Category Archives: Week 14: The Deep

Week 14: Exploring the homeland in The Deep

Posted on by
Reply

River Solomon’s The Deep has introduced the readers to only one interesting concept of a homeland that seems as if they are different even though they are not. On page 122, Yetu and Oori both discuss what relationship they have to their homeland. That dialogue between Oori and Yetu illustrates that a homeland can transcend geographical boundaries. A homeland must therefore be seen as a place that holds emotional feelings and collective memories, through which those living beings start to define a place as something that is part of one’s identity.  Oori answers Yetu’s question on defining the homeland as followed: “A Homeland is just a place” that “means something because of its history” (p.122). Furthermore, Oori argues that the place needs to be highly protected to not “just be another place” (p122). In comparison to that, Yetu’s “home-sea” is the deep ocean Yetu finds herself in. What I found interesting about that is that they approach the geographical place differently. For Yetu it seems that the homelands holds no emotional significance at all, whereas for Oori it is a place that if it doesn’t get “protect[ed] what is left of it there, [Oori] will have no homeland”. That quote suggests that only the active memories make the place be your homeland. Yetu just ties the homeland to its geographical environment. Nevertheless, the homeland for Yetu as well does have an emotional impact on Yetu. The deep is a a place that is filled with the Wajingru’s memories, their suffering, their lives. It is the place Yetu relives as a hisotrian. Yetu therefore clearly has an emotional relationship to the place that Yetu calls home-sea, too, just like Oori has. The only difference is, that Yetu is living through that emotions over and over again and that Oori compared to that, tries to protect the place to not lose the legacy of it. In general, a homeland is therefore something that always needs to be preserved and protected, no matter how in which way to do that. It always shapes someone’s identity and is not just a place where someone is born in. That was so interesting to see!

The Deep

Posted on by
Reply

In River Solomon’s “The Deep,” the concept of memory and the stories associated with it can take on a life of it’s own. Depending on the context of these memories, they can ground the person experiencing them and give them context that informs their identity as wajinru. However, these same memories can also leave wajinru untethered and hollow, like a pried open clam shell who’s meat has been scooped out by a predator. In Yetu’s case, she is the actual vessel for these memories. Both her sense of self and the remembrances fight for control over her body. In a way, these memories are almost parasitic as Yetu has to fight to keep herself from slipping into them, and at times gives in until she can break free from their grasp.  On page 69, Yetu states that she left the Wajinru to endure the full weight of their history, and that for the first time in many years her body felt weightless. The history and the memories associated with this history have a living dimension to it, they are physical agents that can press or interact with the bodies of the Wajinru. As a historian, the memories need Yetu’s body to be physically alive in order to carry them. However, this doesn’t account for both the mental and physical anguish the Rememberances have on her as she states that “it’s killing me (p.94),” when referring to the memories. Because memories themselves are alive, they encompass the duality of suffering and understanding and can cause a palpable effect on the people experiencing them.

Blog Post Week 14 — Chapter 5

Posted on by
1

This week I was drawn to chapter 5 of The Deep. I think it was interesting seeing Yetu’s interaction with humans, or as she calls them, “two-legs”. I found it intriguing the way that Yetu described the humans, however considering that she is an aquatic being, it makes sense that it is an ocean-centric vision. She described their hair as “large chunks of coral” (Soloman, 71). I believe this is important to note because it fully shifts the perspective of the reader outside of their human, terracentric perspectives of the world. The next part that stood out to me was the part about a war between the wajinru and humans. The book states, “Water erupted from the sea and flowed onto the surface. A war? The ocean war? The wave war?” (Solomon, 72) I believe it alluded to a huge tsunami, but claimed that it was intentionally caused by the wajinru as an act of sabotage. I’d be curious to know more about what sparked the war between them; could it be a sustainability related topic, like pollution or overfishing? Nonetheless, I am curious and hope we find out later in the story. 

