Characters
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon is a discussion of colonization, decolonization, and movements to remove colonizers from colonized areas. While there aren't characters as there would be in a fictional work, Fanon does discuss people he treated in Algeria while he worked there and they were under colonial rule. He does not fully give the name of each person involved, instead identifying them by a series and an initial.
Series A, Case 1: B is an Algerian who is twenty-six years old. He used to be a taxi driver and worked as a militant his entire adult life, fighting the colonist rule. He went underground and was unable to make contact with his wife or young daughter for months. Once he found out that his wife had been raped by soldiers looking for him, his resolve to work for the cause was redoubled. He became anorexic, was unable to have intercourse, and had to seek medical treatment for his mental disorders.
Series A, Case 1: B's Wife is a woman who was separated from her husband when he went to work with the militant group. While he was gone, she was taken into custody by the police, interrogated, and raped. Following this, she told him that she wanted them to separate because she had shamed him.
Series A, Case 2: S is thirty-seven and survived a massacre. Twenty-nine people were killed at point-blank range in front of him; he was shot and saved by liberation soldiers. He eventually took a gun from them and fired at soldiers that were sleeping. That's when he was brought to the Center where Fanon worked. They had to work to reduce his violent and antisocial impulses but six months later he was doing much better.
Series A, Case 3: D is nineteen and both a student and a person who worked with ALN. His mother was murdered by a French soldier and his two sisters were taken away; he did not know where they'd gone. He killed the wife of a colonist while she begged for her life and explained that she had children. He dreamed about her every night after that. While they worked to stop his nightmares, the woman he murdered still came to him whenever he thought of his dead mother.
Series A, Case 4: A is twenty-eight and a European police officer. He had very bad depression. While he was at the Center trying to get help for behavioral problems caused by his mental condition, he ran into a person he had tortured in his role as a colonizer. The man he tortured was suffering from PTSD. The man later tried to commit suicide because he thought A was going to try to take him back. A did see his depressive symptoms improve.
Series A, Case 5: R is thirty and a police officer who abuses his wife and children—including a baby of only twenty months. His desire to hurt his family came from working in interrogation rooms. He asked Fanon to help him learn to torture Algerian nationals without any negative consequences.
Series B, Case 1: This introduces two Algerian teens who murdered their European friend. They stabbed him. They had nothing against him but decided to do so because of the effects of colonization.
Series B, Case 2: This case discusses a twenty-two-year old Algerian who was paranoid and thought his parents believed he was a traitor. He came to the Center emaciated and in a state of confusion. He almost shot a group of soldiers when he tried to grab their guns.
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.