A story of loss: link between initial loss,

loneliness and life changes in Caryl Phillips's

Heartland, first part of the novella

Higher Ground

Through the majority of Caryl Phillips's novels, the theme of the loss is nearly each time exploited. His characters frequently suffer an initial loss which causes a spate of other losses all story long. These losses are also always linked to a situation of loneliness and a wish to find back something which would be a substitute for the initial loss. A change occurs then always in the character's life, which can be a good as well as a bad change.

That's how, in Cambidge, Emily loses her father and her friend Isabella at the beginning of the novel, is left on her own in the plantation of her father, and finishes abandoned with one child at the end of the novel but, even so, succeeds in finding a substitute for Isabella in Stella. The same situation is to be considered for the main character of Heartland, first of the three stories of Higher Ground, when the initial loss of his family and his homeland puts him in a situation of loneliness and presses him to search in the Head Master's daughter a substitute to these losses. Rudolph, in The Cargo Rap, loses all physical contact with his family and even the whole world and suffers the loneliness of prison life which leads him, by the mean of writing, to attempt changing his family's way of thinking and acting and leads himself on the road of madness. Finally, Irene, the Polish refugee of Higher Ground, also suffers loneliness due to the loss of her homeland and her family (remember that she loses her last remaining photograph of her family when Mrs McEnzie disappears with it) and then has to suffer the exile after having escaped the Nazis on a children's transport to England. She then faces changes in her life represented explicitely through his change of first name from Irene to Irina. But not only the main characters of Phillips's novels are driven by this plan of action of loss and solitude leading to changes of all kind, for almost all the characters seem to be driven by it.

So, in Higher Ground, Caryl Phillips presents three stories of loss based on the loss of family and country, causing loneliness and leading to a major loss, the loss of sanity approaching to madness for Rudolph and Irine, the loss of dignity for the main characters of Heartland, first of the three parts of the novel on which I'll base this essay.

The main character

Many of the losses that occur in the life of the main character of Heartland could be considered as his initial loss. The one which seems obvious since the beginning is the loss of his family and his homeland arriving when the white people take him from his village to make him a prisoner. The only thing he can do then is to struggle for his life, and that's what he does by accepting to contribute to the slave trade by the side of the white people. He only tries to survive and chooses to lose his dignity instead of losing his life.

I merely survive, and if survival is a crime then I am guilty. (24)

Then the loss of his dignity could be seen as the initial loss because, as we will see later, that's what will lead him to try to change his mind and his life. This loss is accompanied by a loss of identity which is also a very important loss for him. Face to the villagers, he feels like a stranger and even feels like superior to them since he belongs to the white's clan.

Am I expected to spend the night with these people? (33)

He also loses his identity by the loss of his name that he would absolutely like to gain back to allow him to change and react to the grip white people have on him. But, unfortunately, his name is never told and he will remain powerless face to his aggressors.

I was half-expecting my name to come singing out, a signal for me to charge into action. But I am not summoned.(32)

For all his concern, for all his caring, he has not even asked after my name. (53)

The girl

The daughter of the Head Man also follows the same plan of action. Sha also sustains different losses which make her life change definitely and radicaly. Her first loss occurs when the white people come to her village and Price decides to take her back with them. He will abuse her, making her lose her virginity; he will also beat her, burn her and play with her, using her body like a toy and making her lose her dignity. These losses caused by Price will entail another very important loss for her, the loss of her own people. They will reject her considering that she is now unclean and judge better to put her appart to protect the others in the village from losing their cleanliness too.

When I returned they asked nothing of me, having already decided that I was unclean. Perhaps they thought my presence would poison others. (46)

The main character

The losses the characters have to suffer always cause a moment of loneliness that will make them react and try to change their life or will generate a situation of change that will take place by itself. The main character, having lost his family, feels alone and fears that loneliness could make him lose his soul, his identity.

Loneliness scales the walls of my being and threatens to destroy my soul. (15)

The first changes he has to suffer are changes in relation to his own people. He doesn't consider him as one of their own, feels like a stranger and don't understand them anymore but that situation makes him think and take into account that he is changing and must react rapidly.

