SHAPING A SYMBOL


militiamen.") Here Solitude proudly claims her role as leader of the
maroon band that would become famous in oral legend.
 In contrast, Schwarz-Bart seldom allows Solitude to speak at all in
 his text, and he records the inception of Solitude's leadership in this
 way: "Sans le vouloir, sans meme le savoir dit-on, elle conduisit le group
 ddsempard et qui s'amenuisait de jour en jour" "Without meaning to,
 without even knowing what she was doing-or so it is said-she led
 the forlorn band, which dwindled with each passing day" (110, 138-
 139). Likewise, when the little band is attacked by soldiers and dogs
 Schwarz-Bart relates: "Solitude se jetait au-devant des chiens, des
 hommes, des fusils ... Quand tout 6tait fini, elle decouvrait avec etonnement
 son sabre luisant jusqu la garde, ses mains, ses bras teints de sang, et
 les grands yeux dblouis de ses compagnons. Alors elle pleurait doucement,
 sans comprendre" "Solitude flung herself at the dogs and armed men.
 When it was all over, she looked with surprise at her dripping machete,
 her blood-stained hands, and the stunned eyes of her companions"
 (112, 141). Two portrayals could hardly be more different: the vocal
 commander of Pineau and Abraham's text, and the animalistic,
 uncomprehending, leader-by-accident figure of Schwarz-Bart's.
 Significantly as well, Schwarz-Bart's perspective is not necessarily
shared by his wife Simone, who co-authored the trilogy of which Solitude
is a part. (Specifically, as Clarisse Zimra has noted, the first novel in
the trilogy, Un Plat de Porc aux Bananes Vertes, "is the joint work of
Andr6 and Simone Schwarz-Bart," while "Simone claims exclusive
authorship for Thlumde Miracle, [and] Andr6 claims exclusive
authorship for Solitude" (101)). Concerning the differing perspectives
held by Simone and Andre, Zimra observes:

 The telling distinction between Andr6 and Simone may well be that
 Simone sees her heroine as fully active, aware of the consequences of
 her rebellion, ... whereas Andr6 sees his heroine as reactive, and her
 gradual descent into insanity as an exemplary martyrdom ... (102)

Apparently Simone, a Guadeloupean woman, is inclined to see Solitude
more as Pineau and Abraham have done. Quite understandably, critics
including Zimra and Charlotte Bruner are inclined to agree.2


 2 Perhaps based on slightly essentialist leanings, Bruner mistakenly credits
Simone Schwarz-Bart with the authorship of Solitude, and then is left to account for
Simone's ostensible failure to portray Solitude as actively as might be wished. Bruner
concludes: "... Solitude, Schwartz-Bart's heroine, though neither inert nor unfeeling,
is strangely passive" (244).