Cereus Blooms At Night

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1996

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Parts 4 and 5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Effects and Legacies of Colonialism

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual abuse, incest, and family violence.

Although the island of Lantanacamara is never explicitly described as a colony in the text, its depiction, the make-up of its society, and its relationship with its counterpart, the Shivering Northern Wetlands, demonstrate that it is or was once under colonial rule. The Shivering Northern Wetlands, the homeland of the majority of the white residents on the island, is positioned as a place of aspiration and escape. It is where Sarah and Lavinia are presumed to have fled and where Asha eventually finds herself after fleeing the terror of her home life. The Shivering Northern Wetlands are also the site of education and the home of “knowledge,” as Ambrose goes abroad to study there, and it is where Tyler receives his nursing training. It is presented in contrast to Lantanacamara, which is often depicted as traditional and isolated.

Beyond this geographical connection, the presence of whiteness and Christianity also illuminate the lingering effects of the colonial project in Paradise. The Reverend and his family represent order and privilege, whereas the barracks and the poorer neighborhoods are considered disorderly with their residents needing to be “saved,” in various senses of the word. For Chandin, this means being taken from his family—who are impoverished indentured servants, a system of forced labor that was essential to the imperialist project—and raised by a white missionary family. Deprived of meaningful kinship structures, Chandin becomes alienated, and his romantic interest in Lavinia, his adoptive sister, is suppressed by Reverend Thoroughly, presumably due to incest taboos. However, Lavinia later marries her cousin, a non-blood relative, meaning familial ties were not the true reason to keep Chandin and Lavinia apart. The only detail separating Chandin from this cousin is race; as with many colonial societies, white supremacy in Lantanacamara prevents white people and people of color from marrying. This inequality and alienation leave a mark on Chandin, who feels abandoned by his adoptive family and lashes out against his own family, perpetuating common colonial methods of brutal suppression such as physical violence and rape.

Still, even as whiteness and white society fade into the background of the story, the imperial systems that undergird this society remain present. For example, Paradise relies on patriarchal power structures entangled with colonialism to maintain a sense of order and control. Tyler notes that he is “the only Lantanacamaran ever to have trained in the profession of nursing” (6), and the legal system attempts to punish Mala for an apparent crime against her father, even though most of the town knew of the abuse and never intervened. Cereus Blooms at Night highlights that under the system of colonialism, those who refuse to conform become victims of ostracization and violence. At the same time, as a postcolonial novel, it illuminates the power and resistance of these same marginalized subjects to create more egalitarian and compassionate futures. This can be seen in Otoh’s family structure, in which his parents embrace his true self and don’t expect him to adhere to white patriarchal gender norms. Likewise, Mala’s reconnection with her past via her sister’s letters illuminates a better future rooted in kinship bonds, and the community’s embrace of Tyler’s gender and sexual identities highlights the possibility of peace and fulfillment out of colonialism’s oppression.

Gender and Sexual Identity

Many central characters in Cereus Blooms at Night exhibit queer or otherwise nonconforming gender and sexual identities, and the town of Paradise holds two contrary reactions to these identities. Chandin’s inability to cope with the queer romantic relationship between his wife Sarah and his unrequited love interest Lavinia leads him to abuse and sexually assault his daughters, representing the way cis heteropatriarchy violently suppresses queer relationships and identities. Likewise, Tyler is an object of fascination in Paradise as a man in a female-dominated profession. Tyler refers to himself as a man and male pronouns are used to describe him throughout the narrative, but he is drawn to feminine gender expression. He takes pride in his appearance, often wearing a handkerchief tied around his neck and powder and rouge on his face. Other than in his private moments with Mala, he takes care to be “quietly proud” of his identity rather than openly flaunting it, a survival strategy in cultures where anti-gay discrimination is normalized.

While this bias is present in the novel, it is clearly linked to the colonial social structure, and the Lantanacamaran citizens frequently show more tolerance and empathy in their thoughts and interactions. Nearly everyone at Paradise Alms House is aware that Tyler is gay, even if they don’t recognize his connection to femininity, and it doesn’t seem to affect him in his workplace. When the gardener sees him, it makes him miss his brother, who is implied to also be gay. At the end of the novel, Tyler decides to make his identity known after gaining strength through Otoh and Mala’s encouragement, showing the value of a supportive queer community. In preparation for a visit from Otoh and Ambrose, Tyler “wore lip colour [sic] more thickly than usual, shades brighter than my dark lips,” and “daubed on enough scent to make a Puritan cross his legs and swoon” (247). He also wears the nurse’s dress that Mala stole for him, much to her delight. In the end, Tyler is able to embrace his femininity, and it earns him love and respect from his friends and colleagues.

