Black Shack Alley is probably my favourite novel compared to the others we have read in this class. I noticed that in most of the books we’ve read so far, literature has a significant effect on the protagonist of the book. For Jose, books allowed him to deepen his knowledge of the world. He saw that all of the novels were about people with blond hair and blue eyes and this inspired him to write his own story, for people like him. Like most of the character from the previous books, literature played a big role in shaping Jose as a person.<\/p>\n
In part 1 of the novel, Jose was is innocent and had no real knowledge of the oppressing society his family lived in. All that mattered to him was being free of his M’man Tine and roam the Shack Alley: “We were alone and the world was ours” (p.12). The inevitable punishment he would receive upon arriving home was worth it for the few hours of freedom he had. In parts 2 and 3 of the story we see Jose realize that M’man Tine isn’t who’s keeping him from his freedom, but rather the world he was born into. He lives a difficult life with many challenges at a very young age and looses his innocence to the harsh realities of the world way too soon: “I could do nothing to get accustomed to it nor put an end to it” (p.84). I think this quote really sums up the emotions of not just Jose, but everyone in his community. This was their life and they were well aware that nothing they did would change the system. My heart broke for the feelings of hopelessness Jose felt at such a young age.<\/p>\n
I think that it was his time at the lyc\u00e9e that he matured the most. Going to school, reading all these books made him question things. My favourite quote from this books is this: ” I felt within me that she was subjected to an unjust punishment” (P.166). In this moment, he was talking about his M’man Tine, finally realizing how much she had suffered, how carefully she had sheltered him for as long as she could. He was questioning thing about his society, about why they had to live in poverty. His curiosity encouraging his studies. Jose deciding to write his own novel because no one writes about people like him was such an empowering thing to do. He would use his voice even if people did not want to hear about it.<\/p>\n
My question this week:<\/p>\n
Both Jose and Agostino grew up in poverty, and both novels are somewhat a coming of age story: in what ways do you think that Jose and Agostino are similar\/different?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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