Caribbean Crucible Documentary

    Like many places, music has become been a dominating and crucial aspect to life and culture in the Caribbean. I was surprised that our literature has not had more music than it has, but after seeing this documentary, I am sure more stories with music are coming up. Music is a unifier in many ways and looked at very positively by people in places like Jamaica, where their Junkanoo festival drew comparisons to Christmas. Not only is music used for celebration, it is used for important life events and sacred, spiritual moments. Music is blissful and appreciated by the people. Knowing that music and religion can go hand in hand, one person in the documentary said, "Suppose we are having a celebration. See, it is joy. It is merriment. And we sing those songs, and we are happy and we try to make others happy too. And then, to think of the spirits and to get it into touch with them, the music had to be used." Not only is music enjoyed, it is a necessity, people would not know what to do without it.

    In addition to using music to bring groups together, it is used for individuals to express themselves. I cannot help but to think that some of our postcolonial characters who deal with otherness would use music as an escape from the loneliness and ostracism to feel uplifted. A Jamaican man in the documentary talked about this self-expression in the form of music saying, "It was not just that people were talking like this because they couldn't do better. It was that they were creating a thing for themselves, something that was better for their personality. To express themselves, in a way." That is one of the other beautiful things about music is how it can come in many different forms and truly be unique to the artist. Different sounds might be heard from one island to the next in the same way that writing and literature may slightly differ from place to place. The personalization of music is what makes it special and in these cases, what makes it Caribbean. 

-cs

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rosario Ferre's "When Women Love Men"

      The story story told in Ferre's "When Women Love Men" was an interesting look at how love, relationships, gender, and culture all come together in Puerto Rico. The story also hits on several other issues like societal class, race, and death, which we have seen become commonalities in the literature in the Caribbean. In this story, we see the relationship and interaction with two women who contrast one another as practically opposites. These two, who share the same first name of Isabel are the wife and mistress of Ambrosio, who has died and forced these two into the interactions we see in this story. From the beginning, there is an awkward tensity here and no punches were being held back, even at the man who had passed away.       In a pretty bizarre story at times, the story says, "Because we, Isabel Luberza and Isabel la Negra, in our passion for you, Ambrosio, from the beginning of time had been grow...
Read more

Breeze, "Sunday Cricket" & Sam Selvon's "The Cricket Match"

    In these two stories, we get a look at how sport and competition can be an equalizer in a postcolonial world. The stories also touch on how much sports can tie into a culture's identity. In "The Cricket Match" we see a more traditional idea of what we might think of cricket, a British game, but with some people from the West Indies playing. In "Sunday Cricket," we see a full-on West Indies story, from diction to how the characters acted. The common ground, though, was the game of cricket. It did not matter where they came from, on the field, each person had an equal opportunity to perform and compete. While it's thought of as a traditionally British game, the men from the West Indies were impressive in "The Cricket Match," the narrator saying, "Them Englishers never see a stroke like that in their lives. All heads turn up to the sky watching the ball going." In this game, preconceived superiority and social class did not matter. This ...
Read more

Wickham's, "The Light on the Sea"

      Similar to "Blackness," I saw this story as one that arrives at self-actualization and realization. Mr. Farley was an artist who was never satisfied with his work. He could never complete it because he would lose his vision. Our narrator introduced Mr. Farley as someone who might be seen as dealing with 'otherness,' generally seen as an outcast from the rest of the society. The story says, "It did not surprise me that Mr. Farley never succeeded in his career, never became talked about but always remained a kind of butt, outside the swim of things, a harmless figure of fun." Mr. Farley had to deal with this bit of social isolation like we have seen so many characters have to do in this Caribbean literature. He has to feel this way most of his adult life, dealing with the idea of  unhomeliness, uncomfortable with his work and not feeling satisfied. That is, until he finds somewhere he foes like to call home.     This p...
Read more