Assignment on Secrets We Kept by Krystal

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Memoirs of A Part Storyteller, Part Daughter and Part Granddaughter
“Secrets We Kept “by Krystal A Sital is an engrossing and vivid tale that the author
recreates from the memories of her mother and grandmother. The paper makes an attempt to
construct the character of Kristal from the book of Secrets We Kept and follows her trajectory of
transformation over the course of the book. Despite the horrors and tragedies faced by the
women in her life, Kristal still cannot break the bond with her father and grandfather but, at the
same time, feels the need to acknowledge these women and their stories of sufferings.
The true story is based on the personal experiences of three generations and reflects the
horrors and tragedies faced by the women at the hands of their husbands. The gentle interviews
of Krystal with her mother and grandmother dig into the sufferings faced by three generations of
women within the brutal patriarchal confines of her family history. These conversations take
place when the women get together for cooking and other chores and give substance and thought
to the author to write down the story.
Krystal begins her memoir with fond memories of Trinidad, its natural wonders, and the
great life they had there. It is apparent that she never thought they would have to leave the island
and settle in America. The life in their third-floor apartment in New Jersey is a far cry from what
they had in Trinidad. Her early memories of Trinidad during her childhood are pleasant and

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warm. She grew up idolizing her grandfather and loving her father and never thought they could
terrorize the women in the household.
When Krystal’s grandfather is in hospital, suffering from a life-threatening condition, his
condition only grows more critical. What confuses Krystal are the conflicting attitudes she sees
in her grandmother and her mother towards her grandfather. While her mother seems devoted to
him and sits by his side day and night but her grandmother wants her grandfather to be dead.
When she asks her mother about her grandmother’s attitude towards her husband, her mother
replies that with her husband in the hospital, her grandmother feels safe. She is haunted by a
beating and tortures that took place about thirty-six years ago (Sital 25). That is the first incident
that shows Krystal that there is another side to the life she sees around her. While she looks at
her mother and grandmother to be strong women who can make decisions, they feel helpless
within the brutal patriarchal confines of their family.
She remembers her grandfather to be a doting one as he rustled her hair and kissed her on
the head (Sital 12). She has fond memories of her father and is sure that he loves the family and
her mother too. However, as she learns about the men in her life, she not only sees them as father
and grandfather whom she admired but also as husbands and perpetrators (232) She learns about
the violence and horrors in the life of her mother and grandmother when they were young. When
her grandmother was young, her husband made her work on the farm, even when she was
pregnant. His blows were only more brutal, and he was even unfaithful to her. The author also
mentions about his bastard son Avinash (Sital 303).
When Krystal sees her mother ripping off a picture of her parents form their wedding
creepy and burn it, she is not able to realize fully as to what is going on. Krystal rushes forward
to save the picture as those are precious memories from the past. She doesn’t want to get

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destroyed (Sital 322). Her parent's wedding album was precious to her. Krystal is sure that her
father loves her mother but is not sure as to why he cheated on her. And just like other men, he
left no room or space for any questioning and always resisted being questioned (Sital 323).
When Krystal knows about the possible divorce between her parents, she doesn’t like it
as she thinks it was for the people of America and not for someone from Trinidad. She wanted
her parents to stay together and wondered as to when would the men on their island change.
Krystal learns that her parents stayed together in the marriage, not because of any love or care
between them. It was because the women on the eland did everything possible to save their
marriage and didn’t want to be branded as divorced. Moreover, it would have been difficult to
place any charges against her father, who was a high-ranking police officer (Sital 337).
Krystal learns that although her mother wanted her life to be different from her
grandmother’s, she seems to replicate it closely. For her, her family became her priority, and
even if she had wanted a career, she had no choice but to stay at home. The mantra of no job, no
love, being pregnant, and working day and night seems to have echoed from one generation to
another (Sital 318). Krystal looks at her mother to be a strong woman who uprooted her children
not just for her selfish reason but also because Trinidad was becoming unstable in the economy
and the crime rate was growing (Sital 337) Perhaps the shift to America also help her to distance
herself from her husband and teach him a lesson for cheating on her.
Later in the novel, Krystal learns that her grandmother, her mother, and herself become
much stronger as they try to make sense of their lives and heal together. Sill, Krystal feels the
need to connect with her father, despite the loneliness and despair. She wants to still remain
together as a family. At the same time, she feels her bond with her mother has deepened and
become stronger. After hearing the stories from her mother and grandmother, her emotions

