Frances Temple
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Frances Temple, in the novel Taste of Salt, explores the oppression of two characters involved in the fight for justice in Haiti. As much as the story is about the struggle of Djo and Jeremie, it is also about the power of stories to change people and situations for the better. The novel may be about Haiti specifically, but it is a multicultural work in the sense that its power as an account of courage and faith cuts across all cultures, nations and nationalities. This study will focus on that courage and faith of the two heroes of the book insofar as their story and their strength offer hope to people of all cultures in their personal and political fight for justice and freedom. Djo's story is told to Jeremie and her tape recorder at the behest of Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is trying to oust the military dictatorship of the country and bring justice and mercy to the poor people of Haiti. At the beginning of that story Djo remembers a lesson from his father in multiculturalism. Djo sees a peculiar painting of Jesus on the wall and asks his father, "Why do that man look so sick, like his eyes rolled back like he go into a fit?" His father answers: "In the picture Jesus just going into a trance. It is because he is the Go-between, going between the true spirit and the human beings like we-all. Beyond him, behind the picture, be spirit. Beyond him be Damballah. . . . Spirit of life. . . . Damballah is god in Guinee Africa and here in Haiti, too (11).
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Titid trouble with all these good-for-nothing boys?" Djo answers his own question:
I think maybe without us Titid would fly away with his too much braininess. The way he grab the hair of a small boy, or lock his elbow around my neck sometime, I know we are not mostly trouble for Titid. We are family. . . . We are family and also team (24-25).
This sense of family and team is perhaps the most important point of the book from a multicultural perspective. The divisions in the world between haves and have-nots, between political factions, between societies and nations and cultures and races--these divisions are the source of most of the misery in the world. The message from Temple about the need for family and teamwork is meant to minimize these differences for the sake of productive rather than destructive lives: "All you shoeshine boys, you car-shine boys, you street boys, you could make a club and help one another" (20).
The title of the book has to do with awakening from the sleep of ignorance. Specifically, it refers to the taste of salt which will supposedly awaken a person from a state of zombiehood, thereby allowing the former zombie to attain knowledge and freedom. For the purposes of Temple's portrayal of life among
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1681
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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