Potiki Reading
From the beginning of her novel, Patricia Grace makes her priorities clear: She will be telling the stories that have been untold, and more importantly, unheard. Potiki begins with the story of the carver, a master storyteller, who places the history of his people in his craft. Like Grace, he is "Seeking out and exposing the figures that were hidden" (7). However, his final story is left uncompleted, because "[It] is not yet known" (10). With the death of the carver, the narrative begins, and the reader is thrown into a somewhat tumultuous world.
Unlike Things Fall Apart, there is a strong emphasis on the "hidden" nature of the story. Roimata's internal conflict is not nearly as clear as Okonkwo's. In fact, it feels almost unknowable. "As a child I lived with my father in a railway house with a small, dark kitchen... Our window framed the flying windows, flying eyes, of trains which riveted the senses, carrying them into different mornings, different afternoons, and different nights" (18). The image of Roimata as a young girl watching trains pass by from her dark, seemingly forgotten home indicates a kind of outsider status from the beginning. Later, the word "train" is used to describe stories which "defined our lives, curving out from points on the spiral in ever-widening circles from which neither beginnings nor endings could be defined" (41). Although the characters in Potiki are clearly well connected to their own culture, the threat of the outside world is present from the beginning, unlike in Things Fall Apart.
To white, Western eyes, Potiki seems more "modern." "[James'] school earth was divided by lines - latitude, longitude and equator" (39). The world of Potiki is already explored and the Maori people simply happen to live in it. When Hemi loses his job, his desire to go back to "the land" feels like a small victory of the local over unfeeling, multinational, colonizing forces. The conflict in Potiki is different than in Things Fall Apart, as the context of colonization has changed. The struggle is in many ways more complicated. The the solution seems to be in a new, reformed connection to ones own cultural identity, that takes into account the changes that have occurred but also resists the erasure of the past. The concept of home is connected fundamentally to the stories which are passed down through generations. Quite literally, the "Dollarmen" threaten the physical home of the Maori people with their projects, but they also threaten the interior sense of home, a sense of belonging in one's own community.
Unlike Things Fall Apart, there is a strong emphasis on the "hidden" nature of the story. Roimata's internal conflict is not nearly as clear as Okonkwo's. In fact, it feels almost unknowable. "As a child I lived with my father in a railway house with a small, dark kitchen... Our window framed the flying windows, flying eyes, of trains which riveted the senses, carrying them into different mornings, different afternoons, and different nights" (18). The image of Roimata as a young girl watching trains pass by from her dark, seemingly forgotten home indicates a kind of outsider status from the beginning. Later, the word "train" is used to describe stories which "defined our lives, curving out from points on the spiral in ever-widening circles from which neither beginnings nor endings could be defined" (41). Although the characters in Potiki are clearly well connected to their own culture, the threat of the outside world is present from the beginning, unlike in Things Fall Apart.
To white, Western eyes, Potiki seems more "modern." "[James'] school earth was divided by lines - latitude, longitude and equator" (39). The world of Potiki is already explored and the Maori people simply happen to live in it. When Hemi loses his job, his desire to go back to "the land" feels like a small victory of the local over unfeeling, multinational, colonizing forces. The conflict in Potiki is different than in Things Fall Apart, as the context of colonization has changed. The struggle is in many ways more complicated. The the solution seems to be in a new, reformed connection to ones own cultural identity, that takes into account the changes that have occurred but also resists the erasure of the past. The concept of home is connected fundamentally to the stories which are passed down through generations. Quite literally, the "Dollarmen" threaten the physical home of the Maori people with their projects, but they also threaten the interior sense of home, a sense of belonging in one's own community.
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