He looks around at the nakedness of the villagers. They stare at my clothes [...] neither recognises my smell or my posture, it is only in such situations that the magnitude of my fall strikes me. (22)

His change is also seen from the other part. In the eyes of the villagers he has become a traitor but he doesn't understand their reaction and considers he has made the right choice.

Their sons and daughters are gone from them for ever. Yet I, who strayed behind, am expected to be something other than I am. (24)

He is too frightened and too weak to react. He fears for his life and that prevents him from taking the right decisions and struggle for finding back what he lost, his dignity and his identity. So he tries to forget the situation in which he is, to forget the past losses and concentrate on his present survival but he doesn't manage to forget because, for that, he needs the help of the Gods in which he has also lost his belief.

I would thank the Gods (if there were any to thank) that I have finally mastered this art of forgetting – of murdering the memory. (24)

I recall my youth and feel an overwhelming sense of loss. (25)

Another loss threatens to arrive the first time he is with the girl, a loss which would make him lose even more dignity, the loss of his humanity. Indeed, he could have treated her very bad and become a beast if he had yielded to his instinct. But, fortunately, he understands that he has better treat her well to gain back his lost dignity or even not to lose more of it.

There is nothing that stop me throwing this girl to the ground and spending myself inside her body. [...] It is a lost pleasure, but I am greatful to the girl. (34)

My love [...] is another example of how I have managed to raise myself up above the animal. (53)

The disruptive element of the story is coming at the moment when the Governor and the soldiers decide to go for a last expedition. It first appears to be a simple moment of routine in the main character's life in the Fort but this time, it will allow him to change. The loss of authority creates a situation of loneliness in the Fort but also makes the main character change his mind about staying helpless for the girl. He decides not to stay under the yoke of white people anymore and goes to save the girl in whom he feels a possibility of redemption, a way to regain his dignity.

What is it that I have lost that she has somehow managed to retain? (37)

What he wants above all is not really save the girl but find a way the regain what he lost by helping her. He first had tried to regain dignity by trying to be near to the white people, be accepted among them, be recognised as somebody important for he is different from the other slave who can't read and write.

Surely there must be some part of your soul that desires recognition? (53)

That you can read and write places you in position of superiority. (52)

The girl

After having suffered her double initial loss of dignity, she's put appart and suffers loneliness. She seems like she has lost a part of herself, of her personality that makes her change radically. It's like she had become another person.

A good measure of the lofty spirit seems to have been drained from her ; this newly vulnerable character does not correspond to the person I am familiar with. (42)

A new situation is taking place in her life symbolised in the novel by the following sentence coming just after the reader learns that she has been rejected by her owns.

The darkness of night is being brushed by the first hints of a new day. (42)

When they're together, they both seem to recover from their losses. A big change appears for them, a time of possible regain is taking place for they begin to regain a part of their dignity by being accepted one by the other. This time of big change is symbolised by the radical change of the weather.

The Governor

The Governor comes to the Fort to represent the supreme authority but there, he proves his weakness and is alone face to the rest of the soldiers. Price will see that lack of power in the character of the Governor and will make him lose his authority, at least on him, and makes his status change from the head of the Fort to a simple powerless representation of the authority.

There is no superior officer for you to report me to, [...] if I return to your world of silks and fine wines there you might reproach me [...] Your rank and order must fall away and be replaced by natural order. (31)

When he comes back from the expedition, the Governor must have understood that he had lost everything and is fated to die soon. He is then nearly alone in the Fort and knows that he should try to regain what he lost, including his humanity by having taken part in the slave trade. He feels guilty and understands he should change his mind in believing that white people are maybe wrong.

These are not pleasant times for any of us, whatever our language or our customs ; whatever our religion or our beliefs. [...] I fear you may be correct. (51)

He knows he has lost his humanity and his authority and that he only could regain them by helping black people. But he won't be able to help anybody and won't regain what he lost for he dies some times later.

