Themes and Characters of Coffee for the Road by Alex la Guma, The Green Leaves by Grace Ogot and See me in me Benz and T'ing by Hazel D. Campbell
After reading a selection of numerous short stories of different
cultures and traditions, various themes and language choices are
common, it is clear that these themes and language choices all play a
major role which will essentially be the central focus in this essay.
This essay will centre around three stories, "Coffee for the Road" by
Alex la Guma, "The Green Leaves" by Grace Ogot and "See me in me Benz
and T'ing" by Hazel D. Campbell. I will also make sure to focus and
explore characterisation and setting and furthermore whilst analysing
a fiction piece, to take into account the background of the writer.
After comparing the short stories it has become clear that they all
share numerous similarities and few differences. The most occurring
and most dominant similarity is the theme of racism and the fact that
it has on the characters and setting associated in the stories. In
"See me in me Benz and T'ing", the racism is focused on the fellow
country people of the protagonist, the lady, although the people are
of the same ethnic origin/background, the lady still refers to the
people as "wild animals", this is because she believes that the people
are just "loafing" around just ready to attack her at any time they
feel like.
The theme if racism is furthermore used in "The Green Leaves", racism
is presented here when the policeman from "Europe" speaks to the
community,
"How many times have I told you, that you must abandon this savage
custom of butchering one another? Your-people are deaf"...
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...pendence. She tolerates abuse so she does not loose everything she
has. People carry weapons in Jamaica, it has become cultural for
violence to occur and for weapons to be carried, violence is an
integral part of their culture. It has also become traditional for the
lady to take "beating" leashed out by her husband,
"By their swoops for weapons that they were angry"
In conclusion, this essay has proved that each story revolves around
culture, tradition and racism, without doubt reflecting the author's
background and upbringing. The writers, through setting and character
lets the reader explore the unique, indifferent insight of others,
whereby which we learnt that each author is mere product of society
that through racism, violence and tradition, have altered intolerance
in which the stories has been influenced by.
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