The next part that stood out to me was when Yetu thinks, “Everything would be all right now that she was free” (75, Solomon). I think this is almost funny because it sounds like a foreshadowing of the trouble on the horizon. I can’t necessarily relate to being physically freed from somewhere, but whenever I think something like that or that everything will be alright, it is usually the start of utter chaos for me. I feel like it’s one of those things you don’t say as to not jynx it, but who knows we will find out as the story unfolds. Kinda going back to the first part I mentioned her describing people in terms of the ocean is that she too views the ocean differently from above. The book states, “the vastness of the ocean looked so different from above, so much less comprehensible. […] Cut off from them, she had trouble making sense of who or what she was” (Solomon, 76). It literally goes as far as saying that her separation from the ocean has flipped her identity, which we also see her get into at the end of the chapter with her expression of what she feels her role as historian was. Another point is that she can recognize that from above the ocean can seem disinviting, and that her perspective from below looking up is an entirely different relationship with the water that most humans might have. 

Week 14: The Deep

Posted on by
1

In this week’s reading I thought something important that was presented was the concept of self identity. I couldn’t help notice the times in which Yetu felt as if she didn’t know who she was anymore, or if that she was anyone for that matter. It was intriguing to read and make a mental image of Yetu evolving as we first read her with the importance of being a historian to the wajinru people and sacrificing herself for others as that is all she has ever known since the age of 14, to finally escaping that life and going through the process of finding her own identity away from the influence of others like her Amaba. Although Yetu had escaped she still had no real sense of where she felt she belonged as being in the deep meant death for her return or staying on land away from her people, “She didn’t know where she belonged, if returning to the wajinru would mean the death of her. But she wasn’t suited for like here” (page 112). In the eyes of Yetu both situations were a lose-lose, she would either loose her people or her life which is something she did intentionally ask for. Reading about this identity development felt almost as if Yetu was about to start approaching the developmental cycle that was never got to fully experience as she was just thrown into this role of historian at such a young age that now that she left her people she was able to think and decide for herself.

I also enjoyed the entirety of chapter 7 as you can see the development of Yetu and Oori’s relationship. Oori is almost like Yetu’s other half, the half that challenges her, makes her question her decisions, to truly seeing things from a different lens, but ultimately push her to make decisions for herself selfishly. It was also interesting to read that there was a lust going on between the two as they were from different worlds and different beings, but still focused on who they were as beings instead of the outliers. I think this idea also goes back to early class discussions of what differentiates a creature and human, what is the border between the two? It was clear that Yetu was not a two-leg being but she was not also fully an animal, she was still able to feel different emotions, have a more advanced thinking, and even develop a relationship with other two-leg beings but still had physical features of an animals such as gills and rows of sharp teeth. This was a thought I kept through what I’ve read so far and just makes me wonder more about life outside of humanity but also the borders that classify what is human and non.

Week 14: Value of History in The Deep

Posted on by
1

I found all of the chapters we had to read this week extremely interesting. I think that the discussion about history and its relation to personal identity was particularly fascinating because it is very applicable to contemporary discussions about history. As Yetu struggles with her identity as the historian of the wajinru, the readers are encouraged to think about their personal experience with history, both the history taught in school and personal/familial history. In Chapter 5, there are many moments where Yetu is trying to come to terms with her lack of remembering past events but the moment that stood out to me most was when she thinks that, “The emptiness inside her stretched far and wide in every direction like a cavern. It was lonely. She had thought herself unmoored when she was the historian, but this did not compare. She was a blip” (Solomon, p. 53). Without the history of her people, she felt as if she was unimportant and was adrift. Even though being the historian for her people was hard for her, without that knowledge Yetu was left confused and felt the absence of that history even more intensely. This emphasized how important it is to know and understand the history of your culture, country, etc. because without knowing the events and people that came before you, there is a void in your knowledge that can lead to dangerous repetitions of history. 

There was also an interesting discussion about personal history in Chapter 7 when Oori’s past is mentioned. As the last person alive of her people, Oori has a deep commitment to honoring her culture’s practices and history. In Chapter 7 when the storm begins to build, Oori leaves to protect her homeland and the people who live on the land Yetu found herself on said that “that the place Oori was from wasn’t really a homeland anymore because a homeland needed a people. Without a people, it was just a patch of earth” (Solomon, p. 82). This made me think about how important personal history is and how one single person can preserve their culture. This also raised some questions for me because who decides what a homeland is? Oori is still alive and she comes from that place, so would that not still be considered her homeland regardless if she is the last of her people? 

