Beka Lamb is a story about a young girl who fails in her class and she lies about it to her parents. Her mother specifically is worried about her habit of lying. However, the story takes another turn eventually and narrates about her closest friend Toycie, who studies in the same school and few years older to Beka, becomes pregnant by Emilio. Toycie was expelled from the school in her last year before she could graduate, she becomes aloof from her friends and family and she loses her child and finally dies when the country was attacked by the hurricane.

Within the framework of the story of Beka struggling to pass and her friend Toycie distancing herself from everybody once she is expelled from the school, the novel also talks about the society, people and the custom of the country Belize. The story is situated at a time period when Belize was still under the British rule and the people of Belize still did not have the right to vote. It also demonstrates the different class of people living in Belize like creoles, caribs, panias, bakras living together but cannot be married to into each other’s families. Beka was a creole girl, her father was a business man who has progressed in his life with lots of hard work and was struggling harder but “the Lamb family was in a different class from the Blancos and the Hartleys. Bill Lamb was struggling to progress in the business world of the town, but he was quite satisfied to remain in the class where he was comfortable. He had no use for what he called artificiality and sham” (Pg 21).    Toycie was also a creole who lived with her aunt Eila as her mother has left her and went to United States and married a wealthy man. The grandmother of Beka was more inclined towards the political change that was happening in Belize. She was a member of a political party which was formed recently in Belize ‘People’s Independence Party’ and which was bringing quite a few changes in the colony. She attended the meetings and believed in the revolutionary ideas of the party, like the right to vote. Beka would discuss with her about issues like whether Guatemala would take over Belize once it is freed from Britain, she would also tell her stories about the past and about the African ancestry that both creoles and caribs inherit. Granny Ivy also discusses the problems of the country with both her son and daughter – in- law, but she is projected as a woman with more wisdom than her daughter-in-law. Beka’s mother generally tries to keep Beka out from knowing the past of her people and she thinks that it would be a hindrance in her growth in the modern world. Beka also listens to stories from her Granny Straker, her mother’s maternal grandmother, about her life as a young woman in the country. All these stories that are told orally to Beka, or the discussion at home among the son, mother, and the daughter-in-law are the sources of information about the country, its past and its political and social position. The older people like Beka’s grandmother have been shown as a strong woman and also play an important role in the novel. The father too is well aware of his social position and the situation of his country and shares his views with his mother “we can’t sit down and keep rehashing what people did to us in the past…or use those injustices as any kind of complete excuse for our present situation…my main worry is, will we able to hold onto our rights once we get them?” (Pg 37).

The other interesting aspect is the similarity of many customs among the people in Belize and that in India, such as the evening tea, the importance of studying in a convent school and above all the importance given to education as the only way to get a job later. I could very well relate them with my personal experience. Even today convent schools in different parts of the country is being valued more than any other schools and studies should be the most important thing in a child’s life, if he/she fails in doing so life ends for him/her. The scolding of Beka’s father, the tension in the house when Beka fails in her exam, the lack of other activities for the kids in the country could be related to the situation in India as well.