"The Autobiography of my Mother", Jamaica Kincaid (1995) - "What makes the world go round? (...) cocoa tree grew in England"

Résumé du document

Jamaica Kincaid wrote 'The Autobiography of my mother' in 1955. She was from the small island of Antigua located in the Caribbean area. It was colonized by the Spanish and by the British. In this way, the reader easily understands the importance of the colonial theme in the book. The extract comes to a very particular moment in the plot. Xuela has to leave her father because her sister gets married. She is sent to her father's friend, a doctor. The reader will later learn that living with him and his wife will reveal to be very difficult. The extract deeply prepares what will happen to Xuela. How does Jamaica Kincaid depict the Antiguan way of life? What is the role of colonization in the Antiguan society? What are its implications? How does Jamaica Kincaid introduce the theme of post colonialism? Eventually, in what way is the extract representative of Kincaid's work of the Caribbean islands? Did other writers from other places in the world create works which illustrate the same themes?

Extraits

[...] She sums up her status with the sentence: “What makes the world turn against me and all who look like This question which is the opposite of the white man's one id est “What makes the world go round? shows that the hierarchical system can be a source of benefits for the white man and deeply destructive for the oppressed. What's more, death is at the same time a source of equality, all of us must die, but it is also based on hierarchy. [...]

[...] In this way, Jamaica Kincaid's books are representative of the female Caribbean writers. Nevertheless, this kind of literature is not exclusive to the Caribbean area. For instance, it also exists in the Pacific area. Samoan writer Sia Figiel relates the conflict between the protestant missionaries' idea of individualism and the Samoan idea of community. In “Where we once belonged”, she states that is not interested in she is interested in A famous passage from her book is does not exist. [...]

[...] She uses three features of the Bible: Lazarus, Master and my Friend” and Sower and the Wheat”. She shows that contrarily to the Bible the bad are not always punished. In Luke, Lazarus' story relates the relationship between a rich man and a poor beggar. The rich man sent away Lazarus who was allowed to eat only crumbs which fell from the rich man's table” (Luke 19-31). He is considered as a parasite. This kind of relationship is effective in Xuela's life: was one of the many people with whom my father maintained a parasitic existence”. [...]

[...] "The Autobiography of my Mother", Jamaica Kincaid (1995) - "What makes the world go round? ( . ) cocoa tree grew in England" Roots and implications of a hierarchical system in Antigua during the colonial times as depicted by Jamaica Kincaid Jamaica Kincaid wrote Autobiography of my mother” in 1955. She is from the small island of Antigua located in the Caribbean area. It was colonized by the Spanish and by the British. In this way, the reader easily understands the importance of the colonial theme in the book. [...]

[...] A patriarchal society The racial hierarchy is not the only one which rules over the small island of Antigua. The patriarchal organization of the society also has a huge impact on the way people behave. In that society men are superior to women in the way that they can express themselves, people are interested in their opinion ( in some extent, because of the racial hierarchy)Women do not have this opportunity. Because of these two factors, Xuela's status is low: “What is the question I can ask? [...]