At first glance, the arrangement of the words in Zong! by M. NourbeSe Philip may seem like a jumbled mess. The pages may at first seem unorganized and confusing, but the words represent something much greater. The words on the pages flow like the sea, rolling left and right and breaking in certain places like waves. The seas are rough, therefore the words flow like aggressive waves, back and forth unpredictably. Water is the continuous enemy throughout the text. Zong! #1 represents the passengers still on board, begging for water but too delusional to successfully ask for it. They are so thirsty that they are dying from thirst, but are not being provided any water to drink. They can’t formulate sentences, saying gibberish like ” w w w w a wa / w a w a t / er”. (3) Apart from the lack of drinking water, the sea water is the largest enemy to the slaves. They are thrown overboard by the captain and left to drown in the waves in a state of disarray. Zong! #5 shows the intensity of the situation by arranging the words in a very disorganized order, representing that the storm has gotten really bad. The narrator describes “of / water / rains & / dead / the more / of / the more / of / negroes”. (8) The waves are rushing everywhere, bodies are floating dead in the water, and the storm is raining down on the remaining slaves who are suffering.
I also believe that the arrangement of the words represent the confusion felt by the African passengers being thrown overboard. They are thirsty, tired, and dying. They don’t know what’s going on or how long they’ve been at sea. In Zong! #6, the passengers use the age of an infant to try to determine how long they have been at sea, saying “question therefore / the age / eighteen weeks / and calm / but it is said… / – from the maps / and / contradicted / by the evidence… / question / therefore / the age”. (14) It can be assumed that the baby was born on the ship or right as the ship set sail, so they are using the age of the baby to explain how long the duration of the voyage has been. However, they are not completely sure, due to the endless waves in the vast ocean surrounding them (the maps contradicting evidence of correct time). The slaves have no clear answers for anything, not even why they are being thrown over. They ask questions such as “the when / the which / the who / the were”. (15) The sad reality is that the captain throws them over to avoid having them die from “natural causes”, but they are not given the right to know that because they are treated like cargo rather than humans.
Questions:
What do you think the author was trying to convey with the placement of the words throughout the text? Use examples from the text to support why you feel this way.
How does the opening quote by Wallace Stevens “The sea was not a mask” (2) relate to the text? Explain how using textual evidence.
Lauren,
I enjoyed reading your analysis on Zong! by M. NourbeSe Philip as I learned a few things from it. When I opened the book to Zong! #1 on page 3, I was confused by the structure and the way that the words were written. After reading your blog post, your interpretation made sense to me as you stated that “the words on the pages flow like the sea, rolling left and right and breaking in certain places like waves.”
With that being said, I believe that Philip used the opening quote “The sea was not a mask” (2) by Wallace Stevens because I think that the crew members of the ship used the sea as primary approach to kill the slaves to claim the insurance money instead of waiting for them to die from natural causes, such as starvation. As Philips states, “Captain Luke Collingwood is of the belief that if the African slaves on board die a natural death, the owners of the ship will have to bear the cost, but if they were thrown into the sea, it would be the loss of the underwriters. In other words, the massacre of the African slaves would prove to be more financially advantageous to the owners of the ship and its cargo than if the slaves were allowed to die of natural causes” (189). As we read this story and the actual court case, Gregson v. Gilbert, today, we see that “the sea was not a mask” to hid their wrongdoing like they thought it would. Instead they didn’t get what they were hoping for because the insurance company refused to pay.
Lauren,
I believe that the spacial arrangement of words in the text was created by the author to leave space for readers to fill in the blanks. The silence of the spaces calls out even louder than the words themselves and makes readers consider the purpose of the spaces. Philip explains the way he creates the spaces in the text and states, “I mutilate the text as the fabric of African life and the lives of these men, women and children were mutilated” (193). Through this statement, Philip explains how he removes words from his text to account for the ways in which Africans did not have a say in their fate and experiences. The emptiness of the work is intentional so it can be filled in by silence, leaving room for thought and consideration.
