name themselves so the rest of society can judge them based off of that name. We are afraid of the unknown, the anonymous. Perhaps this could formulate into why other characters from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo fear Lizbeth.

“She would have bound me to her with ropes and had us lie face to face unable to move but move on each other, unable to feel but feel each other. She would have deprived us of all senses bar the sense of touch and smell. In a blind, deaf and dumb world we could conclude our passion infinitely. To end would be to begin again” (Winterson 162).

   During this part of the novel, Louise is asking the narrator of her loyalty to her. The narrator then muses about all the things Louise would do to keep them together. There are repetitive phrases in the passage, but most importantly is the phrase—repeated twice, “She would have” (Winterson 162). This set of words portrays Louise as the active party, and with the descriptive actions that come after each phrase, portrays the narrator as the passive party. This may be the narrator attempting to prove to readers that Louise would go further than they would to keep them together, as a defense for their affair altogether. However, this active versus passive language also seems somewhat accusatory. In many marital affairs, the outside party is often blamed more than the married person. Here, the narrator makes it seem as though Louise chased them, as though the narrator is helpless because Louise “bound me to her with ropes” (Winterson 162). This part especially depicts Louise as an almost villain, as someone who ties people up so she may have her way with them. In this passage, Louise appears to take something away from herself and the narrator, but this absence adds something to their relationship. First, she takes away the ability to move away from each other. But the narrator adds that they would be “unable to feel but feel each other” (Winterson 162). The narrator continues, and after stating Louise “would have deprived us of all senses but bar the sense of touch and smell” (Winterson 162), states “In a blind, deaf and dumb world we could conclude our passion infinitely” (Winterson 162). This gives readers the idea that although Louise would strip herself and the narrator of different abilities, that they would still be able to enjoy their relationship in a different way, as though their relationship could evolve during any challenge. The narrator goes on to describe the world Louise would create if she “deprived us of all senses bare the sense of touch and smell” (Winterson 162). This part made me think of what it would be like to be buried as a corpse—what it would be like to be dead. The narrator may be making a small hint at Louise’s possibly fatal illness, especially when they say, “To end would be to begin again” (Winterson 162). The end of the passage seems to refer to the novel as a whole, to the issue of their affair and it’s seeming end as a whole. The narrator appears to almost be saying that dying may relieve all of the pain they and Louise are experiencing, that even in death their relationship could go on.

“In the heat of her hands I thought, This is the campfire that mocks the sun. This place will warm me, feed me and care for me. I will hold on to this pulse against other rhythms. The world will come and go in the tide of a day but here is her hand with my future in its palm” (Winterson 51).

In this passage, the narrator describes her love for Louise. The narrator first describes Louise’s hands as “the campfire that mocks the sun” (Winterson 51). Campfires are scenes of happiness, because they are surrounded by family and friends, a place where people bond. Although you can feel the sun’s warmth from afar, you cannot gather around it like people can a campfire. The narrator goes on to claim that Louise’s hands “will warm me, feed me and care for me” (Winterson 51). This list of words gives a feeling of home, almost in a mothering sense. Most people feel safe in places they are familiar with, home being the most familiar. Here, the narrator is also insinuating that Louise is all they could possibly need, because she provides for them. Next, the narrator states they will “hold on to this pulse against other rhythms” (Winterson 51). The first meaning that comes to mind is Louise’s pulse, which the narrator can most likely feel while holding her hands. A pulse is a sign of life, and because the narrator will hold onto it “against other rhythms” deems Louise’s life as a priority, as something especially important to the narrator. A pulse also makes readers think of the organ that controls it: Louise’s heart. The narrator states they will always hold onto this, and love Louise more than anyone else—-the “other rhythms” (Winterson 51). Finally, the narrator plays with time, stating that the “world will come and go in the tide of a day but here is her hand with my future in its palm” (Winterson 51). Here, the narrator implies that their love for Louise will last forever and that nothing can break it. Anything could happen “in the tide of a day” (Winterson 51) but the narrator will always love Louise, because, so to speak, Louise has the narrator in the palm of her hand.