Childhood in an evolving world- “Black Shack Alley” by Zobel

Black shack alley by Zobel is like any other coming of age novel but, it is in a “post colonial” evolving world.

I didn’t like Black Shack Alley as much as the rest of the books we’ve read so far but I believe that is fully just because of my taste in books, not at all at the fault of Zobel. But as much as I wasn’t super interested in this book I did learn a lot from it.

In this book we see no explicit mention of time as we follow Jose through his childhood. So at times I was a little lost, taking hints from the experiences lived through Jose. I found his childhood much like one we have lived but with deep rooted issues as one would in a post colonial world. Zobel uses character interactions to display the ongoing prejudice and oppression felt by black people in the French Caribbean.  Which I do find super interesting as we can see Zobel use literary texts as a vehicle of activism. Watching the video lecture, I do believe that having some background in the colonial history of the area that the book takes place.

As for the content of the book I think that the way that Jose’s family and his friends families can also tell a lot about the interaction between white people and black people at the time. What stood out to me was when the relationship shared between Jojo and his parents. Born to a white father and a black mother we see Jojo’s step mother and father prevent him from seeing his mother any means necessary. This made me so sad for Jojo as we can very obviously see that the overflowing love he has for his mom. Evening causing him to run away in the end.

I also found Jose’s journey through the French school system interesting. It is clear, especially when Jose moves to the big city, that there is a glass ceiling preventing him from doing fully what he wants to do. Jose talks about getting a good job to allow his mother and grandmother rest (I also find that this seems to be a common theme also amongst immigrant kids) but when he works hard to try and achieve this for himself and his family we can see racial barriers. A pressing example is when he wrote original work but his teacher accused him of plagiarizing, even though his writing was fully reflecting of his own experiences.

My question for you today is, What did you take from Jose’s childhood and journey through the school system.