36 AARON C. EASTLEY

the text. For even if it is accepted that Solitude, as depicted by Schwarz-
Bart, is the victim of extraordinary mental and emotional strain, it would
still seem possible for her to respond to such pressures with wit and
stridency, rather than to withdraw into apathetic dementia.
 An important point to make here, however, is that Schwarz-Bart's
depiction of zombie-ism in the text is powerfully multi-faceted. For
while many readers quite naturally associate zombie-ism with weak-
mindedness, Schwarz-Bart depicts it as a trance-like state into which
individuals may deliberately withdraw either in order to shield
themselves from extreme mental anguish, or to steel their nerves for
violent confrontations. Such shielding, in other words, enables
individuals to endure with equanimity oppressions which they are
powerless to resist, and then to act fearlessly when opportunity arises.
 This is precisely the function of Solitude's zombie-ism in Schwarz-
Bart's text. Indeed, from the earliest mention of apathetic, zombie-like
behavior in the novel, it is clear that the absence of facial expressions
and overt protest is directly tied to intense activity elsewhere. "Le
masque doucereux" "The insipid mask" which Solitude intentionally puts
"surses traits, ""on her face," and her attitude of being "aimable a touse,
a tous indifferente, ""affable to all, indifferent to all" reflects a calculated,
resistive furtiveness (65, 76).
 Such furtiveness is necessary for Solitude owing to her new position
(following her mother's running away) as handmaid to the plantation
overseer's youngest daughter, Mlle. Xavier. Although she has been
placed in an ostensibly privileged position, Solitude's new life is,
however, fraught with contradictions. For as Gautier has explained,
those elite slaves chosen to serve the masters directly did enjoy "plus
de liberty& de movement que les autres esclaves et une situation matirielle
amiliorde grace auxquelles elles acquiarent une conscience plus aigue
de l'injustice qui leur est faite" "more freedom of movement and better
material conditions than other slaves, but by grace of these things they
acquired] a keener awareness of the injustice being done to them"
(227). There are, furthermore, those among this elite who have indeed
allied themselves with the masters, and watch all others with suspicion.
 As a defense against both the anguish of awareness and the suspicion
of these new others (Solitude's racially-mixed identity seems always
to arouse the suspicion of others), Solitude begins to withdraw in self-
defense. "Derriere ces yeux-la, loin en retrait, bien enfouies dans son
crdne de poupde, "Behind those eyes, deep in her doll-like head," we
are told, "il y avait quantity de pensdes nouvelles qui s'agitaient come
des crabes" "all sorts of new thoughts darted about like crabs" (66, 77).