Everyone loves a good, bad guy

        My favorite character in My Love, My Love is Papa Ge.  While the gods do not appear very often, I always enjoyed the plot when Papa Ge appeared.  He seems like the most mysterious of the gods.  Papa Ge is the dark and mysterious character that is evil, but lovable to the audience.  The description of his appearance was scary and intriguing.  The first time Papa Ge appears is in the hut during the storm.  The author, Rosa Guy, describes “a shadow that became thicker, larger, then formed itself into a man, a man in black who perched inside the window, his clothes as dark as the night behind him, his top hat outlined against the gray, stormy sky… His mouth gleamed red, blood red.  He grinned around a cigar clenched between brown teeth that were dripping with blood.”(46)  Papa Ge appears to be scary as one might expect the God of death to be, but he also has a side where he seems independent from the other gods.  Papa Ge is one of the only gods that shows himself to Desiree in his own body.  This is significant because it makes him seem like the most powerful god.  He is also inevitably present in many situations.  All peasants die and meet him once, but Desiree meets him several times.  Each time he is responsible for scaring Desiree and moving the story along.  This includes both showing up at the hut threatening Daniel’s life and sending Desiree to kill Daniel when he becomes engaged to Andrea.  This shows that his characters has two sides.  He does his job as the God of death, but he is also kind in a way that he is tempted to help Desiree.  He always appears when Desiree needs hope.  He strengthens her character by challenging her and then leaving, forcing her to assume why he appeared and giving her hope for herself and Daniel in his absence.  

       Papa Ge’s relationship with Agwe is also interesting.  Papa Ge only speaks to the arrogant Agwe once, in a way that both suggest to the audience they are more powerful.  In my opinion, Papa Ge is more powerful.  Agwe, to Erzulie, says “Then I shall destroy them. I shall destroy all. Then I shall use my wrath in the darkness and the light of a soulless world. I am a most powerful god, Erzulie.”(78) In this quote, Agwe is bragging to Erzulie how he will kill every living thing on the island, but Erzulie has left and Papa Ge appears to hear this.  Papa Ge mocks Agwe: “Ha, ha, ha.  Even I shall lose my power at such a time.”  Papa Ge points out that Agwe is not the only god capable of taking life.  He is annoyed with Agwe because Agwe is pushing into Papa Ge’s territory.  Agwe is forgetting the other god’s powers and being arrogant.  Rather than argung with Agwe, Papa Ge just sarcastically proves him wrong.  I like this quality in Papa Ge.  He is and evil and calm character which makes him fun to read about.