Syncretizing Art, Religion and Illness in The Book of Mechtilde

In The Book of Mechtilde , Jamaican author and artist Anna Henriques uses metaphor in both text and illustrations to examine her mother’s battle with cancer and her own sense of loss after her mother dies. The narrator begins by metaphorically draws upon the Book of Job as well as Afro-Caribbean spiritual beliefs on the island such as divination and the existence of duppies. She also alludes to the post-independence political instability in Jamaica as different groups such as the JLP and PNP vied for power. By incorporating this mixture of metaphors in the depiction of her mother’s disease, the narrator addresses the syncretic nature of Caribbean belief systems, the history of the island and the difficulty of dealing with grief at a young age.