The root: Deconstructing Creole identity in La Traversée de la Mangrove «I like to repeat that I write neither in French nor in Creole. I write in Maryse Condé1, (“Dangerous Liaison”, 2007), a statement that could not be more precise for the Guadeloupean writer. Writing in French is particularly problematic for postcolonialist French-speaking authors; Using the language of the colonizer while attempting to dismantle the cultural and linguistic hierarchy seems to be a futile act. True, Condé, the author of Crossing the Mangrove, ostensibly writes in French, but she deftly deconstructs the idea that a language must necessarily be linked to the culture and history it traditionally represents. Through careful practice of intertextuality (the formation of a text's meaning through reference to or application of a previous text) and narrative experimentation in Crossing the Mangrove, Condé demonstrates that objectivity in all the meanings of the term is impossible. Using the French language is not an act of capitulation to the colonizer and acceptance of all that is "French", in the same way that the account of an event by a single person is not the ultimate truth . In Crossing the Mangrove, Condé presents the strange and dark story of Francis Sancher from multiple perspectives and simultaneously works with aspects of the Western literary canon (especially William Faulkner). This emphasis on literary and real inconsistency is repeated by the symbolic motif of trees and their roots throughout the novel. Analyzing Crossing the Mangrove, it is evident that the fusion of intertextuality, shifting narrative perspectives, and the motif of trees and their roots contextualizes the fragmented nature of diasporic identity. Really, it's...... middle of paper ...... and questions of post-colonialism in Crossing the Mangrove. It is clear that Condé favors multiplicity when it comes to ideas of language, narrative, culture, and identity. The idea that everything can be understood through a single objective lens is destroyed by its practice of intertextuality, its conception of a character's story through multiple perspectives, and its use of the motif of trees and roots . Ultimately, everything – the literary canon, Creole identity, the narrative – is confused, chaotic and rhizomic; in general, any attempt at decryption requires the use of multiple methodologies (mentioned above).WORKS CITEDConde, Maryse. “Dangerous Liaison”, For a World Literature, (dir.) M. Le Bris & J. Rouaud, Gallimard. 2007. Paris: 205–16. Condé, Maryse and Richard Philcox. Crossing the Mangrove. New York: Anchor /Doubleday, 1995. Print.