Ways of sunlight; Samuel Selvon character analysis.
INTRODUCTION
In literary works, characters usually illuminate the overt and covert themes of the story, the setting, the plots and subsequent subplots. The literary works’ creators need characters so as to emphasize on the major issues affecting our contemporary society. In his short stories anthology, ‘Ways of sunlight’, Samuel Selvon uses characters to present the themes and explain the actions they undertake in their lives. Using five short stories from the anthology we are able to understand how different characters have been used to highlight the major concerns. The stories selected include; Johnson and the Cascadura, Down the main, Cane is bitter, Erasers dilemma and Obeah in the grove.
The book ways of sunlight by Samuel Selvon mirrors the lives of Caribbean in Trinidad and London. The first part is set in Trinidad where through various characters themes such as superstition, education, cultural practices, love and family and identity are discussed. In this part we are meant to see how life is conducted in Trinidad and the various challenges characters face day in day out. Through the characters behaviors and their relations to the environment and other characters, we get acquainted with the main issues the writer aims at propagating.
The second part of the book is set in London. Here we learn of how immigrants get to familiarize and integrate themselves into a foreign land. We are made aware of their lives in a new home away from home. For instance in ‘Eraser’s Dilemma’, we are informed though in a humorous way, of the challenges an immigrant encounters in a foreign land. The excitement of the new world is not left unattended to as seen in ‘Waiting for auntie to cough’.
This paper aims at critiquing the selected stories and evaluating how characters’ lives have been portrayed by the author in the five stories highlighted above.
In Johnson and the Cascadura, the main character, Johnson, is a white man from England who is a friend to Franklin the
In literary works, characters usually illuminate the overt and covert themes of the story, the setting, the plots and subsequent subplots. The literary works’ creators need characters so as to emphasize on the major issues affecting our contemporary society. In his short stories anthology, ‘Ways of sunlight’, Samuel Selvon uses characters to present the themes and explain the actions they undertake in their lives. Using five short stories from the anthology we are able to understand how different characters have been used to highlight the major concerns. The stories selected include; Johnson and the Cascadura, Down the main, Cane is bitter, Erasers dilemma and Obeah in the grove.
The book ways of sunlight by Samuel Selvon mirrors the lives of Caribbean in Trinidad and London. The first part is set in Trinidad where through various characters themes such as superstition, education, cultural practices, love and family and identity are discussed. In this part we are meant to see how life is conducted in Trinidad and the various challenges characters face day in day out. Through the characters behaviors and their relations to the environment and other characters, we get acquainted with the main issues the writer aims at propagating.
The second part of the book is set in London. Here we learn of how immigrants get to familiarize and integrate themselves into a foreign land. We are made aware of their lives in a new home away from home. For instance in ‘Eraser’s Dilemma’, we are informed though in a humorous way, of the challenges an immigrant encounters in a foreign land. The excitement of the new world is not left unattended to as seen in ‘Waiting for auntie to cough’.
This paper aims at critiquing the selected stories and evaluating how characters’ lives have been portrayed by the author in the five stories highlighted above.
In Johnson and the Cascadura, the main character, Johnson, is a white man from England who is a friend to Franklin the