18 pages • 36 minutes read
Gwendolyn Brooksthe rites for Cousin Vit
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1949A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Idea of Agency
At first, Cousin Vit doesn’t have much agency since death controls her. However, the speaker reveals that death “can’t hold her” (Line 2). It cannot repress Cousin Vit’s individuality. She retrieves her agency, “rises in the sunshine” (Line 6), and returns to her life.
At the same time, it’s possible to argue that Cousin Vit never has agency. Death supplants it, and then something else propels her. For a person to have sovereignty, they must have the power to act and think as they wish. While Cousin Vit appears to have this, the word “haply” (Lines 13 and 14) calls this into question. Life is too disorderly or hysterical for a person to control it absolutely. First, death possesses Cousin Vit. Then, the happy life—a product of luck and not intention—overtakes her.
The Symbolism of the “Snake-Hips”
Although Brooks never mentions Cousin Vit’s race, one can conclude that Cousin Vit is a Black woman. One critical clue is “snake-hips” (Line 10), the dance Cousin Vit performs. The Black performer, Earl Tucker, created the snakehips dance in the 1920s and ’30s. Tucker could roll his hips so far to the side that his torso took on an S shape and looked like a snake. The dance has a specific link to Black people and culture. Zora Neale Hurston says the dance possesses the “lack of symmetry that makes Negro dancing so difficult for white dancers to learn.” (Hurston, Zora Neale. “Characteristics of Negro Expression.” 1934. americainclass.org.)
As Cousin Vit performs this dance, she likely isn’t white. The reader has to acquire a deeper understanding of Black identity and culture to know her race. They can't just look at skin color; they have to become knowledgeable about the manifold elements that can compose a Black person's identity.
The Meaning Behind Hysterics
Brooks repurposes the word “hysterics” (Line 14). Due to its history, the word carries a sexist, pernicious stigma. For centuries, if a woman was behaving difficulty or having any degree of trouble following restrictive gender norms, she could face a diagnosis of hysteria. The Ancient Greek philosopher Plato and the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) used this term and applied it specifically toward women. They diagnosed women with hysteria as a way to categorize female behavior they didn’t understand or couldn’t easily control.
Brooks destigmatizes the word. Hysterics are a natural part of life. There’s nothing wrong with them. Like the so-called “hysterical woman,” life is disorderly and often hard to understand or plan out in advance. As with the alleged hysteric, a happy life confounds norms and conventions. In the poem, hysterics are positive. They are associated with a robust, forceful life that can elude even something as powerful as death.
Related Titles
By Gwendolyn Brooks
