smART Icarus Girl

Reveal Yourself TillyTilly

Icarus Girl was a difficult novel to engage in right away, but the reading becomes more exciting as the story progresses. I encourage others to read this book because of the questions it may uplift about the variation of cultures and ideologies. I personally appreciated the open denouement of the novel, for it allowed my thoughts to create more than one ending. The mysteries along the way were intriguing clues to interpret one’s personal ending to Icarus Girl.

Icarus Girl takes you through the adventure of a troubled 8 year old girl –no ordinary child- named Jessamy. Not only does she have an English father and Nigerian mother, but she establishes a relationship with –what seems to be a girl her age- TillyTilly that haunts Jess with family secrets. The content of this novel causes the reader to question whether the situations are material, spiritual, supernatural, or psychological –while touching base with multicultural identity, personal identity, and ideology. The main idea I have been contemplating was the relationship between Jess and TillyTilly, and whether Tilly was a spirit or if Jess had a psychological illness.

TillyTilly was so fascinating to Jess because of her seemingly nomadic lifestyle. She mysteriously lived in a building that belonged to Jess’s grandfather –the Boys Quarters- and was able to do things that mesmerized Jessamy. Jess insisted on telling her parents about Tilly, but TillyTIlly immediately snapped at that idea. Tilly shouted, “You can’t tell anyone about me, Jessy! Can’t you tell that I’m not supposed to be there?”  (66) Little did Jess know that Tilly wasn’t referring to the Boys Quarters, but be in this quote was italicized because Tilly wasn’t supposed to be at all.

In the first half of the novel I was under the impression that TillyTIlly was a figment of Jess’s imagination –schizophrenia seemed plausible because Jess was the only one interacting with Tilly. That theory is questionable because of the realistic events that take place between Jess and Tilly such as breaking into an amusement park, physically disappearing and entering another dimension in front of her babysitter, and invisibly breaking into a class mate’s home. These mysterious happenings lead up to Tilly switching bodies –dimensions, with Jess against her will. After finishing Icarus Girl I personally conclude Tilly’s character as a spirit haunting Jessamy rather than her acquiring a psychological illness. If Jess was schizophrenic she wouldn’t have been able to invisibly enter a class mate’s home to learn her enemy’s deepest secret.  She also wouldn’t have been able to learn about her twin that died before birth.

It was another night in which Jess felt unsafe and lied in the darkness attempting to sleep. She heard a baby crying and tried to calm the infant when shortly after Tilly appeared beside Jess and took the baby. After the baby disappeared Jessamy was worried and curious about where the baby went. It was then when Tilly not only revealed that the infant was dead, but also that the baby was Jess’s sister who died before birth –Fern was her name. If Jess were schizophrenic, how would she have known that her twin never had the chance to live? This question was also brought to the attention of her parents as they wondered how Jess could have learned their past secret.

                “She knows about her. I don’t know how she knows. She’s like a witch; she doesn’t even look right … Her eyes–“

                “Look, Jess couldn’t possibly know.”

                “Shut up! You don’t know, Daniel! They know! THEY ALWAYS KNOW! Twins…they always…Oh my God she’s like a witch.”

                “Sarah, no. Look, I’ll explain to her, I’ll talk to her…”

                Sarah began rambling, her voice trembling.

                “Three worlds! Jess lives in three worlds. She lives in this world, and she lives in the spirit world, and she lives in the Bush. She’s abiku, she always would have known! The spirits tell her things. Fern tells her things. We should’ve…we should’ve d-d-done ibeji carving for her! We should’ve…oh, oh…Mama! Mummy-mi, help me…” (180-181)

Ibeji literally means twin in the Yoruban language. These ibeji carvings are generally one foot tall and carved with detail out of wood in the form of the twin as an adult. The family creates the statue to house the soul of the twin who has passed to reassure themselves that the twin is okay. According to the Yoruban culture twins share one soul; therefore, if one dies there is a disturbing imbalance within the soul of the living twin. The ibeji statue is what rebalances the soul of the twin, regaining a part of them that was lost. After learning this information about the Yoruban culture it was apparent that TillyTilly was a bad spirit interfering with Jess and her twin, Fern. Jess was introduced to her three worlds because of the spirit of TillyTilly, and I was under the impression that she did not meet her twin until the end of the novel. At the end of the novel –after an ibeji statue was created for Fern- Jess was stuck in a different dimension as Tilly took over her body. Fern encouraged Jessamy to not be afraid. Jess’s fear transferred to TillyTilly and they switched bodies/spirits once again. It was at that moment, “Jessamy Harrison woke up and up and up.” (334)