Philip, "My Brother's Keeper"

     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 feelings about his step brother that he has become aware of as a result of his father's passing.

    Like stories and films we have already seen, this story shows a man having extramarital affairs with another woman, this time leading to another child. It furthers the questioning of just how common was this for a man in the Caribbean to find a wife and begin a family just to flee to another woman. In this story, we see our protagonist have a lot of disdain and aggression towards the 'new' son. After being told he would receive a watch from his father, he finds out his step brother has gotten it and says, "It was then I know how much I hate him, for nobody could love Papa like me." These thoughts and anger towards him are mostly unwarranted and before he actually gets to know him and by the end of the story, the step brother actually saves him from a beating and our narrator has to admit, "I couldn't believe it. It end up that me owe him. The little idiot save me." As the final lines of the story, it really brings it full circle in what I saw as a rare happy ending to a Caribbean story. Though he may still be upset, our protagonist seems to be heading towards the right direction of acceptance of a new brother as family.

-cs

Comments

  1. emma nowakowskiNovember 22, 2020 at 1:27 PM

    Family dynamic has been something that has been repeatedly brought up in multiple of the stories we have read in this course. I felt as though when the father left and had an affair the mother was not as phased as I thought she would have been; the little boy struggled with it more than she did. Unhomeliness also shows up throughout this reading which has been another common theme. It showed up in this reading as being from a different country, the new step brother was the one facing it. Usually this sense is shown through a person of color being a minority but in this case it was a white boy moving to a place where he didn't fit in.

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