The Marriage Of Opposites

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, 1825, Abraham Gabriel Frédéric Pizzarro 

This chapter shifts to a third person omniscient narrator, and follows the arrival of Frédéric Pizzarro on the island. Frédéric is Isaac’s (and, by marriage, Rachel’s) nephew who has come to settle his Uncle Isaac’s estate. He was chosen from many other relatives; despite his youth, he is “responsible, respectable, and learned in legal matters” (112). He is handsome and introverted with a knack for math, but secretly he “burned for all he wanted, but ignored his yearnings, for he had a plan for his life, to prosper and be the man in his family that everyone could depend on. He wished to do this to honor his God, his faith, and this family” (113). 

Frédéric wanders around the island and falls in love with the scenery, feeling entranced by all the beauty that he’s never seen before. He goes to the family house, wanders around, and immediately drinks some rum that he finds sitting out. He drinks too much, not used to drinking, and falls asleep. When he awakes, he is greeted by Mr. Enrique who accuses him of coming to steal from Rachel. Frédéric is adamant that he’s come to help her, not rob her. On the way to see her, he asks Mr. Enrique if they can stop for a meal, and immediately gets a lesson in the island’s race relations. Mr. Enrique explains, “There are some things you should know about this place. […] Your people were granted full rights on this island, other than the fact that they cannot marry outside of their race, but mine don’t have that benefit. There is no selling of human life since the first part of the century; the Danish government saw to that when they took the island. But those who came here as slaves, remain so” (121). Frédéric says that if he can’t sit down for a public meal with Mr. Enrique, then he doesn’t want that food anyway. 

Frédéric goes upstairs to meet Rachel, assuming that she would be an old woman, and is shocked by her beauty. She wasn’t expecting visitors, so she’s wearing nothing but a white undergarment that clearly shows her figure, and her hair is down. Rosalie and the children leave, leaving Rachel and Frédéric to talk alone. Although she had originally resented the idea of him, now that he’s before her in person, she finds herself attracted to him—despite the fact that she’s considered his aunt by the law and that he’s so much younger than her.

Over time, Rachel shows Frédéric the business, and it’s clear that the two are growing closer. At one point, she accidentally spills hot tea on his hand, and when she cares for his burn she feels the heat of passion rising within. Frédéric settles into the routine of the business easily, working alongside Mr. Enrique. One day, Rachel comes to him and asks him to sign papers that will essentially free Rosalie. In this moment, it becomes clear that Rosalie was technically Isaac’s slave, even though Rachel had always treated her as a friend. Only the man of the estate could free her, and that would now be Frédéric. He happily grants her freedom. 

Frédéric is quickly accepted into the tight-knit Jewish community, although he mostly keeps to himself. He lives near Rachel in the same building, and stays close by to be next to her. He dreams of her often, and it’s becoming clear to people that he probably has feelings for her. He’s soon approached by Madame Halevy, Rachel’s mother’s best friend. She tells him that sin is “what you want and know you cannot have” (132). She says that he can never be with Rachel because they are related, although not by blood, and it would be a sin. One night, while walking home, he glances up at Rachel’s window to see her getting undressed. He doesn’t stop himself even when she gets naked. This makes him feel guilty. 

On another night, he is awoken from his sleep by Rachel. She takes him by the hand and leads him to the beach where the turtles are coming ashore to lay their eggs. On the way home, she feels like he’s put her under a spell—she should hate him but instead she’s drawn to him. In a dark alleyway, he pulls her close and kisses her. “He was so ardent that she could hardly catch her breath, but she did not consider telling him this could not be. She felt his heat as she shifted his hands inside her cloak, then inside her dress […] Now she knew, after seven children, after all these years of waiting for another life, listening for rain: ’This was what love was’” (138). 

After the kiss, Frédéric tries to avoid her, hoping he can stop his feelings. He goes wandering around at night, swimming in a waterfall, and doesn’t protect himself from the mosquitoes. He falls sick with yellow fever and is on the brink of death. Rachel and Jestine go deep into the woods to seek out the “herb man Adelle often went to for help” (142). Once they find the house, Jestine goes in alone. He gives her three doses of medicine, and for payment she gives him the pearl necklace she had received from Rachel’s mother. He also says that he wants a kiss for luck, but she answers he would only get that if Frédéric lives. Rachel gives Frédéric the medicine and cuddles beside him that night. In the morning, Rosalie finds them “wrapped around each other as drowning people are said to be, so that it is often impossible to tell who was meant to be the rescuer, and who had been drowning” (145). 

