Two Wings to Veil My Face by Leon Forrest

First published: 1983

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Magical Realism

Time of work: Nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century

Locale: The Deep South

Principal Characters:

• Nathaniel (Turner) Witherspoon, a young black man who transcribes family reminiscences
• Sweetie Reed Witherspoon, the great storyteller of the novel
• Aunt Foisty, an ancient black conjure woman
• I. V. Reed, the father of Sweetie Reed, a slave
• Jericho W. Witherspoon, an escaped slave who went north to become a lawyer and a judge

The Novel

Two Wings to Veil My Face is a cleverly woven tapestry of a novel detailing the family chronicle of the Witherspoon family. Ranging in time from the slavery period into the twentieth century, the novel focuses on the history of one family but in so doing draws parallels with the saga of all African American people.

The novel takes the form of an oral reminiscence interlaced with dialogue, sermons, dreams, and incantations. Nathaniel writes down his grandmother’s memories and forms a link between the great folk and oral traditions of the past and the modern period. Sweetie Reed’s “backwater time” is a fantastic interwoven tale of slaves and masters, betrayals, rapes, and racial violence played out against the backdrop of African American survival in the United States. The novel depicts the family’s origins in slavery, the illegal miscegenation of its forebears, and its survival against all odds.

The initial chapter sets the scene of Sweetie Reed’s bedchamber as she is visited by her son Arthur and her grandson Nathaniel. Thereafter, the novel unravels a fresh interpretation of the past, filtered through Sweetie Reed’s inexhaustible and detailed memory. Inspired by her special brew of sassafras tea and brandy, Sweetie Reed lies in bed and summons up mystical revelations in poetic prose. She allows the voices of her ancestors to speak through her, giving different viewpoints on key episodes from the past.

Through Aunt Foisty’s voice, readers learn of Africa, the Middle Passage, early survival in the Colonies, and the wonders of hoodoo. From I. V. Reed’s voice, readers learn of the plantation and the terrible truth of his parentage. Through Sweetie Reed’s voice, readers complete a picture of hope and loss among the African American slave community. There is Sylvia Reed, who as the white mistress of the house forces Angelina to hide diamonds in her hair at the end of the Civil War. Angelina, Sweetie Reed’s mother, is almost raped by three white Union soldiers who steal the diamonds and later is raped and murdered by patrollers. Sylvia Reed commits suicide by biting the gold key to the household, a key that contains poison.

I. V. Reed stays on the plantation, serving Rollins Reed after the slaves are freed. Although Sweetie Reed hates her father, I. V., many of her verbal skills are inherited from his great gifts of mimicry and masking. I. V. Reed learns all that Aunt Foisty knows, adds his own knowledge, and passes this down to Sweetie Reed. Sweetie Reed is almost killed by patrollers, but Jericho Witherspoon saves her.

Sweetie Reed leaves the plantation in 1882 to flee to the North with Jericho. They have an unhappy and childless marriage, but Jericho gives Sweetie his illegal son Arthur to rear as her own. As Sweetie Reed’s memories move into the present time, she continues to repeat the motifs and refrains that resonate throughout the novel; among these are mirrors, magic, hoodoo, dreams, and biblical imagery.

Although primarily about one African American family whose blood has been mixed with white slave owners, the novel takes on universal significance in its use of archetypal images and situations. In many ways, Sweetie Reed’s spirit, wisdom, and voice reflect the long line of black women who have passed before her. Her story redeems their suffering and neglected past as it transcends the misery of the world with incantatory prose and miraculous power.

The Characters

Nathaniel Witherspoon, a college dropout, twenty-one years old at the time of the novel, writes down his grandmother’s memories. His recrafting of his family history forms the structure of the novel as he interlaces sermons, tales, and memories. From this experience he shapes a worldview that gives meaning to his existence.

Sweetie Reed Witherspoon relives in detail her family history, giving a picture of pre-and post-Civil War life in the Deep South. Her tales of the horrors of slavery and the triumph of the black spirit bring alive the distant past. Sweetie Reed’s mother, Angelina, and father, I. V. Reed, were married as slaves in 1855. Sweetie Reed marries Jericho W. Witherspoon in 1882, when she is fifteen years old and Jericho is fifty-five. Barren, she has one adopted son named Arthur. After Jericho Witherspoon and Sweetie Reed get a divorce, she becomes a preacher. Sweetie Reed is an oral historian who uses all the rhetorical tricks at her disposal to give a complete picture of the past.

Aunty Foisty, the ancient conjure woman, forms the second primary link to the past. Aunt Foisty’s history stretches back to Africa. She is rumored to have clawed her way out of the bottom of a slave ship. With her African retentions in language and folk religion, she is the primary image of the African mother figure who gave birth to a great race. Aunty Foisty possesses powerful magic. She controls the Praise Shack, to which the slaves come to worship. She is an oral historian who passes her remembered wisdom to I. V. Reed.

