Michele Cliff, Sidney Mintz and Antonio Benitez-Rojo's Writings

Michele Cliff, Sidney Mintz and Antonio Benitez-Rojo's Writings

With a focus on articles written by Michele Cliff, Antonio Benitez-Rojo, and Sidney Mintz. Michelle Cliff, "If I Could Write This on Fire, I Would Write This on Fire," and Abeng Antonio Benitz-Rojo, "From plantation to Plantation"; Sidney Mintz, "The Caribbean: A Sociocultural Area";

On this island of Black and Brown, she had inherited her father’s green eyes—which all agreed were her "finest feature." Visibly, she was the family’s crowning achievement, combining the best of both sides, and favoring one rather than the other. Much comment was made about here prospects, and how blessed Miss Mattie was to get herself such a granddaughter.

The legacy of the plantation, the class struggle between dark and light skinned, the different lifestyles of city and country people, and the lack of a cohesive culture are all ideas toughed upon in the writings of Michele Cliff, Sidney Mintz, and Antonio Benitez-Rojo. The distinct difference in styles is what separates these writings. Cliff writes from the viewpoint of an islander, while Mintz and Benitez-Rojo write from a European point of view.

All three authors begin by "telling" the history of the region in different ways. Mintz describes the Caribbean using nine distinct similarities, that he feels all islands have in common. He paints a picture of explorers "island-hopping" and discovering characteristics of each island. Mintz goes on by saying that the sole purpose for colonization was the plantation and the products of that plantation (mainly sugar). He continues by stating that the Caribbean is "western society" formed by European ideals and thoughts that were infused into the everyday life of the islands and its inhabitants. He says, that because of this heavy European influence, the Caribbean has no real culture. Its culture was formed by the teachings of European ideals and the remembered African tradition, which they brought over with them.

Benitez-Rojo speaks of a rhythm that is present in the Caribbean. He does not believe that there is a Caribbean culture. He does say that the people of the Caribbean have a certain rhythm to them. "It is rhythm that puts all the Caribbean peoples in ‘the same boat,’ over and above separations imposed on them by ‘nationality and race,’ it is rhythm—not a specific cultural expression—that confers Caribbeanness."

Cliff doesn’t really go into a description of the whole Caribbean. She tells the story of a light skinned Jamaican named Clare.