Memory & Texaco’s Storytelling
Texaco, written by Patrick Chamoiseau, is the story of Martinique native Marie-Sophie and her fight to establish a place where others like her can live peacefully in an often-brutal post-slavery world. Memory, by definition, is the faculty of the brain by which data and information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. However, memory in respect to the story of Texaco is something far more valuable than that. In a narrative almost as layered as the landscape of its setting Martinique, memory plays a massive role in telling both Esternome and Marie-Sophie’s tales. The narrator and guide to Texaco, Marie-Sophie, relies heavily on the frequently unreliable memory of her father, Esternome, for the retelling of his story, her birth, and her motivation for founding the community of Texaco.
Side Effects of Remembrance
The retelling and recalling of memories can be risky, as there are many things that can impact one’s remembering faculties. Esternome himself admits to Marie-Sophie that in what he tells her, “There is the almost-true, the sometimes-true, and the half-true, which is what telling a life is like” (Chamoiseau 122). One, which is clearly visible in Esternome’s life, is the human feeling of nostalgia. The combination of nostalgia and memory can result in an inaccurate retelling or forgotten details of a story. Memory is most susceptible to various distortions and bias when recalled (Caruth). This concept is observed multiple times throughout Texaco. When Esternome does not want to acknowledge the fact that Ninon left him for the whims of the factory and a musician, he creates another explanation in his mind that she was abducted by a mermaid instead (Chamoiseau 147). He commits himself so to this false memory that when confronted by others with the truth, he continues to deny it, leaving people to wonder what exactly he remembers. Marie-Sophie also describes Esternome as, in his old age, finding it amusing to recreate everything according to his memory and what he knew and imagined of history (200).
Selective Memory
Selective memory may be another possibility for Esternome being an unreliable narrator. Selective memory is a contributing factor to the stories Esternome shared with Marie-Sophie. Though he did share a lot with her, the question should be asked of what memories were stored and which were retrieved (Yüvrük and Kapucu). Especially since he was sharing stories with his daughter, it is possible to assume he left out what could be very important details about his life. For example, after Idoménée and Esternome spent their first night together, Adrienne Carmélite Lapidaille accused Esternome of rape. Idoménée interrupted and claimed that she “gave freely” (Chamoiseau 179). While it is possible this is true, we cannot be sure. Esternome was telling this story to his daughter, so it is possible he could have changed the story to make him seem like a better guy than he truly was.
Memory and Identity
Memory also functions to help one own a story that they may have not yet fully accepted, which is what Esternome seems to be doing throughout the book Texaco (Staniloui and Markowitsch). His story is a dynamic one, with many moving parts and people that come and go in moments. By retelling his life to his daughter, Esternome is in actuality helping himself to figure out who he truly is and what his life looks like (Booth). Memory additionally played a role in Marie-Sophie’s identity. After hearing stories of her father, Marie-Sophie eventually established the community of Texaco. It is likely she would not have done this without learning about her father and his life. Furthermore, Marie-Sophie may have used her father’s stories as a way to not end up like him. As earlier mentioned, Esternome made up lies about Ninon’s disappearance. After hearing this, it is possible Marie-Sophie used this as a learning opportunity and a way to help shape her identity. Marie-Sophie explained that every Saturday, she and Esternome would go sell vegetables. There he would share his mistakes in life and explain it as if he were trying to teach her a lesson (Chamoiseau,195). After hearing her father’s stories, Marie-Sophie was able to learn how to handle certain scenarios in her life.
Memory is also essential to preserving a group’s identity and values. It is likely that no group has relied on memory as a means of identity more than the descendants of enslaved people, as they had little to no other resources to record their lives. This is precisely why storytelling and the passing down of tales is so crucial to the culture of the African diaspora, and in Texaco’s case, recently freed people who are fighting to determine their place in the world.
Importance of Memory
Throughout the entirety of Texaco, memories are what are being shared. Without Esternome’s memories, the novel would not have nearly the same impact that it did. Marie-Sophie records Esternome’s story for the continuation of his legacy and his identity. Esternome tells Idomenee that memories are the glue and the spirit, and that without them there would be nothing that gives our life meaning (Chamoiseau 178). Memories are what bonded Esternome and Marie-Sophie. They were able to spend time together and Marie-Sophie got to learn all about her father’s life. After Esternome passed, Marie-Sophie was still able to keep the memory of him alive through memories. As stated by Mroz et al., a deceased person may often be “gone but not forgotten.” Those memories helped Marie-Sophie stay connected with her father even though he was no longer physically with her. Similarly, Idoménée felt the importance of memories when seeing Adrienne, her sister that she has not seen in years. Idoménée recognized her face, then realized it was her when she felt a “familiar smell, a feeling” (Chamoiseau 182). Feelings, even smells, can hold a memory relating to a particular person. Idoménée had the memory of her sister, in the form of a feeling, and recognized that feeling when she saw her.
Esternome explains that one has to talk, to tell the stories, to live the legends lest you lose everything important. This theme is repeated in other characters throughout Texaco. Even the urban planner upon paying a visit to Texaco, determines that one must survive on memory as it is the only thing connecting you to your roots and culture (Chamoisea, 170). True to the Urban Planner’s observation, at the end of his life, the only thing Esternome has left is his memory of his life and the things he’s done. When he dies, through his storytelling he leaves Marie-Sophie with the greatest gift possible and gives her the momentum and inspiration to found Texaco. Marie-Sophie relies heavily on the stories her father told her to continue her fight for Texaco when all hope seems lost. His memory serves as her guiding hand when navigating the trials and tribulations of establishing Texaco (Chamoiseau 291).
Works Cited
Booth, W. James. “The Work of Memory: Time, Identity, and Justice.” Social Research, vol. 71, no. 1, 2008, p. 237-262.
Caruth, Cathy. Trauma: Explorations in Memory. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
Chamoiseau, Patrick. Texaco. Trans. Rose-Myriam Réjouis & Val Vinokurov. NY: Vintage, 1997.
Mroz, Emily, Susan Bluck, and Deborah Carr. “Memories of Lost Loved Ones.” Innovation in aging 4. Supplement 1 (2020): 606–606. Web.
Staniloiu, Angelica, and Hans J. Markowitsch. “Dissociation, Memory and Trauma Narrative.” Journal of Literary Theory/Zeitschrift für Literaturtheorie, vol. 6, no. 1, 2012, pp. 103-130. https://doi.org/10.1515/jlt-2011-0012
Yüvrük, E., & Kapucu, A. “False (or biased) memory: Emotion and working memory capacity effects in the DRM paradigm.” Memory & Cognition, vol. 50, no. 7, 2022, pp. 1443-1463. doi:https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01298-y
Editorial Collective
Hope Chulka, Asha Sangoi, Mickenzie Bass, Dominique Obispo, Erin Gheen, Dhruv Gheewala