Mistress Sylvia Reed and Rollins Reed are cruel white plantation owners. Rollins Reed is guilty of raping his female slaves, and I. V. Reed is one of his sons. Sylvia Reed dominates and punishes the household slaves. Both of the Reeds are evil and capricious.

I. V. Reed forms the third important link to the past. After emancipation, he stays to serve on the Reed plantation. Because of his fidelity to the slave past, he is disliked by his family. His stormy dialogue with his daughter Sweetie on his deathbed forms one of the great passages of the novel. I. V. Reed is a complicated blend of guile and cleverness. A great actor and mimic, he keeps the early tradition of African American music alive. He is also a trickster figure.

Jericho W. Witherspoon is the one character in the novel who spans the period from slavery well into the twentieth century. He flees slavery to live in the North and becomes a lawyer and a judge. He is tough, argumentative, and intolerant of injustice. Self-educated and indomitable in will and spirit, he brings to Sweetie Reed a child of his born out of wedlock. Jericho Witherspoon’s funeral is one of the focal points of the novel, inspiring an extended verbal reminiscence from Sweetie Reed, who comes to the funeral on her own.

Merlin Spottswood, the black Master’s Magician, brings an antic spirit and a trickster flair to the plantation house. Merlin Spottswood combines magic with black dignity as he entertains the Reed household. As an inspiration to I. V. Reed, he brings out the trickster side of Reed’s personality as well as reflecting important aspects of magic seen elsewhere in the novel.

Critical Context

Two Wings to Veil My Face was the last novel of three that Forrest devoted to the Witherspoon family saga. There Is a Tree More Ancient Than Eden (1973) and The Bloodworth Orphans (1977) complete the trilogy. These books contain many of the same characters and cover some of the same territory, particularly in the use of black vernacular and folk traditions such as music, language, and religion. Two Wings to Veil My Face is a supreme triumph of signifying experimentation, developing techniques initiated in the other two books.

The realistic social document of the text is amplified by use of poetic prose, imaginative episodes, and surrealistic description. The unusual verbal dexterity of Sweetie Reed is reflected in other characters’ voices. She is an outstanding example of the traditional strong black woman in African American history and literature.

Through the intimate and detailed exploration of one African American family, Forrest created a deeper understanding of the collective consciousness of the black race. In Two Wings to Veil My Face, he created a text that in itself demonstrates the strength of black cultural creations. The technique of the novel mimics other black cultural expressions such as jazz solos and extemporaneous language testifying. The text also evinces the influence of the modernist tradition, echoing James Joyce and William Faulkner. Surreal episodes suggest Ralph Ellison, while the exhaustive examination of character and motive have an almost Proustian elegance.

The fabulous quality of many of the passages bears a relation to the Magical Realism of Gabriel García Márquez. By logically extending real characters and situations through poetic prose, Forrest creates a fantastic landscape of dreamlike intensity. At the same time, he builds a magical universe of masquerade, madness, and collective transformation.

Like the two other novels in the series, Two Wings to Veil My Face uses the traditional folk methods of legend, tales, religion, and music. The Witherspoon family tree extends and makes relevant the past. It moves beyond historical fiction by bridging two worlds through the union of Sweetie Reed and her grandson Nathaniel. By skillfully combining the fragments of the narrative, Nathan re-creates his past and remakes himself.

Bibliography

Bell, Bernard W. The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1987. Discusses Forrest in the section on fabulation, romance, and fantasy. Considers Forrest as part of a tradition of black fabulators who use dream visions and other linguistic forms to present personal and spiritual journeys.

Byerman, Keith E. “Orphans and Circuses: The Literary Experiments of Leon Forrest and Clarence Major.” In Fingering the Jagged Grain: Tradition and Form in Recent Black Fiction. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985. Praises Forrest’s use of stream-of-consciousness techniques and suggests that within the stylized and surreal episodes lies a cultural wealth of material carried by black Americans.

Forrest, Leon. Conversations with Leon Forrest. Edited by Dana A. Williams. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007. This compilation of interviews with Forrest provides insight into his creative process and his thoughts on literature.

Jones, Gayl. Liberating Voices: Oral Tradition in African-American Literature. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991. Jones stresses the blues, jazz, spiritual, and sermonic rhythms of Forrest’s texts.

Lee, A. Robert. “Making New: Styles of Innovation in the Contemporary Black American Novel.” In Black Fiction: New Studies in the Afro-American Novel Since 1945. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1980. Comments on Forrest’s strengths in making symbolic connections between generations while expressing mythic racial truths of American history.

Mootry, Maria K. “If He Changed My Name: An Interview with Leon Forrest.” The Massachusetts Review 18 (Winter, 1977): 631-642. The author comments on his own goals, interpretations of his novels, and his writing style.