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Thoughts on Black Shack Alley by Joseph Zobel

The protagonist, Jose, is poverty-stricken and it is evident in the way in which he lives. As with the other novels so far in the course, food and drink are representative of something. In this circumstance, the generous descriptions of the food make the meals sound more substantial than they are. There is not a lot of food there but the loving way in which M’man Tine prepares the food for him makes it seem very significant. The conditions that this boy and the plantation workers had to face is demonstrated by their poor living conditions. The boy describes his lunch as “soak[ing] cassava flour in water, [and] stirring in oil” (60). Because the narrator doesn’t understand why he cannot have sugar with his cassava flour (saying it tastes better), he goes in search of his grandmother’s tin of sugar. This passage demonstrates the narrator’s child-like behaviour and how he is too young to understand that they are poor. Their quality of life is also reflected by the environment. For example, the narration describes “how mournful the night seemed, with paths absorbed by the darkness, the galvanized roofs of the shacks assuming a bluish hue” (69). I was a little alarmed at the scene where the grandmother was beating the protagonist up. After all, he is just a young boy and not very understanding of the world and realties of life. The anger that Maman tine displayed towards her grandson honestly seemed incredibly loaded with hatred and bitterness. The way in which she speaks about her hatred of taking care of first his mother, and then him suggests that there is generational trauma in her being poor and having to raise children. Jose being young, is unexperienced with the world around him. His grandmother is used to, and probably traumatized by racism and the life she has had. I think that his grandmother sacrificed so much for him and when Jose is able to attend school, he is further introduced into a world dominated by white people.

The first time Jose “went outside to have a fresh look at Black Shack Alley, [it was] both a relief and a disappointment” (105). Here, it seems that Jose is somewhat ashamed of living here.

I noticed that even though his grandmother works in the plantation, she can barely afford sugar and also doesn’t indulge in buying much for herself.  A metaphor could be that she works on cultivating so much sweetness for others, yet doesn’t save any for herself.

A question to think about is, do you think Jose truly understood what his grandmother sacrificed and did for him, or do you think he took it for granted?

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