Frédéric survives and becomes even more of a recluse. Eventually it’s discovered that he and Rachel have been sleeping together. The Jewish community shuns them, but that doesn’t stop their love. He asks her to marry him. She says yes, but knows that the community won’t let them. She walks around the woods one night, thinking, and accidentally comes across the herb man’s house. She kisses him and says, “Thank you for giving me my life” (152). She and Frédéric go to the synagogue and ask to be married, but they are ignored and essentially denied the right to marry. When she gives birth to the baby, she can be seen “carrying the baby through town as if she were a married woman, as if the father of her child was not the nephew of her husband, as if sin was the last thing on her mind” (154).

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, 1826, Rachel Pomié Petit Pizzarro

The people in the congregation continue to look down on Rachel and her family, avoiding them in public. Rachel and Frédéric name their son “Joseph Félix, a second son named after my predecessor’s child to bring good fortune” (155). For their son’s sake, Rachel and Frédéric continue to beg the congregation to let them marry; they are always denied. “Because we were unmarried, my son’s name wasn’t written into the Book of Life, which charted every birth, marriage, and death in our community. That meant he did not exist within God’s sight, and should he die, he could not be buried in our cemetery” (156). Rachel sneaks into the synagogue and adds her son’s name to the book.

Madame Halevy comes to visit Rachel and says, “I know you from the beginning, so let me tell you in no uncertain terms that this scandal you’re creating affects us all. There are quiet sins and ones that echo for everyone. This situation is larger than your petty needs. People look at Jews with hatred and mistrust, and if we’re fighting with each other it gives them all the more reason to despise us” (159). Rachel ignores her warnings and goes to visit the Rabbi once again. He again denies her and shames the couple. In response, Rachel writes a letter pleading their case to the Grand Rabbi in Denmark, who eventually grants them the legal right to marry. 

Rachel assumes that this means their local community will finally accept them, but after getting married they’re shunned all the more. Rachel thinks the others are driven by fear: “Our own people wished to punish us for going over the Reverend’s head. Once Jews started doing as they pleased, outside the confines of the law, anything could happen, the synagogue might fall, the world as they knew it might disappear. The Danish government might be incited to act against us, and then a new onslaught might begin” (165). The Jewish community on the island pleads with the Grand Rabbi to revoke their right to marry, and he agrees, “declaring our marriage illegal, stating that we had not presented ourselves as Jews when we asked for permission to marry. I was officially a sinner, damned by the Grand Rabbi” (166). Instead, they secretly wed again in a small ceremony unbeknownst to the congregation. Afterwards, having been outcast, Rachel, Frédéric, and their family keep to themselves. 

Rachel gives birth to another son, Abraham Jacobo Camille. The birth lasts three days and she nearly dies. The newborn refuses to sleep, so Rachel and Jestine take him to the herb man to see if he can help. The herb man examines the baby and determines that he’s not sick; he just “has other things on his mind. […] He sees what you can’t see” (172). He gives Rachel drops to give to the baby every night, saying they will help him sleep. But he warns, “But it won’t change who he is or how he sees” (173). On the way out, Rachel buys back the pearls that Jestine had given him during their last visit to save Frédéric. He says that if she gives them back to Jestine, she’ll also be giving away her luck. She kisses him on the way out, and baby Jacobo sleeps well after that. 

On a special night of the year, the entire island celebrates and anything can happen. On this night, a fire breaks out and spreads. Frédéric instructs Rachel and the children to keep their house wet, and he leaves to help others. He is gone for two days, and she “felt I had lost half of myself, more than half, actually, for I was nothing without him” (177). Many people die in the two-day-long fire, but he finally returns. In 1833, the congregation finally declares that Rachel and Frédéric’s marriage is legal, and should be written down in the Book. 

Jacobo grows up Rachel’s favorite child, although she never admits to her favoritism. Rachel receives a letter from Elise, who writes that Lyddie is doing well and is engaged to be married. Jacobo naps, and when he awakes he runs into Jestine’s arms, not Rachel’s. 

