Cesaire

“Beat it, I said to him, you cop, you lousy pig, beat it, I detest the flunkies of order and the cockchafers of hope. Beat it, evil grigri, you bed bug of a petty monk.” (35)

            This passage illustrates both surrealistic tendencies and tensions that come from colonialism. Surrealistic tendencies are shown when Césaire talks about detesting order, which is what surrealist were all about. One of the main goals of surrealist was creating art that contradicted the norm or the ordinary. This poem is an exact example of that in the sense that the language is unordinary. Also the fact that Césaire decided to talk about the colonialism of his country with an almost animalistic emotion driving what he wrote. Also it seems as though Césaire used free association to write this poem for most of it. The poem seemed to be based off memories that coincided with one another and he used the memory to convey his emotions on to the page. Back tot eh exert, colonialism is shown all through the two sentences. Césaire is basically telling the white me that were trying to come into his country to bring “order” and “hope” to go away, almost as if the colonists were obstacles to his country. At one point he calls the French men “evil grigri.” A grigri is an African charm but the fact that he used the adjective evil to describe it tells me that even thought he French men thought that they were charms or help to his country, Césaire thought that they held evil intent within their help. So within the second sentence he mentions “you bed bug of a petty monk.” Well bed bugs are known for being irritating and monks are known to live as minimal as they can. I think that Césaire was comparing the people of his country with monk in the since that they have high spirits but they live as minimally as can afford and the colonists were their bed bugs. Overall these two sentences hold a lot of angst towards the French men that came to colonize his country. The last sentence tells me that not only were the colonists irritated to Césaire but also to the people of the country. I also wonder if he ever revolted against the new rule or if these were just his thoughts or what he just wish he had said to the colonists when he had the chance. Overall, the act of colonialism and the movement of surrealism are complete opposites. In the movement of surrealism, people were interested in breaking away from order whereas in colonialism you’re being forced into order. So for Césaire obviously this was an issue for him because he was known to be a surrealist also while people from a country where the movement started were colonizing his native country.