Second Half of Pet

Grace Perry

Dr. June Ellis

EN376 Postcolonial Futurism 

20 November 2023

Second Half of Pet

One of the elements I really enjoyed from reading Emezi's work, is the way they focus on memory and how it is valued and maintained with Lucille. Most strikingly, the majority of these characters operate in a learned assumption of forgetting, in which they have been taught to live in a way that is not reflective of their own past. Lucille is dedicated to moving forward, yet, as we have discussed with the other works we have read, you cannot move forward without looking back to where you have come from. Emezi frames this well, specifically with the ending, in which trust and community are unsustainable without this shared past and the failure of ignorance as being beneficial to the whole of the society. 

Throughout the beginning, memory was key for the way in which Jam learned from and observed her parents and her relationships, yet the moment it had to be acknowledged and carried on (Pet's arrival being caused by Jam but originating with Bitter's art being an apt reflection of bloodlines and their continuation). As soon as Bitter and Aloe realize what has happened, and that their is a repetition of history occurring, they try to act quickly to prevent it. It is because of Jam's sense that this is happening for a reason that her and Redemption are able to help Moss. Without Jam's recognition of this event being meaningful because of her parent's past, Moss would have continued within that harmful situation and monsters would have continued to pervade the safe walls of Lucille. 

The resolution, also enacted because of Jam's intuition, emphasizes how their communal choice to let go of their past led them to be unable to see what was unfolding in front of them. The recognition by Jam that they cannot continue in this manner allows others to see how important it is to remember. 

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