After reading John Keene’s Counternarratives I became particularly interested in the relationship between Carmel and Eugénie. For me, this relationship out of any of the others in the text put into perspective for me the extremely vast differences in the lives between black slaves and white plantation owners. The two girls (I assume) are around the same age and live in the same place but are unable to communicate due to their different native languages. 

What struck me about their relationship the most was how the line between master and slave began to be blurred as the story progressed, at least on Eugénie’s side. When the girls first meet, Eugénie promptly asks Carmel if she can keep secrets, therefore instilling some sort of trust in Carmel. Over time, Eugénie not only becomes dependent on Carmel just for household needs, but also for emotional ones too. Keene writes, “Eugénie had always mistaken Carmel’s dutifulness for devotion. Now she saw her slave as her primary source of emotional support, so she was initially kind and solicitous…” “…and reimposed their longstanding hierarchy” (Keene, 114-15). However, Eugénie was still very aware of her mastery over Carmel, often exercising her power over her when Carmel did not live up to Eugénie’s standards. Carmel, unsurprisingly, did not cherish her relationship with Eugénie except for her access to Eugénie’s books and other intellectual material that Eugénie was given at the convent. 

While a relationship like this was probably not uncommon during the times in which Keene writes about, I thought it was compelling how Keene narrated the story of two girls of the same age with tremendously different experiences and backgrounds and how they both interacted. I appreciated that although the conditions that Carmel were placed under were heinous and completely unjust, she was still able to indulge her appetite for learning.