The opening quote by Wallace Stevens, “The sea was not a mask”(2) relates to the text because it accounts for the idea that although the criminals tried to cover their acts up, the truth was revealed in the trial. The criminals believed that they could get away with killing off Africans by hiding them in the ocean, but the water does not hide their guilt. The word “preservation” (6) is used to show that although they tried to hide their crimes, the truth of their actions lived on and would remain for the rest of time.
Lauren,
I found your analysis on Zong! really helpful. Especially with your analogy with having to do with the waves of the sea. In Zong! #7 I found it to be really choppy with the shape of the poem, but when reading it, it is easier to notice the flow through the words. Especially when reading it out loud. Also, with each space in between the words that have big chunks dividing them, I feel as though it shows the reader to take a breath in between each break and to take a second to think/understand about what is really going on throughout the poem.
Lauren,
I also agree that when I first looked at the pages in the reading I was very confused at first, but as you stated there is some form of flow that guides you. In Zong! #1, I also agree with the way the letters and words on the page have a wave-like flow to them. I also noticed that as you read on page by page the spaces between the words get greater and the pages are formed differently.
Lauren,
I agree with your statement about the word placement on the page and how it is random and represents a sea. The first sentence of the book “The sea was not a mask” (Philip 2) has a greater meaning and reading your interpretation of the scattered words on the page helped me to understand this line in the book. I also think the words are strategically placed to cause the reader confusion and allows the reader to interpret the sentences differently based on how they are read. For example, “should they have found being sufficient a necessity (portion that question) should they have found the justify for exist…” (Philip 27). There is no punctuation or obvious pauses between phrases to help the reader.
The opening statement relates to the the text because as we later learn, that the insurance company refused to the ship owners for the death of the slaves. The crew on board the ship wanted to collect money from slaves and used the sea to dispose of their bodies. They used the sea to try and hide their wrongdoings. Their plan failed in the end. This statement is an overview of the entire massacre and the word placement on the pages reflect that.
Lauren,
I agree with the fact that this book started off as just looking like a bunch of shambled words that were all over the place. I think we were all confused at first on what to expect after seeing these scrambled pages. Honestly i wasn’t to sure about what the first section was about until you explained it and it really helped me understand it. With the placement of the words on the page, I believe the author was trying to convey suspense. and make us read slower to really think about what the words were saying. Also, in the setting that these words were coming from, this might of been how they were portrayed and the only way to make it sound the same as it was coming out. “first:/ the when/ the which/ the who/ the were/ the throwing/ overboard/ the be/ come apprehend/ exist did not.” (15). This quote shows the confusion that was going on during that time, they really had no idea where they were and how long they have been there and what was going on in that time. “The sea was not a mask.” Relates to the text because the ocean did not cover anything up nor was it trying to be used to cover things up. When those people were thrown into the ocean to die, the ocean was not a cover up to anything, they just got rid of the people that couldn’t be used anymore, and pretended like they died.
Reading the Notanda in the back of the text, Zong!, gives some much needed insight into not only what the text is about, but also how to make sense of it. “Within each silence is the poem, which is revealed only when the text is fragmented and mutilated, mirroring the fragmentation and mutilation that slavery perpetrated on Africans, their customs and ways of life.”
The most interesting piece of information I found regarding this Zong case, was the first note in the “Notes” section, “The name of the ship was Zorg, meaning ‘care’ in Dutch. An error was made when the name was repainted.” (208) This piece of information is dripping with irony as Captain Collingwood shows no care for the lives of the 150 African slaves aboard the ship and views them simply as cargo which he believes would be worth more to him if they were thrown overboard. The captain had made an extreme error in judgment and morals, as the painter had made an error in repainting the name on the ship; mutilating the meaning of the ship, as the author mutilates the meaning in her poetry, conveying the mutilation of African lives. I believe the quote by Wallace Stevens “The sea was not a mask,” relates to the text in the sense that the sea could not mask the nature of the horrendous crimes against humanity which occurred in 1781.
