Melchior headed the procession carrying the banner of his god, Chango.
Going in, most readers will already likely be aware that this is a reinterpretation of Wuthering Heights. Perhaps just to be sure that readers will know it is going to be merely a rewrite, but a full-scale reimagining (or, in the current vernacular, a reboot), the books opens upon an image that makes sure the aware reader understands that while this book may feature essentially the same plot as the Bronte classic, it is going to transport about as far away from the moors of England as possible.
“Oh, how I wish I were white! White with blue eyes in my face! White with blond hair on my head!”
Just to be clear, Razyé is the Heathcliff of telling. Since it has been reset in the Caribbean, it is not just natural but correct to assume that Razyé is not white. The choice of the Caribbean as the place to retell the tragic love story of the man whose temper runs too hot and too greedy is not by chance. The author intends to cast the familiar tale through the lens of race. Thus, Razyé’s aching cry to not be a Heathcliff of another color. With white skin comes respect, he has learned.
Here he comes, as stiff as a poker, cutting across the savanna. His strides are mechanical and he looks like a zombie. Cathy was the salt of his life and he has lost her.
In a novel set in the Caribbean where race is a big issue and the modern world has not yet completely overtaken civilization, one is bound to expect a little bit of voodoo going on. This description of Razyé is not meant to be too literally, however, as is indicated by the last line. Salt, it must be understood, was thought to be a way to end the zombie from its trance and bring it back to full autonomy. Note that he only looks like a zombie, not that he is one. Cathy could have saved him—like salt—but no longer.
He was plunged into a state of utter confusion. This Cathy, so different as to be a traitor to the first, disgusted him, and he had no inclination to claim her as his own. A daughter who does not look like her mother is a monster. Yet, to claim her would be a revenge more cruel than any he had ever imagined. No more secrets. Everyone would know what had happened in the past. The name of Linsseuil would be tarnished. His offshoot would replace the master stock.
With this quote comes, basically, the turn in the narrative, the change of direction in the plot. Still in keeping in alignment with the original story, Heathcliff has turned appropriately cruel following his beloved Cathy’s death. The Cathy being discussed here is Cathy II and this plan for vengeance is constructed upon the issue of race as the stream of conflict over the daughter who does not look like the mother.
