Carina Virto 

ECL 305 

Professor Pressman 

09, May 2024 

Finding Your Balance: History and Self Identity Combined 

History is a collection of events that have already occurred, the present is the known, and the future is unknown; each of these ideologies rely on one another, without one there is not the other. The book The Deep, by River Soloman, presents a character named Yetu who is appointed the grand responsibility of maintaining and holding the entire history of her people. This responsibility poses a great threat to her own wellbeing; as it overcomes her, it becomes her losing her own sense of identity. In an attempt for self preservation, Yetu flees this responsibility and meets a two leg, meaning human, named Oori who contrasts Yetu in the way that Oori’s people are gone and with them her own sense of identity and feeling of belonging in the world. The novel The Deep presents the character contrast between Yetu and Oori to serve as a representation of the importance of balancing one’s’ history and ones’ present circumstances, emphasizing the preservation of self identity and safeguarding the continuation of ones’ culture for future generations. 

When the novel opens, the reader meets Yetu moments after her attempted suicide, one of the first of many negative occurrences caused by all of the pain and suffering she had endured as the Historian. A Historian is a single, carefully selected, Wajinru whose sole purpose is to remember the entire history of their people. Wajinru are mermaid-like creatures who communicate with each other through sensory measures. This fact creates the idea that Wajinru are interconnected with their emotions on a physical level making the role of a Historian to be a physically and emotionally demanding role. This responsibility overcame Yetu on many levels, especially attacking her own wellbeing as the “rememberings were always drawing her backward into the ancestors’ memories—that was what they were supposed to do—but not at the expense of her life” (Soloman, 2). When a responsibility becomes so taxing on one’s mind and body, regardless of its original purpose, the person will naturally begin to repel whatever is causing them harm as an instinctual response. Too much of one thing, in this case historical grievances placed upon a highly sensitive individual, will fail to prolong, and even more so if this thing negatively affects an individual. The purpose of history is to teach the present past mistakes, enrich the minds of future generations, and to maintain culture but none of that can be acknowledged by Yetu if her history becomes a mental and physical burden. Yetu is her own person and the history of her people is consuming her, so much so, that the preservation of the rememberings is placed above her own as it “had been plain to all for many years that Yetu was a creature on the precipice, and without a successor in place, [the history of the Wajinru would] be lost” (Soloman, 4). Her community was more concerned about the memories she held than who Yetu was or how she felt. At the end of the day all mammals are ruled by their instinctual need for survival and though Yetu’s life was not always in physical danger her role as a Historian became more regarded than herself as a living being. This dynamic between Yetu, her people, and history created a disconnect between each of these facets; causing Yetu to flee her responsibility, people, and culture. Too much history, living in the past and becoming absent in the present, began to threaten Yetu’s sense of identity when her history was supposed to help shape it, therefore evoking the outcome of her completely abandoning it; leaving the history of her people to be lost as she found herself.  

Contrastingly, the lack of connection Oori had with her own history and people created a profound absence of self identity and a pervasive sense of displacement within the world and her place within it.​​ The readers are introduced to Oori when one of the two legs, Suka, told Yetu it was Oori that had been supplying her the fish that were keeping her alive. When Yetu asked if Oori was one of Suka’s family members she had replied that she wasnt and that “[Oori’s] from an island off the northwestern coast. [Suka’s family were] inland mainland folk, and much farther south.” Although Oori had traded, usually giving more than taking, to Suka’s family for a while she was still not considered one of them; she was still an outsider from another land, one that was nearly nonexistent. In that same manner, Oori did her own thing and lived in her own way as Suka remarked that Oori did things as she wanted to. This way of life that seemed “other” to Suka could very well be the culture of her people which creates this disconnect between Oori and people like Suka. Oori fails to fit into a mold she was not cultivated for, therefore isolating herself from the people who inhabit the land she has found a home in. This sort of disconnect is poised to attack Oori’s understanding of her place in this society and may even push her to disregard her culture and history to assimilate to her new environment, further perpetuating the idea that a common history and way of life people share ground them. Oori was a part of a people called Oshuben and they had all died. With the passing of her people were also the loss of their stories, culture, and history. Due to these circumstances, as much as Suka’s people rejected her, she rejected them. Suka explained to Yetu that Oori did not like being thanked as it was “too close to kinship for her, which she doesn’t do” (Soloman, 82). Kinship to Oori was something she believed she did not have, and could not have, due to her people being deceased; she clung onto the few memories and traditions she still shared with her lost people. If Oori were to connect with a new people, she would feel as if she is further losing sight of her identity. Oori is the last of her people and without her constant mindfulness to keep her culture in mind when interacting with new people, traditions, and culture then the Oshuben will officially be lost. Her peoples’ history survives through her, presenting Oori as a historian for her own people; she will continue to reject all connection with other peoples as she feels she will have abandoned her people and be responsible for their loss. This will further isolate her and inadvertently attack her sense of belonging. 

Yetu and Oori pose as character foils and through this dynamic a balance of too much history and not enough can create just enough of each; a balance. When Oori first informs Yetu of the loss of her people, the two of them had varying perceptions of it being a positive or negative outcome within the grand scheme of things. Yetu felt it was not the worst thing to lose everything, that without a people to hold Oori to standards or expectations she “had room to think. To know what she wanted and believed”. Yetu felt that with her new found freedom she “[knew] who [she was]now” that she “-wasn’t Yetu. [She] was just a shell for their whims” (Soloman, 93). Yetu had too much pressure on her created by her ancestors and people that she had no room to be herself, to add her own mark on history, causing her to reject it. On the other hand, Oori responded to these ideologies saying she “would take any amount of pain in the world if it meant I could know all the memories of the Oshuben. [She] barely [knew] any stories from [her] parents’ generation,” (93). Oori is perplexed by the willingness of Yetu to leave her people asking, “How could [she] leave behind something like that? Doesn’t it hurt not to know who you are?”. Here the reader is presented with two opposite ends of a spectrum: Yetu with too much history where she cannot find a sense of self identity and importance, and Oori who has little to no history or connection with her people making it difficult for her to feel she has the permission to find herself. This is the reason that people must find a balance between their history and present. Though they posed as each other’s opposites, they craved each other. When Yetu found Oori sailing away from her lost home, she beckoned her to join her in the water saying, “Stay with me, and we will make a new thing. What’s behind us, it is done,” (Soloman, 153). The reader is seeing two worlds collide; the union of Oori and Yetu is a balance of too much history and not enough. They both will take what their past has taught them and implement it into their present lives, adding their own flair which further extends their peoples way of life that will too become history. Oori’s transformation into a “new thing” is the physical embodiment of history and the present creating a hybrid version of itself. The past offers lessons and answers of previous generations that may apply to the present generations; with this knowledge the current generation will feel free to take that knowledge and apply it to their current society, creating a “new thing”. 

Solomon was able to craft the idea that keeping ones’ history with them in the present while also adding their own ideals onto it, creating a future, is the way to preserve both culture and self identity. Yetu rejected her people and what they represented due to a sense of displacement within her own home; she had no room to be herself since she was living for everyone else in the past. Moreover, Oori had no people to rely on and when one has no real sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves, they tend to cling onto what little they do have, dissipating any room they had to belong anywhere else. The balance between these two dynamics is imperative and is what will ensure that people connect with their past, present and future. 

Works Cited 

Soloman, R. The Deep. Simon & Schuster, 2019