C. L. R. James's "Triumph"

     This story that focuses in on three women on Trinidad and takes a look at gender roles and societal hierarchy on the island. We see three women who seem to compete with one another and bicker, but they live in a place on the island called the barrack-yards that are described as, "a narrow gateway leading into a fairly big yard, on either side of which run long, low buildings, consisting of anything from four to eighteen rooms, each about twelve feet square. In these lived the porters, the prostitutes, cartermen, washerwomen, and domestic servants of the city." This is the narrator and writer talking in the first paragraph of the story, setting the stage immediately that these people are 'lesser' and of a lower class than her. It seems obvious that they are looked down upon by the rest of society, continuing the theme in these short stories of the idea of 'others' or 'outcasts' that do not fit the status quo.

    Another thing the author uses to make the story feel authentic and genuine is how she quotes the three main characters. She writes in the exact way that they would speak, which is not necessarily what one would consider as proper English, which admittedly did make things harder to understand at times. For example, one quote reads, "'E say that 'e comic' round here about ten o'clock tonight or little later...An' e' give me this.'" By writing in their dialect, the author is furthering this idea of these people being from a lower societal class, possibly looking down on them for not speaking in a more clear manner. The whole story frames these people to look like they are from a poorer way of life, having them arguing the difference between the few dollars they bring in each month.

    We also see in this story how women could have been treated on this island during this time. Mamitz is yelled at on the streets by a butcher who says, "Well I know a nice woman when I see one. An' I found out where you livin' in the barrack just below Park Street?...Girl, you did look too sweet. You mustn't buy beef from nobody but me." He gives Mamitz the beef he is selling for free and seems to be only treating her a certain way because of the way she looks. It is certainly an uncomforting quote, the stranger telling this woman he knows where she lives. The way women seem to be looked at in this story as a whole, makes it seem like they almost need men to thrive, which history has proven, is not true. 

-cs

Comments

  1. Nicholas ZanghiOctober 2, 2020 at 2:09 PM

    An emphasis on women being a part of the lower class is evident in this story. A key point you mentioned is how the narrator portrays the women and their use of language. An example from the story, “I don’t know how long it will last before’e get drunk and kick me out o’here. Then I will have to go dawg’n round other po’people to see if I could pick up what they t’row’way.” The women are the only ones who talk like this in the story which is done intentionally to show where they stand on the class scale. Additionally, the quote mentions that if her man kicks her out of the house that she will have to go picking through trash to get by. This emphasizes women being subaltern. They are unable to have a job and are very reliant on men for survival. Thankfully, this has changed as history progressed.

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  2. emma nowakowskiOctober 4, 2020 at 2:43 PM

    Being a woman, it was very disheartening hearing how our role in society used to be as demonstrated in this story. The story did a good job focusing on how much women relied on men and how much lower in status they were even by using a different dialect when talking as the women. You stated that "history has proven, is not true" when talking about how the story showed women need men to thrive and I thought that was a really good point to make. I think it is cool to go back to stories like this and see how much we have progressed as a society even though it is rough hearing how it used to be.

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