Week 14: The Deep

Posted on by
1

One common theme I saw in chapters 5 and 7 was the importance of knowledge and history. When Yetu and Oori are talking about their histories, they come to a disagreement about the importance of history. Yetu says: “‘If the past is full of bad things, if a people is defined by the terror done to them, it’s good for it to go, don’t you think?… It was a very holy thing for my kind. It meant I held onto all the memories so no one else had to, generations and generations of them. Six hundred years of pain.’” (p.94). In contrast, Oori says: “‘I would take any amount of pain in the world if I meant I could know all the memories of the Oshuben. I barely know any stories from my parents’ generation. I can’t remember our language. How could you leave behind something like that?’” (p.94). These are two very different perspectives. One knows all, and one lives without knowledge. If you compare Oori and the wajinru, both live in ignorance of their past, but the wajinru are able to live in the present, while Oori seems consumed by questions of her history and unable to move forward. Is it because the wajinru have the Remembrance? Or is there another difference? Would Oori really want to know her people’s history? As they say, curiosity killed the cat. In addition, this comparison between knowing history and not knowing mirrors the relationship between Yetu and her mother, as her mother often said that Yetu could not understand what it was like, when in reality, Amaba was the one who struggled to realize the pain Yetu underwent. Similarly, Oori is struggling to realize how traumatizing a history can be, especially when relived in such detail. Often, when we consider trauma, we see it as an event that happens to a person, and that person is the one who is traumatized. However, there are some theories that people who are close to the person who is traumatized (partnerships, parental, etc) can be traumatized just by hearing what has happened to someone they care about. Yetu has been repeatedly traumatized by these memories, but no one will acknowledge it because it is ‘history’ and decidedly over with, and because it has happened, they believe one cannot be traumatized by the pure memory. I think this end of the chapter raises the question of the importance of history, as well as how we choose to define ourselves. Do we define ourselves by history, by culture, by community? These two characters show sharp differences in where they find identity; Oori has no culture, community, or history to lean on to shape her identity, while Yetu feels very defined and shaped by her culture and community, and the history she was forced to bear. 

The Deep

Posted on by
1

While reading The Deep there is obviously a big focus on the remembering, and at the same time I am confused about this aspect. It is clear to me that Yetu holds the memory and it is painful but does leaving to the surface erase this? I suppose my question will be answered as we read further. It is just a crazy concept to me that she is the only one that holds this and why? What is the reasoning behind just her knowing and it being so painful? It is interesting to me that just one individual holds so much history, and this can remind us that history is not parallel, and everyone has their own. It is also wild how there is just so much history, and so much unknown. I appreciate the perspective The Deep has opened up for me, because just a small change in the way you look at things can open up a whole world of new knowledge. Simultaneously, it makes me sad that there is so much truth in history that has been lost or destroyed because of who is in power. Makes me curious to discover more and find what is hiding. I am glad that these questions are leading to growth and allowing myself to understand history as a entirely new concept that is so variable.

The Anxiety of Growing Up

Posted on by
Reply

As I read this book I feel a strong connection to Yetu, through the strong pressures that she faces from her community. It is clear that Yetu is constantly faced with overwhelming anxiety that causes her to think of suicide and even causes her to leave her family, community, and everything she knows behind. A quote that continues to live in my memory is, “She swam and she swam and she swam and she forgot the remembering, becoming more distant with each upward meter gained. They didn’t need her They were stronger than her, always had been.” The reason that this quote stood out to me was the idea of justification and justifications for anxiety. I feel that there are many times as a growing individual when I personally feel stressed and anxious and attempt to justify my decisions for abandoning these anxieties or stressful situations. I think that society tends to place a lot of pressure on growing individuals, especially in circumstances of passing down roles and expectations. Yetu encounters ideas of suicide and constantly refers to the idea of feeling drowned in her responsibilities, showcasing even further her overwhelming responsibilities. She feels deep pain and struggles to juggle her lifestyle with an important member of her society. Again, I truly feel her stress and I know that in the early moments of the story, she can be recognized as a relatable character to individuals who also battle with the responsibilities surrounding self and society.