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towards her grandfather and father become complex, but she never stops loving them. Krystal
still loves her father, and that makes her wonder if it is the same love that makes her mother take
care of her grandfather despite what he did to her grandmother. As a daughter, she felt connected
to her father and sympathized with her mother.
Krystal tends to develop deeper sensitivity toward her mother and grandmother, but her
emotions towards her father and grandfather get complicated. After all, the men she loves are the
perpetrators of violence on the women in their home. This is why she carries complex emotions
as there are no answers to some difficult questions that she wants to ask. At the same time, she
steps back to give her mother and grandmother space and freedom to narrate their experiences
and their relationships with their husbands.
Kristal’s interviews with her mother and grandmother make her reflect that even when
stronger women make certain choices to escape the poverty of their circumstances, they cannot
escape the ugliness of their life. While her grandmother and mother must have found some relief
sharing their stories and made peace with the brutal past, the stories brought Krystal closer to
them. She looks at her father and grandfather as well as her mother and grandmother differently
than before. She seems to understand why these women, despite the torture and victimization,
never left as leaving meant even a much more hard and disgraced life. Her book gives voice to
the unvoiced and marginalized in her family.
Journal 1- The Human Agency
Krystal novel "Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad "offers an insight into the
personal experiences and severest of her family through three generations. Her sense of
subjectively is understandable as she interprets the behavior of more than one individual humans
in her family over the generations.

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When experiences first learn about the twisted dark histories of the two central women in
her life, she is filled with anger.
When I first heard the story, I felt the heat of anger consume me (Sital 9).
However, the wave of anger that swept over her leaves her as quickly, and now she is filled with
curiosity to learns more about her mother's and grandmother's lives.
“But it quickly zapped away, to be replaced by intense curiosity (Sital 9).”
Any specific human involvement gives rise to new decisions and discourses. It is a
system and culture that compound human and develops a conceptual framework to understand
certain behavior in reference to certain actions. The culture of the small island holds unique
experiences that vibrate through generations there and reverberate through Krystal's book.
The author feels a strong need to record oral stories that of then get lost from one
generation to the next and document them for a permanent record. She feels overwhelmed at a
time when she digs into the brutal past of her family and learns about the long-held secrets.
“ My family's history attacks me in waves as notorious (Sital 26).”
She is enraged by what she learns and wants to kill her grandfather.
“I want to kill Shiva myself when I think of how he had beaten everyone (Sital 238).”
However, she creates the two images of the man she loves and develops complex emotions as
she tries to connect the two images.
“I try to reconcile the two images I have of him, Shiva, my grandfather, and Shiva the
man (Sital 238).”

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It is apparent that the author is overwhelmed with emotions at times and stimulated by
those conversations and experienced she has had with her mother and grandmother. It must have
been difficult for her to write about those cruel secrets within her family, and she may even have
been stigmatized within her people or culture.
Still, the author feels a human compulsion to tell those stories and sheds those
generations of victimization. She tells all about their horror and abuse, as well as delight and
romance on these pages. The book is written from the perspectives of women and is about
women's lives that often get organized based on the needs and success of a man.
Journal 2 Identity
Although Secrets We Kept is a book about women and written with a purpose to
highlight the powerlessness experienced by Trinidadian women for generations, it also reflects
the strong sense of identity by the author.
She begins by writing-
“We are of Trinidad- my grandmother, my mother, and I (Sital 3).”
Those words reflect her strong connection to her roots and identity and which can be
traced back to Trinidad. In the novel, the author purposefully and consciously states her identity,
and it is not surprising. After all, identity construction is n fundamental human nature that gets
manifested through different means, and literature is one of them.
She writes-
“Trinidad- Hwome, as we will call it for the rest of our lives (Sital 3).”
It is apparent that no matter where Krystal goes to live, she will always call Trinidad her
home for the rest of her life. The text can work as a useful resource for identity formation as the

