A Brief Consideration of Fate and Destiny in Simone Schwarz-Barts The Bridge of Beyond (1972)
This 3-page graduate essay studies and analyses the theme of fate and destiny in the development of the identities of the characters in Simone Schwarz-Bart’s The Bridge of Beyond. This essay concludes that Simone Schwarz-Bart’s novel, Pluie et Vent sur Telumee Miracle, or The Bridge of Beyond (1972), suggests the ways in which fate is dangerous by presenting an escape from action. Fate or destiny is presented in two ways throughout the novel. Perhaps most obviously, Télumée’s grandmother warns her about the dangers of accepting fate as a reason for an event. Télumée is able to see this danger herself when her husband blames difficulties on fate. Secondly, the stories Télumée hears from her grandmother suggest the malleability of fate. Although the stories suggest the fates - motherhood, slavery -, which are likely to be encountered by Télumée, they also provide Télumée with a way to escape these fates. By re-inventing the stories and becoming a storyteller, Télumée finds a place in her community very different than the one suggested by the stories. In her rejection of fate as inevitability, Télumée shows herself to be an independent and strong woman. Her rejection of passive fate allows her to shape her own destiny and build her role as a storyteller.