Lauren,
I liked your interpretation of the text, it definitely helped my understanding. I also like that you brought attention to the quote in the beginning, “The sea was not a mask” (Stevens, 1). I feel like this quote was placed in the forefront of the book so that readers can recognize that the sea cannot hide anything. The captains who threw the slaves overboard thought that no one would find out about the horrible crime they had committed, because the sea would wash their bodies away. However, the sea cannot cover up the horrible crime they have committed, what’s done is done and the sea can’t be used to “mask” this.
Upon reading Zong!, at first I was left very confused and wasn’t entirely sure how to interpret the reading. Your interpretation helped me with understanding the text in a deeper way. Reading the series of poems, with their disorganized formats, one can clearly tell this represents the chaotic event of the slaves being thrown overboard. This is especially evident with the authors repetition of the words “water” and “dead” or “died”. The opening quote “the sea was not a mask” represents the notion that the slave owners believed because they dumped the bodies in the middle of the ocean that this event wouldn’t be documented. However, metaphorically speaking the sea being used as a mask could also represent the unknown circumstances that these slaves were headed to. These slaves being brought from Africa many times did not know English and were simply sold by their tribe leaders, with no knowledge of what awaited them.
Lauren,
I really liked your blog post and it helped clarify some things for me. For example, I could not figure out the significance of the choppy and spaced out structure of the words in the poems until you described the words as flowing like waves rolling across the page. I think that was very insightful!
I think the placement of letters and words is explained Philip’s techniques. The text states, “I white out and black out words (is there a difference?). I mutilate the text as the fabric of African life and the lives of these men, women and children were mutilated” (193). This tells the story of the African slaves that were tortured or went through hardships. The breaks in words represent the white out or black out that mean silence. Philip is showing that the silenced part of a story is still very present and important to the message.
Lauren,
I enjoyed your insightful analyzation of the text. To answer your second question, I believe that the words are printed on the page in such an unorthodox way to represent the struggles that the slaves faced during ship transport. Much like the turbulent waves of the middle passage, the words are spread apart reaching highs and lows on the page. When I read the text, I imagine a ship struggling to navigate the wild waves while the human beings on board quiver with uncertainty. In the first passage, Zong 1, i imagine water splashing around and inside of the ship, out of control. The water is so powerful here that the word “water” itself cannot be fully constructed. Did anyone else notice something similar?
Lauren,
I really enjoyed reading your post, and found your focus on the formatting of this poem extremely important. I am taking intro to poetry this semester and from that class I have learned the importance of poem structure. I believe that you analysis is . The word water is broken up, scattered and hardly put together. I believe the word breakup and place meant is done to convey the begging cries of the dying slaves. Although I agree with you I feel that it has another purpose as well. It is done to emphasize the lack of water. The words are not put together because the water does not exist, it isn’t there so neither are the words. The slaves continued to die of dehydration and captain believed he had to “lost the slaves ” to gain insurance money, throwing them overboard. The quote “The sea was not a mask” (2) depicts that even the vastness of the seas does not hide the captains actions. Eventually bodies would wash up, or be seen floating by other ships. The quote is powerful in that it commands a certain type of justice by stating that what was done cannot be covered up or “masked.”
I really enjoyed your interpretation. I definitely had a difficult time decifering many of these poems so I’m glad you were able to clear some of these points up. As you said, the other opens with the quote, “The sea was not a mask” (2). There is probably many ways this was intended to be interpreted. To me, it means that throwing the slaves in the sea did nothing to hide the racism and evil acts committed here. This quote explains that, throught this work, the truth will be laid out, everyone will understand these horrible acts, and the sea can no longer mask what was done here. Very well written, thank you for your post.
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