Dit artikel is een essay geen verslag.

?How does the title relate to the story??

I read ?crossing the river? by Caryl Phillips. It was not easy to find a good title for my essay because the book consists of 4 separate parts and these parts do not really have anything to do with each other. Or do they? Since I had a really hard time determining that, I thought it might be interesting to try to figure that out on my own. The title must obviously have something to do with the book, so I think it will be represented in all 4 parts. I will try to figure out if that is true.
Crossing the river has to do with black people fighting for their freedom. It has to do with slavery and the differences between black and white. That is what the book is about of course only the writer creates different situations in each separate story, which makes it more interesting to read, but it also shows you different aspects of ?crossing the river?.
In the introduction to the story the so-called ?father? tells the reader about how he sold his three children: Nash, Martha and Travis. (A desperate foolishness. The crops failed. I sold my children.) When you first read the introduction you have no idea what to do with it. You can?t even really determine what he is saying. You have no clue who is speaking and what he is speaking about. You don?t really get to know this either until you have finished the book.
The first story is titled ?The Pagan Coast?. The story is about Nash. Nash Williams is a very loyal slave. His master is Edward Williams and he is a very generous master. He made it possible for all his slaves to get an education. Now, the reason that most slaves wanted to break free and ?cross the river? is that they were treated so terribly. With Nash it was different. He was treated very well, so you might expect that he does not feel the need to go away. And he does not for a long time but finally he does decide to go. He throws away everything he has in America so he can go back to his roots and live very primitive. This shows that no matter how the slaves were treated, good or bad, they would rather live together with less luxury than live apart with more luxury. So you can conclude that they feel very close to people of there own kind. Why else would you go back to your original country, where you have never been and don?t know anybody, if you have a good life somewhere else, where you do know people. To me this shows how very strong their cultural feelings were. (The town of Monrovia is well-watered and timbered, and if a person could have a little capital he would do very well. A colored person can enjoy his liberty in this place, for there exists no prejudice of color and every man is free and equal.)
In the second part of the book is totally different from the first story. The part is titled ?West?. This story is about Martha. Martha did really ?cross the river?, more than once even. Here is an example of a women that had to fight for freedom and had to suffer the consequences of slavery. She was once a slave with a husband slave and a baby slave, until they were all sold and separated. When Martha?s second master tells her that she will have to be sold again, she decides to escape. That?s when she has to ?cross the river? and she heads west. She ends up in a little town where she is lucky enough to find a man that will help her out. The difference between Martha and Nash is that Martha has to keep working to stay alive. That?s what I mean with she really had to cross that river and it is like she will stay close to that water for the rest of her life and if she is not careful she will fall right back in there. Because of the simple fact that if she doesn?t succeed on her own she will have to go back and work as a slave. That is also why she keeps on moving. Another reason for her strong will, that makes her fight so hard, is that little bit of hope in the back of her mind that one day she might see her daughter again. A lot of slaves back then probably always kept dreaming of one day maybe being reunited with their children. That is something that really kept them going. (Eliza Mae was once again back in her mind, not that her lost child had ever truly vanished. Perhaps her girl-child had pioneered west?) I think Martha has been through a lot more than Nash has and that this is definitely a different kind of ?crossing the river?.
The fourth story is titled ?Somewhere in England?. The story is about Joyce and Travis. Joyce lives in England and she lives in a time where there is no more slavery. What makes Joyce kind of a slave though is the way that the people of the town treat her. First of all she is married to a jerk that treats her like she is so much lower than he is. This is comparable to the way slaves were treated. Secondly the people that live in her town treat her the same way. They are always talking about her and none of them want to know her. They just pretend that she is never there. Joyce obviously is very aware of this but she doesn?t really care. She just does her own thing and pretends she doesn?t even notice it. I think Joyce could be seen as a person that doesn?t try to ?cross the river?. She is unhappy but she doe not do anything about it. (It?s autumn. I?ve been here two years now. I?ve resigned myself to the fact that I won?t ever like it. But at least I don?t pretend.) Maybe it is because she is white and she doesn?t have that strong cultural feeling, besides people that do this to her are white people how could she cross the river?
Then she meets Travis, who is a black soldier from America. The funny thing is that Joyce can really relate to him and he is the only person she has ever really felt comfortable with. The other funny part is that Travis isn?t treated differently because he is black. So you could see this as Joyce kind of ?crossing the river? when she meets Travis because he brings her freedom and Travis has never really needed to ?cross the river? because he is a soldier and because of that an American hero. I do think the Travis also crossed the river while being with Joyce because she brought him that feeling of happiness like he brought her that same feeling.
In the end I think ?crossing the river? is like looking for the place, person, situation where you feel free, happy and complete. I realise that this is a pretty broad explanation for it, but that is the way I see it after reading this book. I also think that there are many other explanations for it and most of them are probably correct. But in this book this is what it seems to stand for.
Finally, I left part three out on purpose, because this part is very different from the other three parts and I think the explanation for the ?father? and the three children is in this part. Part three is titled ?Crossing the River? and this is the part where it all starts. Part three is a diary of the master of a ship, James Hamilton. He is at see for a long time and he keeps track of all his actions. He is a white man and he is one of those men that buy and sell slaves. In his diary you really see how different slaves were bought and then sold again. You see how they are spread over the world and separated like it is nothing. The master and his crew don?t even think about it. At the end of part three master buys three new slaves. (Approached by a quiet fellow. Bought 2 strong man-boys, and a proud girl.) That?s where part three ends. I think these last three slaves were Nash, Travis and Martha. They were bought together so that?s why they are seen as brothers and sister. Still that doesn?t make very much sense because they were all about the same age then, in 1753, and Nash lived around 1820, Martha lives during the Wild West period and Travis lives round 1940 the wartime in Europe. So these 3 children were not necessarily Nash, Travis and Martha, but they were ancestors. So in a way Caryl Phillips reflects the meaning of ?crossing the river? over a long period of time, 250 years.
Now the ?father? of course can?t be the same father then. I think the father in this book represents God, because he was watching when all this was going on. And that?s why they are ?his children? even thought they lived in different times.