LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Sample Student Final Exam 2005

Jennifer Fregia

December 6, 2005

Essay 1 – Lessons Learned and Remembered

One of the most important things I learned (or at least remembered) during this course was to be aware of the multiple levels of interpretations for one text. I have studied some of these novels before in other contexts and rereading them for this course allowed me to see them in a new light. Lucy, for instance, can be read in a postcolonial context, as a bildungsroman, as a feminist text in relation to Lucy and her mother as well as the transposition of the male exploration novel, or, as Kayla Logan writes of in her thesis, as a model of Satan.

            I enjoyed working on presentations that forced me to deal more thoroughly with information. The reverse of this is that when others gave their presentation, I felt like I had lost out by not dealing as thoroughly with the information they presented. It served as a reminder that there is a wealth of information out there on any issue, and that they can all be very interesting to pursue.

            Studying these other cultures in class made me more interested in the diverse cultures of those I meet in everyday life. By becoming willing to open dialogues between myself and others I have learned several valuable things about how I perceive my own American culture versus how others perceive it as well as how little Americans (and people in general) consider things from other cultural points of view.

Essay 2 – New Women of a New Age

            Reading the last two novels, Jasmine and Lucy, I was struck by the similarity between them. Both are given the same name of their title characters. Both characters are women of about the same age. Both characters work briefly as an au pair (or as Jamaica Kincaid says, a servant).

            What differs mostly in these two books is the attitude these women have towards America. Jasmine embraces American culture, using the freedom and mobility of modern culture to re-invent herself with every life change. Lucy, on the other hand, detests the smug attitudes of Americans. But even in this difference, there is a similarity. Both women are forced into their opinions by their cultural backgrounds. This is not to say that they are without choice, but that their choices are made based on a colonial history.

            Jasmine flees to America when her husband is killed. His death is a result of violence caused by the restructuring of India as a country. This restructuring was necessary after British Imperialism. The other motivation for her choices is trying to escape from what the fortuneteller told her as a child. This is the first event in the novel and it is referred back to several times as a motivation for Jasmine’s not marrying Bud as well as the real reason she has come to America. This event is symbolic of being locked into a specific role in a traditional society. Jasmine’s running from one life to another shows her desperate need to run from a predestined role in society.

            Lucy also has a problem with this. She resents her family’s assumption that she will be a nurse. She feels that the relative lack of options given to her are a part of the colonialism that she has endured both in society and in her home. She too leaves her homeland of Antigua in an attempt to break from her colonial roots. But unlike Jasmine she does not focus on the freedom of choice in America, but on the root of the colonial problem as she finds it there. Lucy wants Mariah “to examine Lewis’s daily conversations with his stockbroker, to see if they bore any relation to the things she saw passing away forever before her eyes.” (73) Lucy cannot help but notice that this egocentric (and American) view of the world means taking from others (like her) to give to oneself. Lucy allows most of her choices to be made based on her dislike for colonialism. In this way she ties herself back to her colonial roots and, like Jasmine, is ultimately unable to completely evade her cultural destiny.

            Despite the fact that these two characters come from very different cultures, I found it surprising that their stories should be so similar. There must be some zeitgeist of this third wave that transcends cultural boundaries. Both of these women try to define themselves by breaking away from their cultural boundaries. This struggle is also seen in the poetry of Walcott. As a member of two opposing societies, he is constantly trying to find some way to appease both sides of himself without privileging one side over the other.

            As countries shift from third world to first world entities and society becomes global rather than local, the populations of these areas must learn to redefine themselves not in terms of a regional culture but in terms of an international civilization.

Time Log:

Sunday 17:30-18:00

Monday 18:30-19:30

Tuesday 12:00-13:00

Tuesday 17:00-17:30