At first the constantly shifting points of view (pov) are a bit confusing. At one moment we are in Dessa's mind (which is in italics), then the point of view shifts to someone being quoted (this also turns out to be Dessa) who speaks in an older, regional dialect. This is followed by what looks like "normal" narrative text, written in the third person, but clearly written from Adam Nehemiah's point of view as he writes down his observations about Dessa. This is an unconventional and rather confusing way to begin the novel, and also gives us a very fragmented sense of who Dessa is as a person. The opening segment in italics turns out to be her dream or memory, so we start the story in her head. This creates a very startling contrast to the quoted passages in dialect, as well as Nehemiah's observations about her, which depict her as some kind of object: part animal, part human.
I find it interesting how Williams combines changing pov with flashback scenes (most of these, I think, have been marked in italics, to make it easier to have some sense of what time frame you are supposed to be in). This creates significant tension in the narrative right at the moment when Dessa escapes from her captors at the end of Chapter 2 into Chapter 3 (pp. 67–80). I think we're supposed to be as anxious as Nehemiah to know where she has actually gone, but then the narrative moves into an extended flashback -- which is actually a bit frustrating! But that puts the reader in the frame of mind of the characters, which is a clever narrative technique.
An interesting connection with our essay reading from Angela Davis is about how gender roles and identity are transformed under the conditions of slavery, in many ways that make (or allow?) women to be as powerful and capable of men in terms of the labor they can perform and the suffering they are forced to endure. The simple fact that Dessa is capable of murder makes her more masculine from the perspective of Nehemiah: "Truly, the female of this species is as deadly as the male" (p. 43).
(updated: Thu. Dec. 1)
I've also been thinking about how the changing pov also affects our perspective on Nehemiah. At first, because of the way he makes Dessa into an animal, or an object to study in this detached way, he seems really repugnant. But then as he gets to know Dessa better and begins to see her as more of a human being, he also becomes more humanized. He becomes an important outlet to the outside world for her -- he even gets permission to bring her outside (only because it's inconvenient for *him* to be in that filthy, disgusting cellar). Once he sees her removed from that dehumanizing atmosphere, he begins to see her more as a human being. And I guess it does matter that he has never been a slave-holder himself -- he's just written books about slavery. Well, a handbook about how to be a better slaveholder, so it's not like he isn't culpable. But it does put him in a mediating position between those two groups, and that allows him to view Dessa in a different light.
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