Island Beneath the Sea

Content Warning: This section includes outdated racial descriptors quoted from the source text.

“‘Dance, dance, Zarité, the slave who dances is free…while he is dancing,’ he told me. I have always danced.”

The novel traces Tété’s search for freedom in a social and political sense. Paradoxically, this early passage quoting her friend and mentor, Honoré, suggests that she was always free in some sense, as exemplified in her love of dance. Freedom of movement and spontaneity of expression, which are intrinsic to Tété’s kind of dancing, symbolize the freedom she longs for and experiences only in fragments throughout much of her life.

“Usually Violette did not notice slaves—with the exception of Loula, she thought of them as merchandise—but that little creature evoked her sympathy. They were alike in some ways. […] Violette intuited her strength of character.”

Violette takes notice of Tété because she sees some of herself in the young girl. Although Violette is not concerned about slavery in general at this point, this passage demonstrates that empathy with those who are enslaved, rather than the dehumanization common at the time, leads her to act in what she views as Tété’s best interest. Of course, Violette’s view of what is best for Tété is skewed by the normalization of slavery.

“This is how I remember it.”

Throughout the novel, Tété’s chapters are stylistically distinct, as they are both italicized and written in first person, perhaps suggesting that they are a scripted record of oral recollections. Many of these chapters end with this exact statement or one like it, reminding readers that Tété is describing events through the imperfect lens of memory.