In the novel Dragon Can’t Dance, author Earl Lovelace unraveled the lives of individual characters as they prepare for carnival. Carnival is the most anticipating time of the year for the residents of Calvary Hill in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Carnival day is full of festivities from dancing to the steelbands to the sound of calypso music.The people are very appreciative of their exclusive and very authentic costumes in the Carnival. People from Calvary Hill work very hard to sustain this very treasured and irreplaceable part of their identity with demonstrations in parade by the streets of poor neighborhoods. The celebration held annually with a very serious and well organized costume and mask making competition. This wonderful event conferred …show more content…
“ To her being queen was not really masquerade at all, but the annual affirming of a genuine queenship that she accepted as hers by virtue of her poise and beauty (18).” She conceitedly thinks she is the Queen of the Band and superior to others because of her mulatto complexion, ability to get any man, confidence and her good looks which wass simply an excuse for her snobby and arrogant behavior. She would only be nice to people around Carnival time, after Carnival she would return to her selfish and prejudice …show more content…
Pariag was a character that faced racial discrimination by the Calvary Hill residents due to his Indian background. This may be as a result of introducing new and different culture, not having the same shared experiences and history as they have. Also, the possibility of having an African-Indian relationship, was something they were not ready to accept and the fear of starting an Indian community with Pariag and his wife living there was repugnant. The resentment and isolation that Priag received presented a flashback and linked back to Stuart Hall “Cultural Identity” and “No Telephone to Heaven.” Hall essays reminded us that hybridity of cultural identities is a mixture of two or more cultures; there are many cultures in the Caribbean, within a country, and they all should be united as one. Also, in No Telephone to Heaven where the Savage family were isolated in America because of their skin color and their cultural
Over the years, the Calle Ocho festival has brought hundreds of smiles to thousands of people. Behind the smiles, the laughter, and the dances, there is a serious side to the festivities. In the beginning, Willy Bermello just wanted a little backyard get-together that would bring neighbors closer, but the festival turned into something much, much bigger. With the festival's growth and inevitable commercialization, Bermello increasingly felt that its importance was being forgotten. He wanted to let people know this was more than just a big party. He wanted people of different races and different ethnicities to be able to feel comfortable with each other, and not just for one day. He wanted Calle Ocho's influence felt throughout the year.
The novel deals with the pain and pleasure of the past and present and how that effects the identity construction of an individual. The ethnic/racial identity of an individual can be influences by the complexities of a post-colonial society filled with social clashes, inferiority, and the othering of individuals. The novel focuses on the Haitians who have migrated to the Dominican Republic to escape poverty but are still alienated and devalued because of their poor economical conditions. By migrating to the Dominican Republic and crossing the boundary between the two countries they are symbolically being marked as ‘other’ and seen as ‘inferior’ by
This week’s articles carry a couple related, if not common, themes of imagined, if not artificial, constructs of race and identity. Martha Hodes’ article, “The mercurial Nature and Abiding Power of Race: A Transnational Family Story,” offers a narrative based examination of the malleable terms on which race was defined. To accomplish this she examines the story of Eunice Connolly and her family and social life as a window into understanding the changing dimensions of race in nineteenth-century America and the Caribbean, specifically New England and Grand Cayman. While Hodes’ article examines the construction of race in the Americas, Ali A. Mazrui’s piece, “The Re-Invention of Africa: Edward Sai, V. Y. Mudimbe, and Beyond,” looks at the construction of African identity. Although different in geographic loci, the two articles similarly examine the shaping influences of race and identity and the power held in ‘the Other’ to those ends.
Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative provides insight into cultural assimilation and the difficulties such assimilation. The writer embraces several Western traits and ideals yet guards his African virtues jealously. In doing so however, he finds himself somewhere in between a full European and a displaced African. This problem of cultural identity Equiano struggled with is still present in modern American society. The modern day African-American appears to also be in the process of deciding the between two competing cultures and often being left somewhere in middle becoming a victim of cultural identity just like Olaudah Equiano some 250 years ago.
It is not uncommon for people of one culture to misunderstand people of another. Patricia Riley’s “Adventures of an Indian Princess” introduces this concept and its underlying causes. As she illustrates a day in the life of Arletta, a twelve year old adopted Cherokee Indian, Riley reveals the misinformed and disinterested nature of the Rapier family. These individuals accept the stereotypical portrayal of Indians in America and do not wish to delve deeper into Indian culture, to much of Arletta’s chagrin. “Adventures of an Indian Princess” conveys the message that although one may not be properly taught about another culture, typecasting in place of attempting to understand is not an acceptable alternative.
