The Child Character in Adult Literature: A Study of Six Selected Caribbean Novels
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Date
2003-08
Authors
Mugubi, John G.O.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
This study examines the child character in post- emancipation and colonial
West-Indian fiction in order to determine his position in' that society and his role as a
literary agent. Our samples in this endeavour are six Caribbean novels namely: Merle
Hodge's Crick Crack, Monkey, Michael Anthony's The Year In Sail Fernando, Jan
Shinebourne's The Last English Plantation, Ian McDonald's The Humming Bird
Tree, Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Namba Roy's No Black Sparrows,
The study adopts the sociological literary and psychological approaches as the
theoretical framework, These approaches enabled us to understand the development
of the child within the Caribbean social experiences.
This Study argues that the child characters in novels designed for adult readership
are employed intentionally for concrete goals. Such children, particularly in West
Indian novels, while essentially childlike, are not gullible and puerile. They are
cogently perspicacious and active. -Reasonable and cognizant of their surrounding,
these children are invested with boundless potentials. Hence, although childhood is
seen as a period when diverse influences impinge on the child, each child is endowed
with the capacity to either withstand or succumb to negative influences, The genius
of the child disregarding, owing to the psychic and physical stature of the child vis a
vis that of their adult guardians, the position of the child is delineated as that of a gudgeon, a sacrifice to the adult world's benightedness, selfishness and savagery.
The anatomic and intellectual vulnerability of children makes them easy prey to
varied forms of victimization from adults.
The child's plight in a racially stratified and class society is seen as ghastly. The
child from the subjugated race and class suffers triply. He is debased as a member of
a disfavoured race, execrated class and also as a child .. The girl child suffers
additionally because of her gender. The child from the advantageous group is also
seen as a victim of the ravages of her people's jaundiced eye. Made to feel the
ultimate in perfection, such a child is obtuse, psychologically and ethically stunted
since he becomes blinded to his own limitations. Such a child is impaired and is
therefore incapable of moral advancement.
Subsequently, the child character emerges as a metaphor. It is therefore feasible
to read the Caribbean childhood novels as allegories in which the child characters
epitomize a breed of people at a particular moment in their history. The eminent nonwhite
children embody the confidence and aspirations of their people. Together with
the tolerant white children, such children seek to make sense out of the jumble of
racism, colonialism, class and gender-oriented compartmentalization and thereby
endeavour to construct structures of 'sanity'(and therefore 'stability') that tally with
their ideals. As metaphors therefore, the child characters in Caribbean novels are
employed to underscore an array of childhood idiosyncrasies that may restore the
muddle of human relationships.
The thesis concludes the argument by reiterating that the child is an effective tool
for inquiring into not only the plight of the child but also the racial, class and gender disparities and struggles in the Caribbean during the enfranchisement (post-slavery)
and colonial periods. Through prudent exploration of a child's psychological makeup,
the authors delineate the child as a powerful agent thr~ugh which other themes
such as: poverty, police brutality, alienation, religion and politics are surveyed.
Generally, we have established that the child has been employed by the West-Indian
writers to express their humanism and consequently, the kind of society they espouse.
The child has therefore been revealed as a beam of ethicalness through which the
world can be humanized.
Description
A Thesis Submitted in fulfillment for the degree of Docfor of Philosophy, August 2003
Keywords
Child Character, Adult Literature, Caribbean Novels