Craig Spell - Other Americas GBS-3299

      These two texts from Kincaid do a good job of commentating on issues of gender roles and stereotypes as well as other postcolonial issues that we have studied all semester. Throughout the literature we have read, women have been seen as lesser than men and called derogatory terms like "slut" while men are looked at as  strong and powerful. Many times men were the dominant person in relationships and the women were the people who were expected to be a certain way. Kincaid discusses some of these expectations in "Girl" saying, "on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming." Women in the Caribbean, and really all over the world, are often looked at in a negative way for expressing themselves or their bodies in different ways that are not seen as 'acceptable.' This piece from Kincaid also goes on to give an extensive list of things women should know how to do and at times, it seems like women were for...

      After reading on the background on Caribbean poetry as well as some poems from Derek Walcott, I was surprised about a few things while also finding out some things that I expected. An immediate thing that suck out to me, like all the literature we have read out of these islands - it means something. There is a message behind these poems. The article says, "it can hardly be denied that West Indian English poetry is good and vital precisely because, like all great poetry in the past, it includes ethics and politics, and its authors are agreed that, poetry matters, and it has a crucial role to play in making an unjust world more just." We have talked about the postcolonial issue of representation and ostracized people not having a voice. Written word like poetry can level the playing field for people like this and give them the opportunity to have their voice heard.      David Walcott was no exception to this role. Poetry was an ...

    This story returns us to a theme we have seen time and time again in our studying of Caribbean literature and that is the theme of death. "Passport to Paradise" also deals with dynamics of family and religion, two other subjects that have appeared a lot in our readings. The interesting thing about this story was how it views the handling of death and the afterlife. After a  woman's husband has died, she is unable to get the priest to bless his body. The story says, "Eugenio, a notorious alcoholic, living in sin, had died without going to confession. No act of contrition, no absolution, no extreme unction, no benediction." While we have read about deaths, funerals, and burials, we had not gotten a perspective like this on the need and denial by a priest or religious figure after someone's death. This added stress and sorrow to the death of her husband left Eloise to a "deep depression" and just like that, like so many characters we have read abo...

      Roemer's story follows thematics of stories we have been studying over the last several weeks. "The Inheritance of my Father" gives an inside look at family dynamics that involve someone who has come from the Caribbean. Similar to other stories we have read, the narrator takes a trip to where her grandmother lives, the place where her father originated from. This story also takes a look at issues of race and some of the stereotyping that takes place based only on the color of one's skin. We have seen in previous literature examples where a man form the Caribbean leaves and finds a light skinned woman that does not look like him. That situation is the same here, our narrator saying of her mother, "And after that night I am ashamed to be the child of a woman with blond hair and grey eyes and a voice that sounds just like that of people who are not black. Believe me, I longed for a mother with a scarf on her head and sk...

      Continuing on the theme of the last several pieces of literature and film we have watched, "My Brother's Keeper" gives us an interesting look at family dynamics and conflict in the Caribbean. In this story, our narrator has learned about the passing of his 'Papa,' who had seemingly moved north to the mainland United States, leaving he and his mother behind in the Caribbean. This leaves the son enraged and unhinged and we see it play out first hand as he writes his account in this story. His writing brings up another issue we have seen in previous texts with diction and  broken English. From the first line of the text that says, "When Papa dead, I cry till I almost vomit. I never know I would miss him that much because I used to never see him plenty, even when him was alive," we see that the protagonist in this story is getting his thoughts onto paper not in an eloquent, but in a raw way. He does not hold back on his feeli...

      "Morris, Bhaiya" tells the story of yet another character in Caribbean literature forced to deal with double consciousness. Our main character, Morris, is caught between two sides of culture, almost like living a double life. This character, similar to many we have read about this semester, has a sense of unhomeliness, feeling isolated in his own environment. With this from the first lines of the story that say, "Morris was an island in a sea of Indians." We know that right away our protagonist is dealing with the postcolonial idea of otherness, likely seen as an outcast by the surrounding members of society. The story even describes him as an outcast at one point. Loneliness has been a reoccurring theme throughout the  Caribbean literature we have read.      An aspect of this story that we have not seen as much in our previous literature is the government and political portions of the story. The story...

      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...

    Similar to 'Moko Jumbie' and "To Da-Duh, in Memoriam," this film followed a girl's journey home back to the Caribbean, in this case to the island of Guadeloupe. This story also has the common theme between the three of family, but the issues in this story seem much different than the previous two. Right from the beginning of the film, we see our protagonist, a first generation college student who has just earned her Master's tell her mother she is returning home from Paris to the Caribbean to look for her father. We see just how upset the mother was, which was interesting to see. It made me wonder if people that got off these islands and realized what else the world had to offer never wanted to go back. Still, there are people like Elza that had an emptiness inside of them that they needed to return home to find.     When she gets home, Elza becomes a babysitter for her father's granddaughter in what is quite an interesting family dynamic, though the o...