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, 1841, Jacobo Camille Pizzarro

This chapter is told from Jacobo’s point of view. He begins by saying, “I wanted my freedom from the start. I did not wish to go to school and would have preferred to walk through the streets of the city, skirting the harbor, making my way to the shore so I could study waves, sand, birds, light. This was my library, the landscape around me” (185). Although Rachel and Frédéric were finally allowed to marry, the family remains a group of outsiders. As a result, Jacobo and his younger brothers can’t attend the Jewish school and must instead go to the Moravian school. They are the only Europeans to attend, but Jacobo is happy with this. It’s an amazing education, and he prefers to be an outcast; plus, he adores his only friend in the class, Marianna King, whom he finds beautiful. He’s aware that he’s at the school because of some scandal about his mother, but he doesn’t know the details. 

Rosalie and Mr. Enrique get married in the garden of Rachel’s childhood home. The wedding is beautiful, but Jacobo prefers to be in the back away from the other guests. He thinks about how his mother and father and are unlike other married couples because they actually seem happy together. He also thinks about how “Even as a very young child, I did not approve of dictates, and thought even less of those who enforced them, those who were our elders and called themselves our betters. They were the same people who spat on the street after my mother passed by” (189). 

The Moravian school is Christian, so Jacobo learns about Jesus. “I grew to admire him, something I would not have dared mention to my mother. I was not a believer in the Christian faith, merely an interested observer” (190). Marianna tells him that her family still practices their former religion from Africa, and that like her he should just pretend to accept the school’s faith. In this moment, he realizes he and Marianna are the same, two “disbelievers surrounded by believers. Outcasts on an island where we were not equals, she less equal than I because of her color and sex. I felt a tightness in my throat due to this bond, and an understanding of the world that would stay with me all the rest of my life” (191). However, once Marianna’s mother finds out about their friendship, she forbids her daughter from seeing him ever again.

Without any friends, Jacobo throws himself into his art. “I drew the island around me, beginning with a palm tree. I sketched it section by section, leaf by leaf. I became the palm tree as I did this, knowing it inside and out” (192). He embraces being an outcast because it means he has the solitude and freedom to pursue his art uninterrupted. He often visits Jestine, who is now brilliant dressmaker, making dresses for the richest women on the island. Jacobo finds it easier to get along with her than with his own mother, and his first portrait painting is of Jestine. . Like his mother, Jacobo longs to leave the island. 

Frédéric tries to employ Jacobo in the family store, but the young man is careless and uninterested in the daily monotony of running a business. One day, Madame Halevy shows up and asks him if he wants to learn more about his family history. When he doesn’t seem interested, she asks if he wants to know what happened to Jestine’s daughter. This intrigues him because his mother would never tell him what happened. At tea the next day, Madame Halevy tells him about her relationship with his grandmother, and instructs him to come back again to hear more. He keeps coming back when he is supposed to be attending Hebrew lessons, after bribing his Hebrew teacher with a bottle of rum. Each time Jacobo learns more about his family history, and he and Madame Halevy develop a friendship.  

Jacobo tells Madame Halevy that his sister, Hannah, wishes to marry in the synagogue but because of his family being ostracized this won’t be possible. As a prominent member of the community, Madame Halevy decides to intervene. She invites his mother, father, and Hannah over to her house for dinner. They surprisingly accept, and after the dinner Hannah is allowed to marry in the synagogue and their family is slowly granted good standing in the congregation. Jacobo stays friends with Madame Halevy, bringing her groceries from his family’s store, and eventually she reveals to him that Aaron took his and Jestine’s daughter away with when he left the island. 

Time goes by and Madame Halevy dies. Jacobo is sad and thinks about her son who was “lost when he was only a year older than I was, and the second son that she tried to protect from fever by keeping him inside for a year. Time seemed different to me, less spread out in front of me. I saw it now as a box. I was inching my way across that box, and before long I would reach the other side” (216). He decides he’s going to henceforth live life as he pleases. One day while wandering in the woods, he stumbles across the late herb man’s shack. He takes it over, “covering the walls of the shack with portraits and then with landscapes, one on top of another” (217). One day Marianna shows up. She’s afraid to come inside because of who used to live there, the herb man who “used to put spells on people and save dying men” at a high moral cost (217). 

When Jacobo turns 12, his parents send him away to live with relatives in Paris, hoping that sending him away to school will give him a fresh start. Before leaving, he promises Jestine that he’ll find her daughter. Rachel tells him that she recognizes his talent, but that he needs to focus on school. He’s surprised to see that the portrait he did of Jestine—a painting he thought his mother had thrown away—is hanging in her bedroom.