As many of the responses mentioned, the shifts in how Keene presented Carmel’s story struck me the most while reading Counternarratives. From the matter-of-fact tone presenting Carmel’s background to Carmel’s own journal entries and eventually embodying Carmel’s voice itself, the way Keene illustrates Carmel’s story shifts in a jarring way throughout the narrative. His style made me wonder why Keene did not choose to stick to one style alone- perhaps readers would be better able to understand Carmel if the narrative was shaped only on her perspective. However, the way Keene deals with his description of plantation owners contributes to the narrative by showing their brutality in a nonchalant manner. Parts such as “He remembered having lashed her once- or thought he remembered he had- along with all of the other slaves under forty, upon finding ten gold pieces missing from his library safe” (90) highlights how cruel slaves were treated at the time in an ironic manner by taking on a seemingly “objective” form.

It was also interesting how Carmel’s story began as an index of an academic writing, which expands into a larger story than what it began from. Although history does not often shed light to narratives like Carmel’s narrative, it is her story that occupies the most space in this text. This is where the title plays its role- because Carmel’s story subverts the idea of who the ‘main character’ is in a historical narrative, it could be a narrative that counters the historical narratives of the past.