Clyde Hosein's "Morris, Bhaiya"

     "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 follows an election involving two parties - the African Party and Indian Party, meaning there were both cultural and political issues on the line. While I'm not sure if it was purposeful, this story was a timely one and I could not help but draw comparisons to what we are seeing right this second in America with our Presidential Election, the political divide in the country, and the overall political climate. It was interesting to read a story of Caribbean literature from years ago that mentioned things like democracy and polls, words that have been engrained in our brains through this campaign and election season.

    Not only that, but some of the issues discussed in the story are not all that different from heated topics of debate we are having today. The story says at one point, "Vote Manohar Lakhan! Vote the Indian Party! The party that stands for democracy!  The party that will not bring in the small islanders to swamp you out of your land!" Regardless of time period or geographic location, people find themselves concerned with who is living on 'their' land and how they got there. Portions of this story reminded me of the famous quote about history repeating itself that says, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Issues we face today are not new, we just have not figured them out. 

-cs

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