Chapter 10 – The Maternal Instinct
Description
Laura – She has a face like the top of a motor – car battery. She was a little more than plump. Laura was vivacious, always gay and kind. Had a habit of using curse words with the children. She is also very abusive to one of her baby’s father who stayed around the longest, Nathaniel.
Values and Attitudes
Dislike for Nathaniel Though the men of Miguel Street agree that a woman should be beaten occasionally, they despise Nathaniel because of his contempt for women. “But what really sickened us was his attitude towards women. We were none of us chivalrous, but Nathaniel had a contempt for women which we couldn’t like. He would make rude remarks when women passed.”
Education Laura values education. She wanted her children to live a better life than she did. “It have nothing like education in the world. I don’t want my children to grow like me.”
Lesson Learnt: Children live what they learn. Laura lived a life of just making babies. She seemed very happy but deep down she was not. We realize this by the way she reacts to the news that Lorna was having a baby. Lorna obviously did not realize that her mother would be so distraught since this is what she was use to.
Theme
Appearance vs. Reality Nathaniel pretended that he was the one beating Laura. It later became evident to everyone that Laura was beating him.
Laura seemed happy but we know deep down that she was not since she does not want any of her children to follow in her footsteps. She said it was better for Lorna to have died than to live a life like hers.
Concept of Masculinity Nathaniel feels that he has to lie about beating Laura.
Women in Society Despite the fact that Laura seems powerless because she has so many children for different men, like Ms. Morgan we see that she has the upper hand of her man.
Chapter 11- The Blue Cart
Description
Hat – wise, talkative, knowledgeable, encouraging
Eddoes – Proud, man of leisure, hygienic, responsible, opportunist. He was a thin man
Narrator – impressionable, ambitious
Boyee – inquisitive, a joker, insensitive/ tactless.
Narrator’s Mother – jealous, harsh, likes scenery art.
Values and Attitudes
Work - Eddoes seems to value his work – He is very serious / focused when he is on the job. He appreciates the fact that this kind of job allows him the opportunity to collect “material”, which he uses to make extra money.
Education- Again, we see that Mr. Titus Hoyt values education. He started buying books from Eddoes for his new school
Lesson Learnt: If you have the right frame of mind and take your work seriously, no matter what kind of work it is, you will be noticed or recognized. Eddoes was said to take his aristocrat job seriously which got him recognition from both the people of Miguel Street and his employers.
Take advantage of all your opportunities. In the chapter we can see that Eddoes took full advantage of his opportunity to sell garbage and turned it into a business.
Themes
Male Bonding: The theme of male bonding is very important and was shown or highlighted in many sections of the chapter. For example the theme appeared when Eddoes was in trouble due to the baby issues. He went to the men of Miguel Street for advice and encouragement. The men in turn supported him even when they saw the child and realized it wasn’t his.
Concept of
Masculinity: Eddoes seem to reject the common notion that the male is only a sperm “donor”. He accepts his responsibility as a father and takes care of his child, Pleasure.
Women in Society: The women of Miguel Street helped to raise Pleasure, showing how important their role in society is.
Chapter 12 – Love, Love, Love Alone
Description
Mrs. Hereira – Beautiful, seemingly genteel lady, well dressed. The narrator comments that she would have been more in place in an upper class society.
Toni – tall, thin, ugly Portuguese man with sickly looking skin, dirty, the worst dressed person, constantly drunk and smelt of alcohol, abusive.
Narrator’s mother – concerned, independent of men, doesn’t have a good opinion of men, intolerant of spousal abuse.
Values and Attitudes
Women – Toni’s attitude towards women is very negative. There seems to be a trend in the stories where the men constantly beat or treat their wives badly and even if they don’t, they boast about doing so. They do not show any appreciation for them until the women leave.
Lesson Learnt: People of various backgrounds may need your advice and support through hard times. Mrs. Hereira who refuses to leave her husband seeks advice from the narrator’s mom on many occasions. It is evident that the narrators mom is not as highly educated as Mrs. Hereira. This is evident due to the fact the narrator hyper - corrects her speech.
It is perfectly okay to truly love but love should nor force us into a situation where we accept abuse.
Themes
Love / Determination Mrs. Hereira insisted that she loved Toni, insisting that he had many good qualities, despite his persistent abuse. Everyone thought that she was better than him and could not understand how a woman like her could be involved with such a worthless person.
Women in Society - Despite the fact that the narrator’s mother did not know Mrs. Hereria she saw the need to help this woman in crisis. The narrator’s mother took care of Mrs. Hereira the many times she came asking for help after being beaten or threarned by Toni.
Chapter 13 – The Mechanical Genius
Chapter 14 – Caution
Description
Main Character / Bolo - Bolo is tall but not thin. He has a caricature face of sadness. His mouth is curled downward as well as his eyebrows. He has big eyes that are empty of expression. Bolo only laughed in sarcasm. He had a habit of only barbering on Sundays. He also could hold a grudge as shown with the incidents involving the newspaper. At the end we see a case of insanity with Bolo as he thought that all Trinidadians lie when it was him not trusting anyone.
