Reflection on Part I

Part I of the book follows Jose’s childhood in Black Shack Alley. Some of the important themes of this part are childhood and innocence. Jose and the other children of Shack Alley are constantly up to their own mischief when their parents go to work the fields, despite the punishments they inevitably receive. It is interesting how Zobel juxtaposes the harshness of the conditions with the carefree naivete of the children. The children see their “freedom” as the times when their parents are out and they have free reign to play, oblivious to the damage they cause to the little possessions their families are able to have. Yet, it strikingly brings out the harshness of it all even more. The children are so innocent, wishing to simply be children, but their families have to keep them in check. Blissfully unaware of the struggles of their parents, they nonetheless find small joys here and there. Such is the life of the slave community, who can only find small solace in their occasional traditions and festivities after receiving their meagre salaries.

When the children burn down Mr Saint-Louis’s garden, it feels like a moment of innocence lost. The children are separated, never getting to play with one another again. But it is not so much that their childhoods are lost, or at least, not Jose’s, because of M’man Tine. The adult figures of Jose’s life, M’man Tine and Mr Medouze, are interesting characters in their own right. M’man Tine is the fierce guardian of Jose and does everything within her power to free Jose from the fields and give him an education. Mr Medouze, on the other hand, has a touching relationship with Jose as his close friend. His stories of faraway lands like Guinea are like bridges to the outside world. A world beyond Black Shack Alley. A world that Jose can become part of if he breaks away from Black Shack Alley, which he does. It is thus fitting that Mr Medouze’s death is what punctuates the end of Part I.

Reflection on Part II:

Jose finally gets to go to school. I really admire Zobel’s ability to bring a childlike voice to Jose. He captures the naivete and short-sightedness of a child very well, with many things he does not quite understand and things he does not see, only aware of his own personal desires and experiences, such as when he runs away, or his relative indifference to Jojo being forbidden from playing with them and towards his godmother’s death. He also does not fully understand the significance of his education, but he does appreciate how it is important to M’man Tine, given the apparent changes in her behaviour. At the end of this chapter, Jose is happy to go to Fort-De-France because he can see his mother, and the goal of furthering his education is more of a “borrowed dream” (144).

However, we do start to feel a slow maturation of Jose. Jose has felt feelings of loss with Mr Medouze, and the sickness that M’man Tine comes down with. Critically, I think the moment of M’man Tine falling sick brings about realisation in Jose, because it causes him to realise the unforgiving nature of working the fields. Indeed, after he realises that M’man Tine’s illness and Mr Medouze’s death are both caused by exhaustion from working the fields, he resolves not to return to the petite-bandes even though he could earn some money for new shoes. Similarly, he feels remorse over Jojo’s running away, likening him to a “runaway slave” (139), representing a slow distancing from his former existence in Black Shack Alley.

Race and class are also becoming more prominent than before, but not quite apparent since Jose, still a child, does not fully understand it yet. The blackboard could be an interesting metaphor for colonisation: white on black. The subtle ways in which he is treated by Mme Leonce and Raphael’s mother. How Jojo was conceived and the status of mulattoes, and how Jojo becomes Jose’s “object of greatest pity” (104), dispelling his preconception that his family’s wealth meant he would be happy. And it’s funny, really, because I feel as though I don’t know the context enough to pick up on everything that Jose doesn’t fully understand himself, which Zobel is recounting to us. I think this speaks as much to Zobel’s writing ability as it does to my own ignorance or naivete.

Reflection on Part III:

It is interesting how food is used throughout the book. From always getting a bite to eat from M’man Tine, to having to hopelessly watch the other students buy cakes from the caretaker. It really symbolises a different environment that Jose ends up in. A different race/class dynamic altogether.

On a similar note, we also get a glimpse at the Black community of Route Didier, right in the middle of White territory. Jose notes how they are different from the people of Black Shack Alley. They are far more submissive, almost undignified, unlike the rural Blacks who “did not prostrate themselves [before the Whites]” (179). Jose learns and matures much more, finding more understanding about the place of Blacks in the world. With full exposure to all the racial injustice, he now realises the superior place of Whites in this society simply by merit of their skin. One striking passage is Carmen’s story of the Black woman who has an affair with a beke, bearing him five children, whom he bestows money and possessions. Yet, even as the woman begs him to claim their children so they can be entitled to his estate, he refuses because “[his] name only belonged to white people” (197).

There is no happy ending here, but there is promise embedded in Jose’s growth. M’man Tine dies without getting to see Jose become someone, but she is always portrayed as happy and proud of him being educated. Education is the only way out of their suffering, but that she dies before Jose can complete it shows that the hardship of the disenfranchised of society runs deep; they cannot be freed from their status so quickly, so easily. Her hands, worn out, are what Jose pictures of her after knowing of her death. Those hands symbolise the struggle of the Black population of Martinique; she is not pictured with her face because the Blacks are not given face, but it was with those hands that she gave Jose what he needed. Nevertheless, there is hope. Jose’s friends in his later years, Carmen and Jojo, both demonstrate that the Blacks still have dignity. Carmen, an urbanite, always finds a way to be happy in life, and even learns to read from Jose, taking steps into the path to true freedom. Similarly, Jojo, who began in the novel as pitiful, grabs ahold of his life by the reins and finds himself reunited with Jose. They all talk about the plight of their people, and through Jose’s love of reading, there is hope at the end of the novel with Jose’s resolve to speak and fight for their rights.

Question: How and why does education provide the means for freedom? Is it enough?

Quotes (incomplete, will edit later and pick notable ones)

Part I: 3, 4, 7, 10, 11, 20, 36, 37, 41, 43, 48, 51, 52, 57, 59, 67, 68

Part II: 73, 76, 104, 105, 107, 108, 111, 139, 144, 146

Part III: 151, 152, 155, 159, 163,