Compare and Contrast Beka Lamb and Miguel Street
Most writers of the Caribbean have been preoccupied by particular themes and have adhered to mutual tracks, while often contrasted in approach and writing. The possibility or impossibility of the account of one’s story, when the very concept of the individual has been crushed by slavery and colonisation, the circumstances of advent of a new Caribbean identity, the analysis of the past, writing in exile and lastly, landscape and nature: where the environment or surrounding tells the story, is an essential basis of examination of oneself and one’s community. Writers have also frequently concentrated on former oral and social customs, so as to examine carefully the fragment they assimilate in the advancement of modern-day society and consciousness. In both Miguel Street and Beka Lamb the impact of colonisation that influenced the major themes such as the issue of identity, exile and migration, and women, will be epitomised by comparing and contrasting.
Beka Lamb was issued in 1982, the year subsequent to independence, but it portrays to the reader somewhat of the late 1970s, right between the political melee that conflicted the British Crown and Guatemala, a country whose territorial prerogatives on British Honduras had been extensively deliberated on the Belizean community. The social jeopardy that Edgell produces consist of the indigenous peril that Creoles, harbour, from the increasing Hispanic populace and the socioeconomic hindrances that Creoles experience as they endeavour to ascend from inferior to intermediate status--all in the wider perspective of Belize upgrading from just a society to an independent state. Zee Edgell gives the impression of hope, that, through suitable discipline, Creoles can equally redeem their rank in the Belizean indigenous hierarchy and also journey from lowly to more proficient professions--and without negotiating too much of their affluent ethnic heritage. During the course of the novel Belize is publicised as a country still
Beka Lamb was issued in 1982, the year subsequent to independence, but it portrays to the reader somewhat of the late 1970s, right between the political melee that conflicted the British Crown and Guatemala, a country whose territorial prerogatives on British Honduras had been extensively deliberated on the Belizean community. The social jeopardy that Edgell produces consist of the indigenous peril that Creoles, harbour, from the increasing Hispanic populace and the socioeconomic hindrances that Creoles experience as they endeavour to ascend from inferior to intermediate status--all in the wider perspective of Belize upgrading from just a society to an independent state. Zee Edgell gives the impression of hope, that, through suitable discipline, Creoles can equally redeem their rank in the Belizean indigenous hierarchy and also journey from lowly to more proficient professions--and without negotiating too much of their affluent ethnic heritage. During the course of the novel Belize is publicised as a country still
Cited: Condé, Mary. “Caribbean Women Writers”. Palgrave Macmillan. (1999): 3-4. Print. Edgell, Zee. “Beka Lamb”. Heinemann Educational Publishers. Jordan Hill. (1982): 119-20. Print. Edward Baugh. "Reflections on “The Quarrel with History”." Small Axe 16.2 (2012): 108-118. Project MUSE. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>. Horan, Kaite. Ed. Voices from the Gaps. University of Minnesota, 3 Dec. 2012. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. < http://voices.cla.umn.edu/essays/fiction/beka_lamb.html>. Misrahi-Barak, Judith. Ed. The Wake in Caribbean Literature: a Celebration of Self-knowledge and Community. 17 Apr. 2012. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. < http://laboratoires.univ-reunion.fr/oracle/documents/224.html>. Naipaul, V.S. “Miguel Street”. United States. Vintage Books Publishers. (1959): 13-27, 204-07. Print.