Values and Attitudes
Trinidad - Bolo seems to have a negative attitude towards everything and everyone associated with Trinidad, especially the news papers. He has been deceived so many times before that now he lives an overly cautious life, to the point of paranoia.
The narrator - He seems to value his relationship with the narrator. He even benefits from the relationship by having the narrator check the papers for him when he starts buying sweepstake tickets. Their bond is broken at the end of the chapter.
Lesson Learnt: Something is not always what it appears to be. An example of this can be seen with the housing scam where in the initial stage of the scheme some pictures were taken of people with keys to their new homes. Shortly the man ran off with all the investors’ money.
Never let your emotions get the better of you. Bolo lost his temper and attacked the sub – editor but this did not help in any way a part from feeding his temper.
You should not live your life putting all your trust in something or an individual but you cannot live life without trusting at all.
Themes:
Appearance vs. Reality/
Deception This is shown in Bolo’s life in multiple ways. An instance is when Bolo was tricked by the philanthropist. Another instant is when Bolo thought he was on his way to Venezuela but instead was released in a swamp area.
Bonding Bolo confided in the narrator.
Dreams and Aspiration Bolo wishes to be rich. He aspires towards moving out of Trinidad.
Chapter 15 – Until the Soldiers Came
Description
Edward – artist, had a habit of giving away ties he had decorated, thin initially but he worked out and became muscular.
Edward’s wife – tall, thin, white skinned, looked pale and perpetually unwell, very miserable, suicidal
Values and Attitudes - Edward seems to be after the American dream to the extent that he went and got himself an American wife.
Key Principles You cannot hide from who you really are. Edward dresses American, talks American and distances himself from the Miguel Street by only associating with Americans. He thought this would make him happy but the more he changes is the more miserable he becomes.
Themes:
Change Edward changes his lifestyle. He distances himself from everybody and ends up alone.
Appearance vs. Reality Everybody was of the impression that something was wrong with Edward’s wife why they could not have a child but it was revealed in the end that the problem lied with Edward.
Dreams and Aspiration Edward wants the American dream / to live a prosperous life.
Chapter 16 - Hat
Description of Characters
Hat – jovial, friendly, loves sports, enjoys reading the newspapers, pretentious, violent.
Boyee and
Errol – These two young men are the nephews of Hat who lived with him. They were jovial and always spoke their minds. They often butted into people’s conversations. Hat referred to them as his illegitimate children.
Eddoes - A boastful garbage collector of Miguel Street. He was always boasting about the people he knew. He was a very clean person.
Themes
Women in Society – Although Hat never beats Dolly it is evident that she is made to feel that her place is staying in the home. She left for another man and he almost killed her.
Male Bonding - This theme is shown where Hat rounded up the twelve boys and took them to the cricket match. He treated them to sodas.
We also see where the narrator admits that he suffered with Hat. In fact, the entire community seemed to have shut down when they “lost” Hat. (When Hat left Miguel Street became dull. The club was dead, nobody played cricket anymore and nobody hung out under the lamp – post outside Hat’s house.)
Hat admits that when Edward left the house and when he married, he was negatively affected. It seemed as though he was losing a dear friend.
All the men were present at the court trial in support of their friend.
Change Hat realizes that all the young men are maturing and soon they will be independent, stepping out to start their own lives. He is also not able to accept the fact that Edward has his own family. When he realizes all these changes he becomes more miserable and starts to travel to the city more regularly. He brings back a female, named Dolly with him who seems to be a back – up plan for companionship.
Masculinity Hat pretends to be the father of the 12 boys he takes to the cricket match. This again shows that the men of Miguel Street believe that they will be more highly favoured or they will be seen as great men based on the number of children that they have.
Values and Attitude
Law There seems to be very little regard for Law in Miguel Street. Hat for example, always gets in trouble with the law. He participated in gambling, cockfighting and he was accused of adding water to the milk he sold.
Treatment of Women Although Hat treats his woman well inside the house, he didn’t
introduce her to any of his friends in Miguel Street. He keeps Dolly in the house, leaving her no choice other than to look through the window like a “house rat”. Neighbours saw her a few times and they could say that she is a good- for-nothing . Probably this wouldn’t have been their opinion if she had the opportunity to socialize with them.
Boyee and Errol comment that the house is better now that a woman is there. We are left to assume that they may be saying this due to the fact that a woman is there to provide warm meals, clean etc.(Woman – natural ingredient in the home)
Hat doesn’t seem to appreciate Dolly because he spends most of his time with the boys. We are left to wonder in the end if it was love that drove him to commit the crime or if it was simply the fact that he felt disrespected.