Similarly, Otoh is also a queer character, in that he was assigned female at birth and given the name Ambrosia but transforms into a man by the time he reaches young adulthood. Otoh’s transition is presented as fact: He simply is a man, and his family immediately accepts who he is. Nearly everyone forgets that he once presented as female, and Otoh only really thinks about it when there is a chance he will become intimate with someone and his “secret” will be found out. Otoh also presents as a straight man since he only courts women throughout the novel. Even his fascination with Mala has romantic overtones. It is therefore significant that he develops a relationship with Tyler, who initially presents as a man. It highlights that on one hand, Otoh’s attraction is not fixed, in much the same way that his gender presentation is androgynous. On the other hand, it suggests that Tyler’s desire to embody femininity has not gone unnoticed by Otoh, thus contributing to their mutual attraction. Gender and sexuality, then, are depicted as inherently complex and difficult to qualify, but their complexity is expected and natural.

Generational Trauma

Cereus Blooms at Night depicts multiple familial generations in the town of Paradise and, crucially, it shows how children can inherit their parents’ trauma—often by parents inflicting their pain on their children. At the same time, the book moves toward an optimistic conclusion, illuminating how younger generations can break trauma cycles and lead more fulfilling lives.

Chandin, from the outset, is depicted as an individual who wants to disavow his birth parents and the station he was born into, although it becomes impossible for him to do so. He carries hatred for his birth parents, himself, and even at times “the Reverend and his god” (33). Despite being “rescued” by the reverend, his life becomes characterized by abandonment and isolation; his birth family cannot care for him, the reverend prevents him from courting the woman he loves, and his wife leaves him for her lover. Unable to deal with these betrayals and lacking friends or other support to work through his feelings, he becomes obsessed with his pain and thus inflicts pain on his daughters. An effort to keep Mala and Asha to himself is represented in his methods of abuse; he surveils them constantly and rapes them, a method of inflicting power and ownership on them. The girls experience years of sexual abuse at his hands, and although they never normalize it, they do relent and give up on resisting him. Mala and Asha also represent two disparate outcomes of generational trauma: internalization and escape. Asha chooses to escape, running away from home as a teenager, leaving Mala to feel abandoned again. Mala continues to acquiesce to her father’s torture, initially fearing his anger more than she desires her freedom.

Breaking this trauma cycle is a multi-step process. For Mala, it begins with her consensual sexual relationship with Ambrose, taking control of her own body and recharacterizing sex as something pleasurable and equitable rather than violent. Most obviously, Mala ends her own abuse by allowing her abuser to die, though Chandin’s decaying corpse in the house represents the enduring nature of trauma. Generally, stopping the source of trauma is not enough to overcome it; and Mala becomes stuck after the acute stage of her crisis is over, symbolized by her inability to sleep in the house, an alienation from comfort. When Tyler begins interacting with Mala, she is finally able to live in the present rather than her troubled psyche and begin the healing process. With a community in place to support her, Mala takes concrete steps toward resolving her generational trauma, and her progress is represented in her speaking for the first time in years and uncovering her sister’s letters.

Otoh, on a less severe level, also unwillingly inherits emotional damage and frustration from his parents’ relationship. The tensions in his parents’ marriage create the backdrop for much of his childhood, heightened by the ever-present figure of Mala Ramchandin. When Otoh takes on his father’s job delivering the monthly provisions to Mala’s house, he also unwittingly inherits his father’s guilt and emotional debt. Knowing the history between Mala and his father, Otoh becomes nearly obsessed with solving the mystery and righting the perceived wrongs of his father’s past. Instead, Otoh becomes the one who reveals Mala’s possible crime and exposes her trauma for the rest of Paradise to see. As Ambrose points out to his son, “Our relationship to each other, yours to me and mine to her, serves only to make the waters that we travel interestingly murky […] Cheer up. There is no point trying to undo what can’t be undone” (170). It seems that Otoh is fated to live in the shadow of his father’s inaction. However, with his mother’s departure and his budding relationship with Tyler, the novel also suggests that Otoh may be beginning to forge his own path thanks to the relationships and connections he has formed and the actions that he has taken of his own volition.