SHAPING A SYMBOL 39

by a recurring dream. "Dans son cauchemar, toujours le meme," "In her
nightmare, always the same," we are told, "... elle se voyait change en
statue de sucre que des Francais de France digustaient lentement ..."
"she saw herself changed into a sugar statue, which the Frenchmen of
France were slowly eating" (79, 96). As a showpiece she truly is
devoured like candy by the French, and in her subconscious mind there
is no escaping the horrors of this reality. Propelled toward madness by
these nightmares, her peculiar laugh rings out (78, 95). Only when
Dangeau takes pity on her and moves her into the kitchen do her
symptoms abate. As the novel says: "Son rire devint un sourire ldger,
evanescent. ""Her laughter subsided into a faint, fleeting smile."
 The second saving grace of this second slavery of zombie-ism into
which Solitude withdraws is that it is a place or condition into which
she seems to have allowed to herself to go, and from which she may,
with an act of will, return. This is seen as Solitude moves from Dangeau's
kitchen to the fields and eventually into the bush and to the maroon
camp presided over by Sanga the Mandingo. There, Sanga inquires of
her: "Ecoute, t'es-t-y folle touted fait?""Tell me, are you completely mad?"
Solitude, upon reflection, responds, "Non, pas tout a fait" "No, not
completely" (96, 119). And indeed her mental state improves
considerably while she is staying among the maroons.
 Admittedly, the ebb and flow of Solitude's zombie-ism (in the later
stages of the novel especially) seems less voluntary than reactive.
Whether it shows itself in sullenness or violence, it is most often
triggered by confrontations with enemies. However, an argument can
still be made for a positive reading of these withdrawals. For through
them Solitude gains not only immunity from the strains of servitude,
but also courage and power, as seen, for example, in the passage I
quoted early on in which she throws herself at men and dogs, heroically
brandishing her cutlass.
 Of note as well is the non-singularity of the zombie response as
treated in the text. In one representative passage, for example, Schwarz-
Barz describes the response of several former slaves as they are being
re-captured. He writes:

 Mais tous etaient 6galement gris de fatigue, les yeux fidvreux, soldats ou
 negres des champs, citoyens mulatres, chabins, humbles et silencieux
 Congos; et tous avaient le meme air de vertige sur leurs traits, d'angoisse,
 de douleur vague et impersonnelle, comme s'ils ne s'appartenaient plus,
 ddja, se percevaient entire les grandes mains invisibles des hommes
 blancs. (124)