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author adopts the personalized experience of herself and her surroundings to get the attention of
the readers.
She writes-
“The Trinity represents our most powerful guardians (Sital 3).”
She carries deep knowledge about Trinidad, its communities, and its history. Her aim is to let
her readers get familiar with her roots and identity.
She writes-
“On our islands, you will find descendants of the Caribs and Arawak tribes, Europeans,
Venezuelans, Chinese, Syrians, French, Portuguese, and Lebanese (Sital 4).”
She not only finds her homeland beautiful but also powerful and strong to protect them.
“Tobago, which is mostly rainforest, is home to some of the most worlds’ most beautiful
birds (Sital 177).”
She gives several instances of the food being prepared in their home and illustrate their
family’s culture. It is n easy to understand as her identity is the primary variable that she can use
to influence the readers and tell them as to who she is and what her family and culture are about.
She motions” aroma of curries,” shark sandwiches,” culantro,” and not cilantro (Sital 7).
She writes-
“To a bowl of water, she adds Trini curry powder and two halved cloves of garlic (Sital
24).”
“Dinner is done- fluffy rice, chunkayed saffron dhal, and curried chicken (Sital 24).”

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The above examples reflect the author attempts to create a strong sense of identity as she
explores food-related practices followed by her family.
When her grandfather is sick, she is encouraged by her mother to pray and recite some
bhajans.
She writes-
“My mother nudges a copy of Vipassana in my hands (Sital 234).”
Clearly, the author is keen to develop her identity through the Trinidad islands and her
family’s cultural practices.
Journal 3 – The structure
Kristal’s story is not only moving because of the suffering of these indomitable women
but is applaudable because of the skillfully preserved details by the author, as she develops the
characters and the plots to create a powerful structure in the tale.
The mention of “Three Women of Trinidad” and “Secrets We Kept: in the title create a
curiosity in the reader would want to know more about the three women and their secrets.
Krystal learns about the long-held secrets of her family, and the ordinary women in her life were
no longer ordinary. She admires them for finding strength in themselves and surviving the
ordeals in their life.
There is a nonlinear structure in the story as the author jumps back and forth through the
timeline. The book starts with Krystal and her family in the United States and how her
grandfather falls sick because of a life-threatening condition. It is when Krystal is confused
because of her grandmother’s reluctance for her husbands’ survival and asks some questions; the
tale goes back in time to the coasts of the Trinidad islands.

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“I learn that my mother and grandmother do want to tell us. All we must do is ask. And
then listen,” (Sital 26).
The author gives vivid descriptions of the intense beauty of the Caribbean and how
Trinidad is a beautiful island. This is a place where you would want to go to and not escape
from. She has used the Trinidad and Tobago islands as a character and a backdrop and how
horrific things can happen to women, even in the most beautiful places.
There are clear and vivid descriptions of the characters in the novel, and that shows the
expert command of the author over language and her keen observation.
She writes-
“Her face is peppered with skin tags and moles (Sital 10).”
“Her varicose veins bloom beneath her thinning skin, a latticework of green and purple
(Sital 12).”
“The Shiva Singh I knew was a tall man with skin the color of sapphire sky, sweat
beading his arm like gold dust (Sital 13).
Even when she describes food and the spices and flavors, you can almost see and smell
those Trinidad recipes. The kitchen has always been an important place for women across
different cultures, and it is in the kitchen when the mother and grandmother of the author opened
up and told their stories.
She writes-
“Rebecca fried the balls of fishcakes, dollops of spinach and dough and ground-split pea
patties to golden brown (Sital 128).”

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Works Cited
Sital, Krystal A. " Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad Hardcover." W. W. Norton &
Company. vol. 1, No. 1, 2018, pp. 1-352.