Roxane Gay’s An Untamed State: A Healing Narrative

In addition to political unrest, poverty and class conflict also contribute to the violence against women in Haiti. Rape of women becomes a political weapon of rival groups as well as a common practice of criminal gangs that emerge in a large number due to poverty and youth unemployment. Kidnapping against ransom becomes a source of income for these gangs, and rape or rape threat is used against the kidnapped women to compel their families to pay the demanded ransom. Reports show Haiti’s alarming rate of poverty and an increasing number of kidnapping cases during 2004- 2006. Haitian writer Roxane Gay captures this period in her novel, An Untamed State (2014), by showing violence through her protagonist, Mireille’s kidnapping. She is kept in a small and suffocating room for thirteen days, and the repeated gang rape traumatises her. The gang makes her the medium to vent their anger against the privileged Haitian families. Though she is released in exchange for a huge ransom, she loses her former identity. Instead of many medical treatments and therapies, she finds support in her mother-in-law, Lorraine, who appears compassionate and supportive. Few works which have been done on this novel, present it as a postcolonial trauma narrative. This article tries to fill the gap in the existing research works by emphasising Mireille’s healing journey and coping by taking relevant examples from the novel. For this purpose, the theory of healing from trauma has been applied.