Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
"Possessing the Secret of Joy" by Alice Walker is a powerful novel that addresses the traumatic practice of female circumcision, also known as female genital mutilation. Set against the backdrop of cultural complexities, the narrative follows the character Tashi, who experiences profound suffering due to this practice. The story is interwoven with themes of violence, trauma, and resistance, as it explores the physical and emotional repercussions of genital mutilation on women. Walker employs an array of characters, including familiar figures from her earlier works, to delve into the implications of Tashi's story, including her trial for the murder of her mutilator, M'Lissa.
The novel juxtaposes Tashi's personal anguish with broader societal issues, highlighting the historical and cultural contexts that perpetuate such practices. It also introduces psychological elements through characters who analyze Tashi's experiences and the underlying myths surrounding femininity and power. Walker's narrative culminates in a poignant assertion of resilience, encapsulated in the phrase "RESISTANCE IS THE SECRET OF JOY!" This statement serves as both a rallying cry and a reflection on the struggle against male domination and the enduring quest for empowerment among women. Overall, Walker's work invites readers to confront difficult truths and consider the importance of resistance in the face of oppression.
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Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
First published: 1992
The Work
Possessing the Secret of Joy expresses, in fictional and direct statements, its author’s resistance to the practice of female circumcision. According to Alice Walker, in 1991 ninety to one-hundred million women and girls living in African, Far Eastern, and Middle Eastern countries were genitally mutilated, and the practice of “female circumcision” in the United States and Europe was growing among immigrants from countries where it was a part of the culture.
Three characters from Walker’s The Color Purple (1982) and The Temple of My Familiar (1988) assume major roles in Possessing the Secret of Joy. The ritual mutilation of Tashi, childhood African friend to Celie’s children Adam and Olivia and later wife to Adam, is graphically described, and its physical and emotional effects are explored in this novel.
Olivia speaks first, as others speak later, of her own, Adam’s, and her missionary parents’ introduction to the six-year-old Tashi. Tashi was inconsolable, having just witnessed the death of her sister Dura, victim of genital mutilation. The novel’s action moves back and forth between Dura’s death and the trial of Tashi for the murder of M’Lissa, Dura’s killer and her own mutilator. It ends with the roar of rifle fire as Tashi is punished for her crime.
The aged Carl Jung is introduced to the novel’s list of characters. While he appears only briefly, his psychological and mythological probing of Tashi’s and the world’s problem is carried on by his female and male successors, Raye and Pierre.
The recurrent imagery of Tashi’s subconscious is finally interpreted by Pierre (son of Adam, Tashi’s husband) and Lisette, Jung’s niece. Pierre, having grown up with his parents’ accounts of Tashi’s physical and emotional suffering (continual pain, impeded motion, difficult and aborted childbirth; recurrent nightmares, truncated relationships, frequent confinement to mental institutions), studies anthropology and continues his great uncle’s intellectual pursuits.
In Pierre’s account, the myth is simple, and it is full of Walker’s condemnation of the mutilation and subjugation of women. It is a story the aging Tashi remembers overhearing in bits from covert conversations among the male African elders. The male god descends from the sky to overcome, enjoy, and rape the female earth. Challenged by the earth’s response to his advance, he cuts down the source (the mound or hill) of her pleasure.
“RESISTANCE IS THE SECRET OF JOY!” is the novel’s final statement. Adam, Olivia, Benny (mildly retarded son to Tashi and Adam), Pierre, Raye, and Mbate (servant to M’Lissa and friend to Tashi) hold it up as a banner for Tashi’s viewing as she is killed for the murder of M’Lissa. The novel is Walker’s act of resistance to male domination and the physical and emotional disabling of women.
Bibliography
Banks, Erma, and Keith Byerman. Alice Walker: An Annoted Bibliography. New York: Garland Press, 1989. Collects the major and minor material written on Alice Walker from 1968 to 1986.
Bates, Gerri. Alice Walker: A Critical Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005. Includes a biography of the author, an analysis of her literary contexts, and a chapter devoted to Possessing the Secret of Joy.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Alice Walker. New York: Chelsea House, 1989. Major critics from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives discuss Walker’s fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., ed. Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Critical Anthology. New York: Meridian, 1990. Gathers major criticism from a black feminist perspective. Discusses major black women writers, including Walker.
Nako, Nontasso. “Possessing the Voice of the Other: African Women and the ’Crisis of Representation’ in Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy. ” In African Women and Feminism: Reflecting on the Politics of Sisterhood, edited by Oyèrónké Oyewùmí. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2003. Examines Walker’s text in relation to the feminist critique of representation and the relationship between self and other.
Wall, Cheryl A., ed. Changing Our Own Words: Essays on Criticism, Theory, and Writing by Black Women. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1989. Major black feminist critics analyze the black women’s literary tradition.
Willis, Susan. Specifying: Black Women Writing the American Experience. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. Considers the many alternative creative visions that black women writers contribute to American literature. Places black women in four traditions: American literature, African American literature, black women’s literature, and women’s literature.