Ownership of identity

This first section of reading has already got my marbles churning around the question of identity. I find myself puzzling over both how I identify with the world around me and how others are able to find their own niche. In Thylias Moss’s novel Slave Moth, the concept of finding and protecting an identity really came into focus for me. Is our identity ever really unique or is it always a reflection of where we have been placed in the world by others? Is this positioning escapable? Can we really ever evolve, transform, and recreate ourselves? How does one create a unique identity when both it and their physical being, belong to someone else? I think one of the most interesting issues covered in Moss’s novel is the conflict of ownership of self. The issue of ownership doesn’t stop at the conflict between slave and master, but it also gets examined from the perspective of husband and wife.

Varl is a slave, she is owned by Master Peter, but she is educated and held with greater esteem by the master than he holds his own wife because Varl is an oddity. He is drawn to her because she is something of an experiment. He allows her the tools of an education and as much respect as permissible and it seems as though he is waiting to see just how long she can withstand the binds of her role as a slave. He seems to tempt her as much as his wife to run away, and is intrigued by what binds her to the plantation-is it love, loyalty, or stubbornness? Given the tools and her position within the working order of the household, Varl knows what her identity should be-that of a slave-and she also knows what it is or at least what it may become. She can see in herself a dignity and a strength that won’t be subdued by the binding weight of slavery. She strengthens her resolve by creating a tangible web of words and phrases that help to shape who she wants to become.

Her identity, the identity she has created for herself within the web of Master Peter’s greater designs, is the only thing she really holds on to throughout the story. From Rals Janet’s perspective, this is a story of one’s identity being stolen. Rals Janet is suppose to be the only woman welcome within the greater workings of her husband’s heart and mind, but this position seems to have been filled long before she became his bride. Rals Janet is supposed to be the decision maker, the respected mistress of the plantation, but instead her husband seems to place Varl and Leticia above her in matters of the home. Rals Janet is suppose to be served, she is suppose to be living the life of a lady of leisure, but due to her husband’s refusal to hire regular slaves, she is forced to work alongside the few odd slaves he has purchased. Throughout this story, the case of identity is questioned and revised leaving the reader to question how their own identity is developed.