WEEK 5 & 6: Literature, Culture and the World



Trinidad (As Depicted on a tourist website)




Trinidad (As depicted in many other parts)

 Weeks 5 and 6 transitioned our postcolonial readings from the solitude of Latin America to an almost equal solitude along the West-African coast.  We see this transition most evidently in the works of V.S. Naipaul, a Trinidad citizen who always retained a strong desire to walk the paths less traveled.  In his nobel speech Naipaul discusses the success of his works, noting his strong desire to 'shed a personal light' on all of the 'dark places' in the world with which he was not familiar.  One place in particular Naipaul discusses traveling to is India, a place in which he states that even the works of Nehru and Gandhi could not give him enough information about.  Naipaul treats his nobel lecture as more of a discussion; he is very solemn and humble, the sign of a man who has seen much out of his own desire for knowledge and understanding.

Along with Naipaul and Walcott's nobel discussions, we took to a fictional novel by Caryl Phillips entitled A Distant Shore.  Phillip's novel is comparatively one of the most transitional pieces of postcolonial writing which we have discussed this semester.  The tragedies of both main characters are known immediately at the beginning of the novel, which might seem like a 'spoiler' to some individuals, but as one continues to read, he or she realizes the importance of depicting Solomon's death in the beginning of the novel. 


From left to right: Gabriel ("Hawk")
and Patrick ("Juju"), my view of their
depiction


Both Dorothy and Solomon have a goal: each wants to reach a place in which they can feel at home.  Solomon, of course, travels far from his native country in Africa where he found himself unable to continue a brutal war on the side of rebel forces against government troops in Africa.  Killing one of his best friends for money, he manages to pay his uncle, who helps him and many others smuggle their way to Europe.

Solomon continues his journey to England while most of his counterparts stay in France.  He and his travelling partner Bright both believe that, because they speak some English, they are entitled to certain privileges in the United Kingdom.  When he gets there, however, he becomes extremely marginalized and even taken advantage of by immigrants from his own home country (it is important to note that Caryl Phillips never explicitly states the African country from which Solomon left).

Dorothy, on the other hand, never leaves her hometown.  Rather, she gradually marginalizes herself from her native society due to her awkward nature.  Simply put, Dorothy never really 'fits in' to her society, so she looks outward and has multiple relationships with men like Mahmood, who seem to represent the unknown 'mystery' of other parts of the world.  In this novel, the infamous 'intended' that we have discussed in past weeks is obvious: Dorothy is clearly 'the intended' character in this novel.

Solomon's death, I believe, depicts his victory in achieving a place to call home.  Even after the family that took him in left, Solomon was able to find a job as a night watchman in a northern English town, where he became accepted for his position by most (his death, of course, being a racially motivated act of violence by a group of thugs).  Despite this violent act that led to his death, I do believe Solomon came much closer than Dorothy to finding a home, a place that no longer seemed to be located on a distant shore.  By the end of the novel, Dorothy was arguably driven to madness due to her practice of self-marginalization, and she was unfortunately never able to reach that distant shore.