Joseph Zobel’s Black Shack Alley is a story encompassed with true raw human emotion and the brutalities of life. It was an amazing read, albeit there were heartbreaking moments of inequalities where I felt genuinely sad; Zobel does an incredible job of engaging the reader and evoking emotions. From the very first line, “Whenever the day had been without incident or misfortune, the evening arrived with a smile of tenderness,” I was hooked to the story. The text is easy to understand, which allows readers to become smoothly immersed and connected to the storyline.

The more I read, the more I felt growing up with José and correspondingly, the pain he experienced I felt as well. The hard work, perseverance, loneliness, and despair were apparent and written in a bittersweetly precise way. The complexity and morals in human behaviour were displayed throughout José’s childhood. This spotlighted the cruelty of racism embedded into his environment and the repercussions on following generations. It was genuinely frightening to read the moments of blatant discrimination, from José being isolated in his class to his teacher accusing him of plagiarism and more. Especially if we correlate this to our “modern” time now, these biases still linger and significantly affect others. 

It was disheartening to see his optimism and childlike innocence continuously crushed as the story progressed. It was almost as if it was foreshadowed at the beginning of the story: “The truth was, innocence and reason had possessed me all the time that M’man Tine had been gone.” José’s age is more apparent in times of adversity. The first scene depicting his beating had me heartbroken, especially reading the line, “I felt almost nothing, save a confusion which overpowered me despite the stake of stoic stiffness I kept myself in.”

This scene with M’man Tine beating José while yelling about the burden of taking care of him stood out for me. It reminds me of behaviour connected to generational trauma, which aligns with the storyline, given the long history of racism, discrimination, and inequality. This may seem absurd to you, but growing up with immigrant parents and friends with the same dynamics, this form of punishment is normalized. Maybe it is not the extreme José was experiencing, but it is notable to account that many families deem spanking or hitting as justified forms of punishment. The children’s fear after making a mistake was not unfamiliar: “Our parents would soon be arriving. We would be beaten. We could sense that from the very manner in which our anxiety increased.” Furthermore, after hearing M’man Tine speak about her childhood, we can see the passed-down behaviours and morals: “When I was small, I wasn’t a bother to anybody…When my mother died nobody wanted me.” Knowing the adversities the whole family had experienced, this thought is not too outlandish.

Question for you: Do you see any other moments or behaviours throughout the story where generational trauma can be connected?

Memorable quote: “As for us, all the obstacles cluttering up our plans could not keep us from pursuing our adventure to its end.”

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