LITR 5734:
Colonial & Postcolonial Literature
Sample Student Final Exams 2008
Essay 2: Compose a dialogue between our four novels since the midterm. (Objectives 1, 2, and 3 + others)
Allison Coyle
Immigration and Isolation: Creating a ‘Home’ Among the Unknown
Literature, for some, is the ultimate form of entertainment, relaxation, and escape from reality. The power of literature, and reading for that matter, spreads from early childhood imaginative picture books to higher level novels that are meant to tickle your brain. Whatever age group, educational level, or culture a reader may be, reading is the key to knowledge. This semester in Dr. White’s Postcolonial and Colonial Literature course, we were given the opportunity to examine multiple fictional novels in order to gain a better understanding of the colonial-postcolonial dynamic in world history. There are several benefits to reading fictional novels compared to the conventional non-fiction text book.
One of the ways in which fictional novels are useful or learning about the colonial-postcolonial dynamic in world history is it allows the reader to gain different perspectives. Although the novels are fictional, they are based on historical events in world history. By putting these historical facts into a story line the author not only holds the reader’s attention, but also pulls the reader into the story. Take the topic of immigration as a basis for this prime example of the effects of a well-plotted story line and how it can take a reader through history as if they are experiencing it firsthand. In the story of Lucy the main character, Lucy Josephine Potter, has fled her homeland, the British-ruled Caribbean, to come to America in hopes of leading a better life. The author, Jamaica Kincaid, takes her readers through the emotions of the young girl as she struggles with the disappointments of her anticipated dreams. What allows the reader to experience these emotions is the fact that this novel is somewhat of an autobiography.
Lucy holds many similarities to her author Kincaid. The major similarity that Lucy holds to Kincaid is that Kincaid, just like Lucy, left her British-ruled Caribbean island of Antigua to come to America. This helps to explain the emotional connection this story holds to what immigrants truly endured during their transitions. What better way for a reader to deepen their knowledge of immigration than to have a private tour guided by an actual immigrant?
This theme of immigration is one that we have encountered in many of the novels we have read since our midterm exam. The motivation of immigrants across the board is that of leaving all that they know and fleeing to a land of the unknown in hopes to secure a better life for them. Often time’s immigrants flee their homeland in hopes for a better way of life. They have these big dreams of freedom, wealth, and a fresh start. The reality that soon sets in for most is that of slavery to a minimum wage job-not freedom, poverty-not wealth, and a yearning for a familiar face in a community full of strangers. Immigrants often begin to experience feelings of isolation as they have trouble adjusting to the culture and the community of their new “home”.
This issue of isolation is apparent in both Lucy and Robinson Crusoe. Jim Steinhilber, in his dialogue presentation of the two, said that “Robinson Crusoe goes from a crowded society to a non-crowded one. Lucy goes from what she perceives as a non-crowded society (non important) to a crowded society”. I feel that it is important to make the distinction between the two in order to show the correlation between immigrants as a whole and the universal feelings of isolation they go through whether living in colonial or postcolonial time periods.
For Lucy, her isolation stems from her inability to let others in. At the very end of her novel, Kincaid writes “I could write down only this: ‘I wish I could love someone so much that I would die from it’. And then a great wave of shame came over me and I wept and wept so much that the tears fell on the page and caused all the words to become one great big blur.” For many immigrants, whether they survive the transition phase or not, they cannot let go of their homeland and the emotions that are tied to it. This, in result, holds them back from ever truly improving their current situation.
As with Lucy, Robinson Crusoe is also filled with this theme of isolation. The main character, Robinson Crusoe, shipped has wrecked off the coast of Trinidad and he is the sole survivor. I think that he, as would anyone, begins to have feelings of loneliness and sadness as he thinks of the life that he has left behind. Just as free will immigrants try to survive in a new society, Robinson Crusoe is in survival mode as well. Just as Lucy had issues with human interaction, obviously this is an issue for Crusoe as well. Although not his choice, his lack of human interaction forces him to befriend a parrot. It’s our human nature to long for the companionship of another living entity. Yet, when taken out of your comfort zone it is extremely hard to let your guard down and let others in especially for an immigrant such as Lucy who is on the low part of the social totem pole.
This isn’t exactly the case for Crusoe as he deems himself to be the “King” of the island. For most immigrants climbing to the top is not an option. It doesn’t surprise me that when Crusoe finally meets Friday he makes him his servant and not his equal. It was at this point that Crusoe went from immigrant to colonizer all in one chapter. Dawlat Yassin asked our class in her 2008 presentation, “With all his self-determination to colonize and to change his destiny…what do you think Robinson Crusoe would do if the island was populated?” My answer to this is that I think that he would have fallen into the same role that Kurtz did in Heart of Darkness. Kurtz was on a major power trip and I feel as though Crusoe would have felt as though he had the upper hand with his guns and tried to become a ruler.
These same feelings of isolation can be seen within A Passage to India in respect to Aziz. In the beginning of chapter two, Aziz decides to stop off at a mosque. This mosque to him represents more than just a quiet place to go. His feelings of isolation within his own country, after the British have come in, tugs at his heart. The mosque is the one place that he feels safe and at home. The mosque to Aziz is the one constant truth of Islam that the British can’t take away from him. It was at this moment in the novel that Aziz’ had his first encounter with Mrs. Moore. In class we discussed the mystical union and the resolution of conflicts and differences through the divine. I would classify this moment between Aziz and Mrs. Moore as just this. Under any other circumstances or any other time I don’t feel as though the meeting of these two characters would have been so significant. It was an act of God and the fact that Aziz’ emotional guard was down that this meeting in the mosque was meaningful. Something told Aziz to visit the mosque that evening and the same for Mrs. Moore. It was as if their interaction with one another was the key to helping one another better understand that we are all here on earth to live as one. The emotions that they both felt were more powerful than the British motives or the Indian loss of identity at this point.
Dr. White added a beautiful quote to his lecture on February 21, 2008 in reference to the emotions felt by Mrs. Moore during this “divine” meeting, “A sudden sense of unity, of kinship with the heavenly bodies, passed into the old woman and out, like water through a tank, leaving a strange freshness behind.”(Forster, pg.28). I want to end this essay on the note that it is the relationships and the effort put forth not only by the immigrants, but by the citizens of the nation in which the immigrant has chosen to make their home, that justifies the experience had by all. I all too often hear in the media of people who are upset with the fact that we have so many people coming into America from other countries looking for handouts and what not. I think that we all need to stop for a second and look at the bigger picture. We can learn a thing or two from these characters that we have been studying over the past few months, such as Lucy, Jasmine, Samad (White Teeth), etc. We need to put ourselves in the shoes of the immigrant every once and a while and look at them in a positive light. There is much to learn from people of different cultures that would have a beneficial impact on our society. We need stop to acknowledge them, let our guard down as Aziz did with Mrs. Moore and welcome them into our lives. If we work on building positive relationships with people other than our “own kind”, then this nation may stand a chance.
