Verse Novel: The Surrender Tree

Image courtesy http://www.margaritaengle.com

Engle, Margarita. 2008. The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 9780805086744

Review and Critical Analysis
Margarita Engle’s The Surrender Tree tells the story of Cuba’s nearly fifty year struggle for freedom over the years of 1850-1899. This story is not told through a series of military victories and defeats. Rather, the story is revealed through the life of a freed Cuban slave named Rosa, her husband Jose, a reconcentration camp escapee named Silvia, and a slave hunter referred to as Lieutenant Death. The main character, Rosa, is based on Rosario Castellanos Castellanos, a historical Cuban figure known for her abilities as a healer. Through over 130 short poems, we see Engle’s depiction of Rosa grow from a young girl into a well-known nurse who uses the natural resources around her to heal anyone brought to her, escaped slave, soldier, or slave hunter. Rosa’s ability as a healer makes her a target for slave hunters, including a man known only as Lieutenant Death, even though she has healed him on two separate occasions.

Engle’s poems are written in language that a middle or high school student could access easily. Through the poems, the narrators reveal the richness of the forest around them with descriptions of “the music/of crickets, tree frogs, owls,/and the whir of wings/ as night birds fly” (7). These images of the forest and caves that become home for Rosa, Jose, and Silvia portray the connection between the characters, the forest, and their dreams for peace. Rosa explains, “I dream that I am able to sell all these flowers/because it is peacetime/and blossoms are treasured/for beauty and fragrance,/not potions, not cures. . . .” (153). Unfortunately for Rosa, Jose, and all the other Cubans, the end of the war in 1899 did not bring the freedom they expected, as the U.S. seized control of Cuba.

This verse novel includes several aids for readers. The table of contents divides the poems into five sections by date to place the poems into historical context. Additionally, the poems are followed by author’s notes, historical notes, a chronology, and selected references to help readers pick out the historical facts from Engle’s imagining of what Rosa’s life was like. The Surrender Tree offers readers an unusual perspective on war--that of the hunted and conquered.

Example Poem 
Rosa

Farms and mansions
are burning!

Flames turn to smoke--
the smoke leaps, then fades
and vanishes . . .
making the world seem invisible.

I am one of the few
free women blessed
with healing skills.

Should I fight with weapons,
or flowers and leaves?

Each choice leads to another--
I stand at a crossroads in my mind,
deciding to serve as a nurse,
armed with fragrant herbs,
fighting a wilderness battle, my own private war
against death. (27)

Activity
Engage students in a brief discussion of the different types of fighting (physical altercations, yelling matches, flame wars on social media, etc.). Find out what they know about nonviolent protest and key nonviolent figures like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. As you read the poem out loud, ask the students to listen for the choice facing Rosa and how she chooses to fight.

As an extension, students can search for poems or song lyrics that explore the concept of nonviolent protest. Readers can practice their piece to perform for their classmates.