{"id":2102,"date":"2022-10-28T00:18:56","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T04:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=2102"},"modified":"2022-10-28T00:19:31","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T04:19:31","slug":"taking-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2022\/10\/28\/taking-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cPohPoh bent her body forward and, as though doing a breast stroke, began to part the air with her arms. Each stroke took her higher until she no longer touched the ground…\u00a0 She practiced making perfect, broad circles, like a frigate bird splayed out against the sky in an elegant V. Down below, her island was soon lost among others, all as shapeless as specks of dust adrift on a vast turquoise sea.\u201d (Mootoo 186). <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Throughout Shani Mootoo\u2019s novel <\/span>Cereus Blooms at Night<\/span><\/i>, nature and escape are persistent themes working in conjunction with each other. Mala, the protagonist, is first abandoned by her mother and aunt, then by her community (which turns a blind eye to her abusive father), then her sister Asha, and finally, her lover Ambrose. With each instance of abandonment, Mala is left behind as the only source of protection for herself and those she loves. Despite constantly sacrificing her safety for the well-being of others, her support structure gradually erodes until she is eventually left entirely on her own.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mala\u2019s relationship with nature traces the abandonment she experiences. As she becomes more isolated living with her abusive father, she increasingly turns to nature as a means of escape and protection. While each of her loved ones escaped by physically leaving, abandoning Mala in the process, Mala escapes by becoming engrossed in the natural world. This begins after her mother and Aunt Lavinia flee, then drastically progresses \u2013 Mala collects natural elements, saves animals and bugs, lets her yard become overgrown, and begins to speak entirely with bird sounds. The culmination of this intertwining relationship between escape and nature seemingly occurs within the above passage, when Mala imagines seeing a younger version of herself named PohPoh take flight.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The act of flying is so commonly associated with escape that phrases such as \u201ctaking flight\u201d are understood to mean fleeing a situation. While the imagery of PohPoh lifting off the ground and soaring through the sky certainly generates this association, it is the leisure of her actions that indicates her escape is a final, permanent state. She \u201cpracticed\u201d flying in circles until they were \u201cperfect,\u201d which suggests freedom of time and a lack of pressure from outside sources (Mootoo 186). As she flies, she observes that Lantanacamara, the site of her entire life and all of her troubles, was \u201clost\u201d like \u201cspecks of dust,\u201d revealing how far removed \u2013 physically and mentally \u2013 she now is from her past life (Mootoo 186). Her home becomes rapidly inconsequential as she imagines her younger self flying away, escaping forever.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This scene can be viewed as Mala freeing a younger version of herself, one who she wished had received protection during her actual lifetime, by releasing her into the natural world. By using a simile to compare PohPoh to a \u201cfrigate bird,\u201d this passage emphasizes how Mala copes with traumatic situations by escaping into nature (Mootoo 186). The comparison of PohPoh to frigate birds is symbolic, as they are known for flying in tropical climates at high altitudes. This once again suggests that Mala has released a part of herself to be fully free and distanced from her past traumas. Additionally, it alludes to Mala\u2019s extensive knowledge of the natural world and her final transformation into a part of this environment. By imagining herself as a frigate bird, Mala gives herself the protection she wishes she had received as a child. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPohPoh bent her body forward and, as though doing a breast stroke, began to part the air with her arms. Each stroke took her higher until she no longer touched the ground…\u00a0 She practiced making perfect, broad circles, like a frigate bird splayed out against the sky in an elegant V. Down below, her island … Continue reading Taking Flight<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4998,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169404],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2022-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4998"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}