1915–1934: (The Occupation Generation — It Being Impossible to Conceive the Complexity of Emotions Women and Families Felt in the Early Days of Military Inva…

1915–1934: (The Occupation Generation — It Being Impossible to Conceive the Complexity of Emotions Women and Families Felt in the Early Days of Military Invasion but Fear Concern Confusion and Frustration Being Likely Among Them, Children the Age of Eleanor Charles or Alice Garoute’s Grandchildren Having Told the Most Revealing Accounts of Day-to-Day Shifts, Young People Folding the Experience of the Occupation into Other Parts of Their Lives — for Many It Being Like Other Variables of Young Life That Incited Caution and Calculated Curiosity, Literary Scholar Nadève Ménard Arguing That “Occupied Novels” Reveal Insight into the Psychological Condition of Those Growing Up Under Occupation, Some Children Experiencing the Temporal Difference of Before and After While Others Like Ghislaine Born into the Occupation Had Never Known Another Haiti): It is impossible to conceive the complexity of emotions that women and their families felt in the early days of military invasion, but fear, concern, confusion, and frustration were likely among them. Children who were the age of Eleanor Charles or Alice Garoute’s oldest grandchildren at the time of the invasion have told the most revealing accounts of the day-to-day shift in society during the US occupation. Together, young people folded the experience of the occupation into other parts of their lives. For many, the occupation was like other variables of young life that incited caution and calculated curiosity. Haitian literary scholar Nadève Ménard argues that occupied novels — texts curated during the occupation — reveal insight into the psychological condition of those living through and growing up under occupation. What these texts, oral histories, and archival records show is that by conscription, necessity, or preservation, young people absorbed the occupation into their experiences of growing up. Some children experienced the temporal and spatial difference between before and after the occupation, and other children born into the occupation, like Ghislaine Charlier, had never known another Haiti. And yet, her characterization of the US Marines was an observation and attention to a presence that was deeply familiar and vividly out of place — omnipresent in a way that incited perfunctory acknowledgment.