Other Americas Blog- Ian Miller

 "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid is a fascinating poem that goes through the daily mind of a girl in the Caribbean. This poem goes one by one through her daily activities, and sometimes the narrator provides comments on why she must do some of the things that she does. She must do laundry, clean, cook, go into town, etc.. All of the commentary that she makes though is negative. It focuses on how she is trying not to be seen as a "Slut". I do find it interesting that this is her main concern while doing all of these activities. I find that this idea is prevalent in a bunch of the stories that we have read that focus on gender roles. The women in the story are always judged very harshly, and they are always seeking to have a more pure image so that they are not seen as dirty or undesirable.     In the poem, the gender role of a Caribbean women is made very clear. They are to do the household chores and not lay around with other men. Their importance compared to the men of t...

 Derek Walcott is an esteemed poet, and also playwright from St. Lucia. He is renowned for his technical control and large canvases while writing his incredible poetry. He writes a lot about the Caribbean and his roots, while discussing the scars and results of post-colonialism in the Caribbean. He also writes extensively about the ocean and how the ocean divides and unifies people. It is a such a unique way of writing and he was rewarded for his amazing work with the Nobel Peace prize for literature.      I read his poems on the poetry foundation, and I was especially drawn to his poem, From Omeros. It is a poem that talks about the trojan war, but this time as a Caribbean Fisherman's fight. I love history and this was a very great read and it brings in the Caribbean in a different and exciting way. The ocean again is unifying here, and the entire identity of the Caribbean town is brought into perspective through an epic poem. It is whimsical and so vivid it te...

 "Passport to Paradise" is a short story written by  Myriam Warner-Vieyra. It is an interesting story that combines two of the main themes that we have learned about in this class. It centers around the feeling of love and the importance of religion in Caribbean Culture. Again, like the past couple of stories it also deals with death and how the wife deals with her husband's death. She spends her time trying to make sure that her husband's soul makes it to heaven. So, she continuously begs for a priest to bless her late husband's soul; to her dismay he refuses over and over. As a result, she is forced to go to a magician to try and find her peace of mind to make sure that her husband's soul makes it to heaven.     There is so much  going on in this short story, and it involves so much that we have talked about this semester. It starts with death and how people in the Caribbean deal with losing their loved ones. Christianity is the initial response and ...

 This story stays with the theme of family that we have been talking about lately in class. This story deals with family ties and more specifically the inheritance of the main character's father. Bonkoro is the main character and the whole story focuses on this child and his journey to finding himself and becoming more sure of himself. By the end of the story, Bonkoro becomes more outspoken and adult like, rather than a shy and not very confident. I found it very interesting that again, this focused on the relationship of a couple that are different races. The wife was black and the husband was white. As a result, this story centers around how the father of this story was excluded from his family's inheritance because he married someone of a different race.     I found that the racial tensions and conflicts in this story follow along with what we have been learning about. It was really seen as wrong for someone to marry someone of a different race. Even tod...

 This short story takes place in Jamaica and it focuses on the relationship of a family and their dynamic. The short story centers around love between siblings and how they develop their connection. At first the first born son misses his father, and he is sad and feeling very down. Soon though, he is surprised with the fact that he has a half brother. Loss can be so dooming, and it can cause many people to feel despair. However, he is soon uplifted with the fact that he will gain a family member. This gives a bright spot for the main character to gain a new bright light in his life. It was hard at first though because the two had to deal with jealousy, but by the end the two bond and find the love that they had been missing while dealing with the loss of their father.      In the story I found this sibling relationship to be quite interesting. I have never experienced anything like what the half brothers in the story have but I can only imagine that it would be extre...

 Morris, Bhaiya is a story that focuses on his life in the Enterprise. The Enterprise is an Indian majority community that has an Indian minority. Although Morris is African, he celebrates the Indian traditions in this community. Although he is African and that is where his roots are, he follows Indians traditions and kind of tries to fit in. I believe that it would be so hard to try and fit in when you are different than the community and they try to oppress the minority. However I believe it is so necessary to embrace your roots and never lose your culture and where you come from. In the story it says he preferred,   “the tassa strung around his neck…[walking] in the Husain procession with the Muslim drummers”. Instead of embracing his own culture he wanted to fit in with the others.     Pat was a fleeing glimmer of light in this somewhat dark and divided short story. I thought that it was moving that there was someone that would come to his side and give him ...

 Rosario Ferres' "When Women Love Men" was a read that focused on Caribbean relationships. Ferres is a Puerto Rican author who writes about two women in this short Caribbean story. It is very interesting because the two women's names are Isabell and Isabel; throughout the story the two women recount their relationship about their late lover Ambrosio. Isabel was Ambrosio's true wife while Isabell La Negra was his prostitute. In a turn of events, in his will Ambrosio leaves his house evenly split between the two former lovers. I found that the story combines the two perspectives of each women and by the end of the story the two very separate tales of jealousy come together to form one story of life after Ambrosio's death.     This short story was short, but had many levels to its plot. Each women has their own account of the other women and how it related to their Ambrosio. I found that it was surprising that he would have left half of his will to his mistress. ...

 Elza was an interesting film that focuses on a young girls search to find her father who abandoned her. The story has a very personal tone, and it seems as if the movie is almost made to illustrate a personal story while also entertaining the audience. This type of story is very interesting to me because it tells a story that can be from personal experiences while also creating an intriguing story for all of the viewers to watch. I did not like this movie as much as Moko Jumbie, however. It was not as thrilling and its plot was not as clear and enthralling. However the story builds very well and the story develops and gets better as it goes on. I found that this film really centered around the Caribbean view of women that we have studied this semester. The men in this story are illustrated as evil and almost soulless. They treat the women in the story terribly, but it is almost normal for them to be treated this way. I found it extremely crazy though that there was also a conflict...