“Freshwater” by Akwaeke Emezi (post 3): Why does autobiographical novel about person with multiple personality have nobody depicted writing novels?

That this is an autobiographical novel is confirmed when the protagonist, Ada, has gender-identity breast surgery, just like the author has had in her real life (see past post).

Ada’s childhood traumas and her resulting multiple personality are described as follows:

“When the Ada was a child and the neighbor’s son…reached his hand between the Ada’s legs…we [the group of alternate personalities that narrates the chapters labeled “We”] decided that she did not need to remember…Not that time, or the time after, or the time after that…When the neighbor himself, the boy’s father, groped the Ada…when she was twelve, we did it again. We sectioned well—the Ada who was before the sectioning was not the same child after the sectioning. When she reached back for the memory, it would be as if it belonged to someone else, not her…

“Chima [Ada’s brother]…beat her often…

“Show us someone, anyone, who could have saved her better. Sectioning the Ada gave her isolated pockets of memory, each containing a different version of her…But there were still dangers involved in what we did; sectioning is a brutal exercise, after all, and it became uncontrolled. The Ada was living in multiple realities at once…forgetting what each one felt like as soon as she moved to a new one…For her it was deeply unsettling and felt like a developing madness” (1, pp. 208-210).

In later years, Ada was medically and psychologically seen for her distress, which included suicidal episodes, but she says “all the doctors and the diagnoses and the hospitals” (1, p. 218) never brought her any peace of mind.

Did anyone ever realize that she had multiple personality? Did they make a correct diagnosis, but think it was temporary and try a quick fix? Or were they skeptical about her alternate personalities and tell her to stop such foolishness? “More and more,” she says, “I realized how useless it had been to try and become a singular entity” (1, p. 219).

Indeed, there is nothing in this autobiographical novel to indicate that Ada (or the author) has ever had expert treatment for multiple personality. Such treatment would not necessarily aim for her to became a single entity (especially since she is a novelist and depends on using multiple personality in her writing process). But after stabilizing any of her crises, her system of personalities should have been explored, so she and her therapist at least knew which personality was causing what, and conflicts could be negotiated.

Unfortunately, Ada has only the vaguest idea as to the number and nature of her alternate personalities. For example, to whom does “we” refer? At some points, the text suggests that “we” refers to many unspecified personalities. And, to start with basics, how old was each one? It helps to know whether you are talking to a personality with the self-image of a child (a common kind of alternate personality, missing from this novel) or an adult. And whereas most alternate personalities are comfortable stating their age, many either don’t have a name or are reluctant to divulge it.

Finally, given that this is an autobiographical novel, why is no character depicted as being a novelist?

1. Akwaeke Emezi. Freshwater. New York, Grove Press, 2018.