As a result of the nonhomogeneous body and the careful balancing of both history and narrative arc, I disagree there is any privilege being given to a specific ethnicity. It is a careful balance that supports its character’s redemption from the tragedies of the past, which is always present in the disaster stamps frequently mentioned throughout the novel. The town’s themselves become a combined character of their own through the recurring omniscience of gossip, such as their speculation on Marn Wolde, “that she had done in Billy Peace” (184). However, the town assembles and disassembles according to the tragedy and set of events. Everything remains in flux as does the Native-American culture, who Robert C Hamilton examines in “Disaster Stamps”: The Significance of Philately in Louise Erdrich’s The Plague of Doves, that “even when they imitate traditional Native narrative, they are ultimately textual, in the manner of the traditional Western novel”
The audience is confronted with an African-American family who live on a Southern offshore island, that ultimately depart and all come together to remember the importance of their ancestors and goes to show the past should not be forgotten. While some of the family departs for the North, others stay behind and live on the soil with their
Internal conflict caused by culture is a concept that Edward Hall explores in his book “Beyond Culture”. In this examination of intercultural interactions, Hall argues that people are born into the cultural prison of one’s primary culture. He then goes on to claim that from people can only be free of this prison and experiencing being lost in another (Hall). For Coates, this cultural prison is the permeating fear resulting from the blackness of his body. His internal conflict is therefore created when seeing the world of white, suburban culture. Because this world of pot-roasts and ice cream Sundays seems impossibly distant from the world of fear for his black body, Coates comes to feel the contrast of cultures. He tells his son, “I knew my portion of the American galaxy, where bodies were enslaved by tenacious gravity, was black and that the other, liberated portion was not” (21). As a result of the shocking divide, Coates comprehends the burden of his race. Coates therefore feels “a cosmic injustice, a profound cruelty, which infused an biding, irrepressible desire to unshackle my body and achieve the velocity of escape (21). The quality of life between the culture belonging to Coates’s skin in contrast to the culture of suburban America creates for Coates a sense of otherness between himself and the rest of the world. Disillusioned, Coates avidly pursues answers to this divide. Coates thereby embarks on a quest to satiate this internal conflict of cultures, beginning his journey towards
Sammy has an amazing eye for detail and no matter how taboo the subject, he manages to get his point across without seeming too offensive. When speaking of the three young women, he takes on the task of describing each girl in great detail and even manages to slip in which one he prefers. Sammy utters “She was the Queen.”(16) A small amount o...
In the short story “Blackness” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator’s consciousness develops through a process of realization that she does not have to fully embrace the ideology imposed on her by the colonizers nor fully deny her authentic heritage. First, the narrator utilizes the metaphor, “blackness,” representing the colonization of her country that simultaneously envelops her own being. Her consciousness then is unaware of her own nature; she is in isolation and “all purpose… as if [she] were the single survivor of [her] species” (472). This annihilation of her ancient culture shows how “blackness” replaced her own culture with the ideology of the colonizers. Then, the narrator’s understanding shifts along with the influence of the colonizers
The preparation for this big event starts months in advance. Cofradias are the like the coordinators of the event. In English, Cofradias means brotherhood and they work together to plan and make sure the entire holiday is taken care of. They are also known as the “Heart of the Holy Week”. Confradias have to map out the route of the parade for every day of the week. The parts of the parade that are on main streets have bleachers on the sides for seating. However, these seats must be booked far in advance and are very costly. Cofradias also have to make sure that there are police and security so that the holiday is safe and peaceful. After the day’s parade ends, there are crews that come out and clean the streets. The Confradias are in charge of taking care of the Jesus and Virgin Mary throughout the year and that al...
The term queen is a reference to the man’ flamboyant and feminine personality and antics while in drag.
The character of Clare Savage struggles to attain her identity and to gain the notion of home and belonging. She is torn between her dad’s “whiteness” and her mom’s “blackness.” Clare is of a lighter skin and can be considered white. However, “whiteness” in Jamaica is seen as complicit in terms of class socially and economically (20). Yet, accepting the advantage of having a lighter skin color in Jamaica also meant accepting injustice and social exclusion.
While he shows us Wilberforce, Mary-Mathilda and Bellfeels’s brilliant son, liberating his mother through the books he makes available to her and through the information he provides her from his travels, Mary-Mathilda articulates the ways in which his British education makes him overvalue what’s European and undervalue what’s Antillean. It is quite likely that Clarke expects us to read into Wilberforce’s name the fact that William Wilberforce, whom he is named after, was both a liberator and a racist, for this book is intended to correct much of the romanticized history of the Caribbean. Clarke goes to great lengths, for example, to show how the planters of Bimshire likened events taking place there to events in the US. Moreover, he shows us that the people of Mary-Mathilda’s generation were programmed to see the US as a land of freedom even while the most vicious form of bigotry was being enacted
The way in which Benítez-Rojo and Mintz tackle the question of Caribbean identity in their articles, is a removed, objective ideal, in contrast to Michelle Cliff’s portrayal of Jamaican identity. Cliff’s portrayal touches the heart and soul of Caribbean identity. While Mintz and Benítez-Rojo are investigating trends in the Caribbean as a whole, from an outside perspective, Cliff offers the personal, tactile imagery of what it is to live in the Caribbean, utilizing the objective account of history as a background. Furthermore, Cliff deals with Jamaica, one island in the Caribbean, while Mintz and Benítez-Rojo are dealing with the Caribbean on a grand scaled overview. The fact is neither article can be taken as complete truth. In fact, although Cliff uses history in her novel, I believe the account of history from someone who has completely accessed the interior of a place, is always going to be biased. Likewise, Mintz and Benítez-Rojo in making their hypotheses, are lacking an insider’s view. It is the difference between a Caribbean person and Caribbeanist, respectively. Therefore, while on a logical level, an analytical level, Benítez-Rojo and Mintz’s, conclusions as to Caribbean identity could rightly be accepted, these two authors do not possess the experience and intensity to make me as a reader, convinced of their conclusions.