Analysis
In many ways, Praisesong for the Widow is the story of Avatara “Avey” Johnson’s spiritual awakening. Avey is on both a physical and a spiritual journey to connect with a heritage she has dismissed in favor of the promises of modern society. Her efforts to be the woman that society asks her to be have left Avey deeply disconnected and spiritually isolated. This is evident in the fractured, unfulfilling relationships that surround her.
Avey and her husband, Jay, were most happy when their lives were simple and their income was meager. It was during the evenings spent in their small apartment on Halsey Street, when Jay would “offer her his arm” and clear a path through “the imaginary crowd in the make-believe ballroom,” that their relationship truly flourished. Avey recognizes the “act of betrayal” inherent in trading the apartment on Halsey Street for a house in North Whte Plains. Effectively, she traded a husband who gazed at her “with a smile that was both playful and amazed” for a husband who was emotionally distant and rarely present; affection and happiness had been sacrificed in order to increase their opportunity for upward mobility.
Avey also reflects that “best of all had been the times when it was just the two of them.” Yet three times she sacrificed this intimacy to become a mother. It was during the third pregnancy that Avey began to feel the enormity of what society asked of her. She found it nearly impossible to once again push aside her own dreams to birth, nurse, and care for an infant she had never wanted. Her adult daughters seemingly lacked the insight to recognize that their mother was emotionally depleted by the time Jay died, not even able to cry at his funeral. Instead, they interpreted this as a sign of stoic strength. The oldest two then began encouraging Avey to travel as a means of coping with her grief.
Even the acquaintances whom Avey travels with fail to provide any sort of meaningful connection. She is “cruising” through her life, stopping at one disconnected destination after another, separated from a deeper connection to any of the people, places, or histories she encounters. Avey maintains a superficial presence in her own life, and even those who should know her best fail to understand the tragedy of her sense of fractured identity.
Early in her life, Avey was presented with the stories of the Ibos, and as a young child she was fascinated with their legacy. Yet as she grew older, she realized that the story’s details did not adhere to her modern society’s requirements for rationalism. Instead of honoring the value of her heritage, Avey learned to abandon the fantastical in order to conform.
It isn’t until she meets Lebert Joseph that Avey’s consciousness is once again opened to the fantastical. His initial offering of a drink is the impetus which begins to heal Avey’s weary body. At this point, she begins the process of shedding her adherence to the customs of the modern world in order to heal her fractured soul. She agrees to travel with Lebert Joseph, a relative stranger, and abandons her own plans for returning to New York, which has been her sole aim since deciding to leave the cruise. Avey thus demonstrates that she is willing to receive the gifts which this spiritual guide can offer her.
Before she can receive an awakening, Avey must first relinquish her hold on the modern and physical world. She boards a small boat devoid of the comforts she has become accustomed to and finds her place between...
(This entire section contains 1191 words.)
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two old women who remind her of the presiding mothers of a church. Avey is the only person aboard who becomes violently ill; all the other passengers recognize and celebrate the spiritual world of their ancestors, and their journey is thus calm and without incident. The physical discomforts Avey has felt intensify until she must expel them from her body, releasing the poisons that have been growing within her since the day she first questioned the veracity of the Ibos’ journey.
After releasing these toxins into the sea, Avey is taken to Rosalie’s home, where she is given a bath. The elements of a baptism or ritual cleansing are woven into this scene, which is performed in silence and with reverence. As Rosalie bathes her, Avey’s mind returns to a time when she found peace in the fantastical; her great-aunt once bathed her in a tub like this during her August visits. Avey feels “she was the child in the washtub again,” reflecting a mindset that is more open to the wondrous and unexplainable elements of existence. Once the bath is complete, Avey is fully ready to experience the incredible and to connect with the heritage she has all but abandoned.
At the ceremony, Avey realizes the connectedness of all people of African ancestry and the importance of becoming a voice for their shared history. She has long felt that her act of assimilation into a predominately white culture was an “act of betrayal,” yet she has lacked the fortitude or wisdom to choose a more fulfilling path. That night, however, Avey finally takes a step toward embracing her heritage, a “single declarative step forward.” As she dances, she is transported to “a score of hot August nights . . . and she was standing beside her great-aunt.” Finally, she feels a connection to her ancestors radiating from her like a “myriad of shiny, silken, brightly colored threads.”
Avey feels “as if she were that girl again,” the one who believed in the stories of her ancestors. She is filled with a sense of possibility and begins to dance. Avey’s transformation is complete, and her redemption is achieved. She seems to exist outside of time as she continues to dance, the people around her becoming “one and the same with people in Tatem.” Avey thus recognizes the universality in African heritage, which extends across space and time.
The novel is thus, in many ways, a condemnation of the elusive promises of white American capitalism, which leaves many feeling empty and disconnected even after achieving upward social mobility. Avey finds that moving to a white neighborhood, traveling on a ship full of white people, and surrounding herself with white culture (as evidenced in the French classical decor aboard the ship) ultimately leaves her feeling incomplete. Indeed, her rejection of this assimilation is evident in the very name of the cruise ship, the Bianca Pride, which can be translated as “white pride.” When Avey decides to disembark, she is effectively recognizing her own sense of cultural discord and rejects the dominant values which she has passively observed for so long. Instead, Avey grows to realize that forming meaningful connections to both past and present are the essence of purposeful living. She thus seeks to redefine the relationships in her own life and to share this knowledge with others. Through visiting her ancestral homeland, Avey reconciles her own feelings of alienation and embraces a multifaceted identity, focusing on the importance of collective memory.
