True Identity Exposed In Michelle Cliff's No Telephone To Heaven

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Michelle Cliff's No telephone to Heaven offers a complex story of the difficulties one must go through when migrating to a new country with different societal standards and norms. Clare Savage, the protagonist, embarks on a journey to America with her family in search of a new life. Originally from Jamaica, Clare witnesses the racial and discriminative conduct that some American's have towards blacks. Furthermore, Clare also sees the adjustments and complete attitude change that some people try to make to fit in with the American society such as her father, Boy Savage. Clare constantly has this back and forth struggle psychologically between who her true identity is. Clare's constant battle to find out her true identity arises from the fact that her parents are completely contradictory in terms of their race and class. Kitty …show more content…

Clare and her family are on a trip to New York. Suddenly, Clare see a sign on an abandoned NAACP office saying, "A MAN WAS LYNCHED YESTERDAY." Clare didn't know what that meant and asked her father. Boy responded that, "it is a form of punishment for wickedness" (Cliff 55) Boy's explanation for this violent and unjust form of punishment shows that he considers himself a white privileged man who belongs in America because he sees no wrong doing in the act of lynching. Furthermore, he refers to lynching as a punishment. A punishment is usually given to those who have committed a wrong doing; however, in most lynches the wrong doing was simply that those individuals were black. What is the wrong doing in being a different skin tone than others? Boy also refers to the victims of lynches as "wicked." Boy clearly has no respect for the minority such as the blacks and doesn’t empathize for the way they are

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