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Papi by Rita Indiana and Cécé by Emmelie Prophéte can both be interpreted as critical social commentaries on their respective society and culture. Each narrative highlights the violence, corruption, and harsh reality citizens deal with daily. Although each narrative is developed through personal experiences, the realities of society are woven throughout the text, allowing for a deeper understanding of how social environments can alter an individual’s perspective. In Papi, the narrator’s inability to understand their environment causes the narrative to seamlessly transition into a fantastical prose, followed by supernatural events and hyperbolic statements. Whereas in Cécé, the narrator’s indifference toward theirenvironment allows them to use social media as an outlet to portray society as they see fit. The unique narrative of the novels illustrates the deep impact each society has on both its citizens’ lives and perspectives.
The social media account titled “Cécé La Flamme” which translates to Cécé the flame, is the online personality Cécé takes on. She posts pictures of everything she sees in the city, be it dead bodies, her neighbors, or the garbage-filled streets. In the cité, death roamed the streets just as much as people walked through them. The gang violence within the cité and the opposing shantytown meant that gunshots were heard frequently at night, accompanied by a dead body being found in the morning. The novel suggests that death was a part of everyday life for the citizens, creating a silent acceptance of it. Therefore, the grotesque nature of Cécé’s posts can be attributed to the desensitization of death in the cité. The text states, “We were all trapped by a situation that had been too long ignored, people refusing to see, refusing to hear.” (165). Cécé portrays a nuanced understanding of society, as she is able to grasp the corruption that flows in her town, yet she invites herself into that world through social media. Her need to “see the world” provided her with wealth, status, and a closer connection to the gangs that run the cité (37). Furthermore, Cécé uses social media as a place to exist outside of her current reality, stating: “This phone is my link to the world I want” (69). Her social media presence allows her to share her perspective on society, as one living deeply intertwined in it.
The novel Papi, portrays the life of a young girl who idolizes her father, Papi, and shares her story focused on the idea of being with him and like him. Although the narrative is solely from her perspective, the narrator is not the only person who desires to be with Papi. The citizens of the town, primarily the women, are often depicted as deranged, performing supernatural tricks to get the attention of Papi. The text states, “They come at me like crazy women, shrieking, laboring with false pregnancies, giving birth to stuffed animals, to latex babies that pee when you squeeze their little bellies” (15). This suggests that the narrator views other women, not in her direct family, as the enemy. – showcasing her distorted viewpoint. This belief is rooted in the narrator’s belief of Papi being the ultimate man, who is desired by all, and has more possessions than anyone else. She claims, “My Papi has more cars than the devil. My Papi has so many cars, so many pianos, so many boats…my Papi has so many girlfriends” (10). This assertion aligns with her narrow-minded perspective on society, believing that the world revolves around Papi. Furthermore, the narrator’s description of Papi aligns with deeper societal themes of patriarchy and power in the novel. He is described as the protector, savior and sex symbol of society – tasked with providing families with money, blessing women with babies, and the evident yet obscured smuggling and distribution of contraband.
In the novel Cécé, the narrator illustrates a complicated detachment toward society and her own identity. Initially, social media was a tool for her to express herself because she “desperately needed to exist” (70). Vitality does not exist in a society consumed by violence and corruption, so naturally Cécé chose to exist elsewhere, where her voice would be heard and shared. Cécé believed that herself and the citizens lost their own identities at some point and gave up trying to understand why – a mass form of detachment, born out of negligence and avoidance. She states, “I’m one of those people who don’t even believe in their own existence” (108). Cécé’s character is further complicated by her gradual transformation as her social media presence grows. She became more aware of the implications of her social media posts as they were curated by third parties such as the gang leaders and Catherine, the businesswoman who has a brand deal collaboration with her. She chose to take a temporary break from social media after recent events that silenced her out of fear. However, Cécé realized that silence did not liberate her; it only brought her closer to being like everyone else in cité. She states, “I thought I’d get my freedom back by no longer speaking. Instead, I realized I was just as dead, just as destitute, and just as abandoned as everyone else” (136). This complicates her perspective on society because it portrays how an individual can lose sight of what is important to them because of their social environment. Cécé’s social media presence offered the illusion of living, and in turn took that away from her as if it never existed.
In the novel Papi, the unreliability of the narrator serves as a guide to understanding how they cope with their social environment. The narrator lives in a fantasy world that caters to all her desires with Papi, as well as her limited understanding of reality. This is shown throughout the novel, as there are many instances where the narrator notices something odd but characterizes it as something magical or mundane. The text states, “she lets me into Papi’s office, which is jammed with gifts: floral arrangements, a cake shaped like a machine gun, freezers, jewels” (62). This suggests that the narrator shows some semblance of understanding her social environment as she notices the ‘cake shaped like a machine gun’, yet she doesn’t question it. After it is revealed to her that Papi has died, she immediately does not believe it and plays into her own fantasy world claiming, “It’s a robot. It’s his body. Yes, but just the body. It’s a robot” (125). The narrator’s subtle acceptance of her environment is revealed as she admits it is Papi’s body. Yet her inability to grieve his death, creates this illusion that he is not completely dead.
Both novels are crucial to understanding how a narrative is shaped and affected through the social environment of the narrator. They depict the different ways that a narrative can be framed to elucidate a story, or to fantasize it, making the story much larger and nonsensical than it truly is. Each novel’s narrator confronts their ever-changing environment in the best way they see fit, whether it be for survival or for emotional safety.
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