Editor's Overview

Throughout this semester we have examined many different pieces of Caribbean work by many different authors. We have read short stories, poems, and novels on top of the various movies and documentaries as well. While reading, watching and listening to all of these different pieces of work I have found multiple constant themes and artifacts. I have enjoyed the documentaries the most because it gave me a real visual of the islands and its people. The stories and novels enhanced these documentary visuals with deeper meanings that made me think differently of these islands. They helped me look past the beauty of the islands and showed me the dark past they endured. Throughout the texts, I have found that loneliness, water, family, hardships, and death have been a constant in many of the short stories and novels we have read. By using these five artifacts, I went on to find examples that best represented these consistent themes. 

 

When looking at loneliness, I choose to look at the story “Some People are Meant to Live Alone” by Frank Collymore. I found myself drawn to this story because it was very vivid to me. The explanation of the old dilapidated house upon an overgrown hill painted an image in my mind. Uncle Arthur wasn’t the old grumpy man Bill was expecting. Bill was expecting a grumpy lonely old man who hated everyone. Everyone told Bill that is why Uncle Arthur is alone because nobody wants to be around him. Being alone can be important to some people. Many people seek silence and quietness when they live a busy live prior. With Uncle Arthurs crazy wife before, and his crazy friend Jones, he truly believes that some people are meant to live alone. It isn’t that he didn’t like the company of other people, but he also enjoyed the company of just himself. When looking at my life, in some situations there are times where I enjoy just being by myself and enjoy the moment of silence and solitude. Bill later found he felt very similar to Uncle Arthur. He had a nagging wife who he left and he too thought some people are meant to live alone. 

 

The significance of water is very prevalent when looking at Rosena on the Mountain by René Depestre. The water scenes in Rosena on the Mountain are powerful romantic moments that ebb and flow just like the streams and rivers within the story. These parts were peak moments where the story took a turn just like the flowing river. The water in my opinion represents youth and freedom, where your actions have little effect on your long-term life. Water is a very powerful force, and so is love. The parts of intense love and romance take place by the rivers and streams of the story. When the boy and Rosena want to be intimate they go by the river because they believe it is a safe place where nobody will find them. I believe the river is a symbol of their love for each other and the more they are by the water the stronger and stronger their love grows. 

The theme of family has been common throughout the semester. The family has been especially important in the story The Inheritance of my Father: A story for Listening. Family represented more in this story than just the immediate family. It was the lineage and culture of the girl’s father. She wanted to know where her father was from, she wanted to know her grandmother, she wanted to know the country she felt like she belonged to. Her father also felt a longing to go back to his home country that he left 25 years before. He missed his family and lost his sense of being. While she felt closest to her father’s family where she felt a sense of unity and togetherness, she was constantly being reminded of her mother’s side. Her mother who was from America also had a family and a culture of their own. By the end, she reflects on her own family. She just doesn’t look at just her father’s family, or just her mother’s family, she looks at her mother and father and the culture they created together.

 

There are many hardships throughout the story Passports to Paradise. Eloise was a strong self-sufficient woman who loved her husband very much. Even though her husband was good for nothing drunk, she still loved him. Eloise had eight children who she took care of by herself, she still worked in the fields every day while she watched her young children while she worked. Her life was difficult, but instead of being sad about her hard life, she embraced it. This was very rare out of the stories we have read this semester. She embraced her hardships and difficulties in life and made the best out of what she was dealt with. When her husband died in a bar fight, Eloise had trouble getting his body blessed by the church for him to go to Heaven. The church did not think highly of Eloise or her people. The church would bless far worse men than her husband but just because her husband wasn’t one of them is why they did not bless his body. She still cares about him so much that she wants him to be in heaven for eternity and not hell. So she went out to find anyone who could guarantee that her husband would not sit in hell just because his body was not blessed. 

 

Journey to the Seed by Alejo Carpentier was one of the more unique stories we have read during this semester. The story starts at the end of his life, his death. Death is a very common theme among many stories in Caribbean literature. The story gives you a different perspective on life. When starting with death it gives the story a more beautiful ending with birth and life. The story allows you to see the mistakes Marcial made and what lead up to those mistakes prior. As the story gets farther away from death Marcial feels more and more empty inside. He has fewer experiences, wisdom, and knowledge. You have to be able to live until death to be able to look back on all of the experiences, and knowledge you have gained from your lifetime. To me, it seems like a bittersweet moment. On one hand, you’re dying, but on the only hand, you’re filled with life through the experiences and wisdom gained.