The Kingdom Of This World

Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain references to enslavement, rape, suicide, and violence.

“Monsieur Lenormand de Mézy, confident of the slave’s expertise in equine matters, did not think twice and paid the price in ringing gold coins.”

This quote illuminates the relationship between Ti Noël and Lenormand de Mézy. Lenormand de Mézy is so confident that his enslaved workers are loyal to him that he pays the price without fear that Ti Noël will steal from him. He believes he has complete power and control in their relationship.

“Ti Noël distracted himself by thinking that the heads of white gentlemen were being served at the same table as the discolored veal heads. Just as fowl were adorned with their feathers when served to diners at a banquet, so it seemed that an expert and rather grotesque chef had dressed the human heads with the most gloriously arranged wigs. All they needed was a bed of lettuce or radishes cut in the shape of fleur-de-lys as adornment.”

This passage reveals Ti Noël’s true feelings toward Lenormand de Mézy and is representative of the text’s style. While Lenormand de Mézy trusts him, Ti Noël fantasizes about the enslaver as a slaughtered animal served at a banquet, demonstrating his deep hatred of de Mézy and of his own enslavement. The style of this passage is, just like the banquet Ti Noël imagines, “grotesque,” describing in detail the violence that enslavement engenders and thus introducing the theme of Racial Violence Under Enslavement.

“Kings they were, true kings, and not those sovereigns covered with someone else’s hair, who played lawn games and only knew how to be gods in the theatrics of the court, showing their girlish legs to the rhythm of a rigadoon.”

Ti Noël thinks of the kings of Africa and compares them to the French nobility, which he derides: The latter are involved in mere games, and they are described as “girlish.” Their lack of seriousness, masculinity, and godly stature contrasts with the power of the African kings who fight in their own wars.