Bitter Grounds by Neil Gaiman, a story told in the book Mojo Conjure Stories edited by Nalo Hopkinson, is about a man in search for the Haitian Coffee Girls. In the story it does not tell who the man is but one knows that it is a single narrative story, meaning its being told by one person by the usage of I. The story takes place in Tennessee where the narrator first decides he needs to leave; and ends in New Orland’s. The story does not have a time set era. In this paper I will be stating the plot, weather the setting is important, characters and the narrator’s conflict, what African American Motifs I read within the story, and the value the story was to me.
The plot does not have a frame structure, in other words, it does not have an outer story framing a flashback inner story. I believe that the setting of the story is important because you cannot retell the story and make it have the same meaning and stay the same in a different time. In the story, page 284, the narrator encounters himself in the “Night’s Out Inn” lobby, with a man named Jackson Anderton, where he offers him a ride, and Mr. Anderton states “this is like a Phantom Hitchhiker story, meeting new people and remembering that people come into your like for a reason”. This saying stays with the narrator throughout the story as he continues his quest for the Haitian Coffee Girls. I don’t believe the narrator could have been anywhere else and encounter the same people and still find this Haitian Coffee Girls. Without these people that he encounters he would have not found the Haitian Coffee Girls.
In the story there are several characters such as, the anonymous narrator, the one telling the story, Jackson Anderton the anthropology professor who is presenting a paper on the Haitian Coffee Girls, Campbell, the narrator’s friend who is also an anthropologist, and Shanelle Gravely-King, the mysteries woman with the white or red bow. The protagonist in the story is the anonymous narrator and the antagonist is his inner want for the Haitian Coffee Girls. The conflict that the protagonist is going through is an inner force. He is dealing with an inner force because he wants the Haitian Coffee Girls coffee, which is like a drug in which the old way a person would get it is if they call upon them. The Haitian Coffee Girls is a mythical story in which the narrator is presented by Jackson Anderton, on page 286 and again on page 299. The Haitian Coffee Girls were considered zombies that sold coffee that was considered drugs that controlled or possessed people to do things for them. I say the conflict is an inner force because in the beginning of every passage of the story it leads to the conclusion that he is dealing with the Haitian Coffee Girls. On page 289, passage two, “Tongue brought me here” the taste of the coffee is so close that he can taste it, knowing that he is near his destination.
An African American motif is a theme, symbol, recurring structures, and literary devices. In the story I found two African American motifs, the first being Archetypal characters, in a sense that the narrator is a traveling man. He is traveling man in search for what he wants, the Haitian Coffee Girls. The second African American motif that I found was Journey motif going North, in which the narrator is heading South instead of North because than the world would end to fast. In this motif the narrator is on a journey to his finding the Haitian Coffee Girls, but instead of heading North to freedom he heads South were the world will continue to grow and expand.
This book was a value to me because it made me look into detail what the Haitian Coffee Girls were; they were hope for people to live and continue their journey but under the control of the coffee drug. The story is a Ghost tale story. The Haitian Coffee Girls were a tall tale in the beginning of the story and at the end, they appeared to the narrator. This story was interesting and mysteries with zombies, love, and drug. It illustrates to explore and encounter new things. Just remember, people come into your life for a reason.
