week6——Joseph Zobel, Black Shack Alley
I read Black Shack Alley this week, and here are some of my reading experiences.
For me, Amantine, little Joseph's grandmother, is the unique character in the article, with a tragic but extraordinary fate. The author describes how his grandmother correctly made little Joseph's life ordinary and warm in such a poor situation. Despite the hard work on the plantation and how the clothes on his body were worn, little Joseph never touched the ruthless side of reality under the care of his grandmother. As a result, grandmother Amantine's image of a loving, simple, and hard-working black worker jumped on the page. Later articles tell the story of Joseph Jr. and her grandmother living a poor and miserable life on a sugar cane plantation. Nevertheless, The assertive Little Joseph's grandmother, Amantine, understood that knowledge was the key to the broader world. She worked hard to get a better life for Little Joseph.
By looking up relevant information, we can learn that Black Shack Alley is set in the French colony of Martinique in the 1930s. In this context, the meagre income and hard life of black workers and various painful histories are described in the book, which makes people move and think about it. In this case, the children in the plantation have always maintained their innocence and childlike fun; the brave struggle to find a wider world and the future expectations that the future grandmother and little Joseph still have. This tragic background has formed a sad and touching life and expressed a kind of awe-inspiring concept. The book's rhetoric is not gorgeous, but just describing the background of this protagonist is enough to make the reader experience a dull feeling in this heavy and straightforward experience, a reflection on history based on people's empathy.
In the book, childhood is always cheerful and straightforward. Those children who do not have a clear understanding of the nature of life do not care about rudimentary food and clothes that cannot cover privacy; everything is innocent and funny as if adding a sunny filter to the hard life. Looking at the author's life from the perspective of his childhood, the cruel life we can feel is softened by such a filter. So this misery, which should have been stinging, became a continuous dullness. My question is: Is it easier for the reader to have the courage to continue reading than to bluntly analyze this tragic experience from an adult's point of view?
"This tragic background has formed a sad and touching life and expressed a kind of awe-inspiring concept."
回复删除Can you say more? What is the concept?
Hi Xiang! Thank you for your post. I think you mentioned a very good point about the uniqueness of Jo’s grandmother. Even though she had a tragic fate, she played an irreplaceable role in the growth and personal development of the protagonist. Also, although the descriptions of childhood were mostly cheerful, there were painful occasions as well because sugar cane workers were being exploited by the industry dominated by colonizers. Overall, I think the novel is more about the turning points towards adulthood and colonial resistance, rather than about a tone of childhood innocence.
回复删除- Michael Li
Hi Xiang, great post. I think it is important to look at the novel with both perspectives in mind. Telling the story through Jose's perspective as a child dulls the weight of the imagery, but at the same time makes you keenly aware of what's going on. And over time we get less of that happy innocence and more to the jadedness of an older Jose, which is nonetheless encouraging in itself as he discovers his sense of justice.
回复删除Hello Xiang. Thanks for your post! It is true that the innocence of childhood allows a filter that mitigates the harsh reality. In fact, Jose has no way of comparing it with another social context, he only knows that there is a town beyond and through Mr. Medouze, the existence of a country far-off called France and another farther away, with people similar to him, called Guinea. But that reality also sneaks in through several moments, even before growing up leads him to run into a continuation of a system based on racial determination.
回复删除I liked how you brought up how Mama Tine worked so hard to improve José's poor life. While her punishment of his misbehavior was oftentimes too harsh, in my opinion, it is clear that her incredible effort in working the cane fields to keep young José fed and sheltered, and doing everything in her power to ensure he could continue his education indicate a form of love that Mama Tine had for him that went beyond simple statements of affection, and that her love for him showed in her constant investment into his future.
回复删除