Do you see me as a man? Do you see me as your superior? [...] You are a man I would like to help. (52)

Lewis

Lewis is the only character the reader may think he shouldn't suffer any change because he doesn't really suffer any initial loss. He had no family to take care of and was happy to come in Africa to be part of the adventure. The only loss he suffers is the loss of aim when all the soldiers go for the last expedition leaving him behind in the Fort. Then he will, like every character of the novella, suffer loneliness which will cause a big change in his life. He will become an alcoholic, will lose his humanity and dignity by raping the girl, and then lose his life and youth.

Were he to return he would do so as merely a shell of the young boy who went away. (48)

Price and the soldiers

Price and the other soldiers lose their family and motherland when they come to Africa. They feel alone far from their owns and want to get back what they lost. That's why Price goes to the village to bring a young girl with him. He suffers the miss of a woman beside him but this loss goes further and makes him lose his mind. The girl isn't sufficient to recover the initial loss and, frustrated by that idea, he will beat her and lose even more, his humanity. In Africa, he feels uncomfortable and sees he has no real identity in there.

I find myself faced with the problem of how to label Price. [...] I call him 'the man'. (29)

The soldiers also change after the loss of their family and homeland, they become beasts directed by their instinct.

(They have forgotten what their own women look like.) The men relieve their sexual boredom in whatever base and private ways they can devise. (30)

As we saw it, all the characters of the novella are in the same plan of action. They always suffer an initial loss, find themselves in a situation of loneliness which causes other losses and finish by changing their mind and their way to behave.

What is difficult to define is the aim of the characters and the real motivation of their life after having suffered a loss. In this story, the motivation of the main character remains vague for a long time but is finally unfolded after he decides to save the girl. First we could think that he chooses to save the girl to find back some humanity and dignity, a person in which he could get some relief for the loss of his family and for the bad things he made against his people by helping in the slave trade. We could think that dignity is the most important point in his life that he wants to recover and give back at the same time to the girl in a mutual acceptance. But there is ambivalence in the character and we finally discover that his dignity isn't the main thing he wants to save. What is capital for him is to stay alive. (I am despised by my own for my treachery. This is surely the worst tragedy that can befall a man; but I am a survivor.) (57)

Finally, not a single character seems to recover the initial loss and succeed to escape his fate by finding a substitute to the initial loss. The Governor dies without being able to redeem himself and Price and Lewis stay bad people and continue their trade. The girl remains invisible at the end of the story and we can imagine three endings for her. She could have been sent back to her owns, kept prisoner with Price and the soldiers or sold with the others in the trade, but her future is in any case without prospects. The main character doesn't succeed to change and save his life either. He doesn't regain his dignity for he remains a weak person and continues to help the white people in the trade. He loses once and for all his humanity by being treated like the other slaves and loses his motherland by being sent far from Africa. He also finally loses his identity for he his rejected by his owns and has no more utility for the white people, and he is even aware at the end that he has lost what he always wanted to protect, his own life. (My life is ended. [...] I stand on the platform and look down. I am an old man.) (60)

(...) Je me suis retrouvé seul avec Pauline. Une gêne nouvelle pesait entre nous. Il fallait se dire au revoir ou trouver un prétexte pour prolonger la journée. (...) À dix-neuf heure sept, mon rêve s'est écroulé. Un jeune homme a traversé la rue et a embrassé Pauline dans le cou. Elle a fait les présentations. (...) Je l'ai détesté tout de suite. Elle m'a dit au revoir, à bientôt, avec une douceur machinale et ils sont partis main dans la main. (...) J'ai dû prendre un taxi, anéanti par ce brusque rappel à l'ordre, ce retour à la réalité. Je n'avais qu'à m'en prendre à moi-même. Je savais très bien ce que je risquais en me livrant à la gentillesse d'une inconnue. Je savais très bien que la moindre attention pour un homme de mon âge peut lui être fatale. L'indifférence tue à petit feu, mais la douceur assassine.