From Boy to a Man: Soucouyant

From a Boy to a Man Living in the past is a challenge, especially when your past is racing in front of your future. The narrator from Souycouyant written by world famous author, David Chariandy, seems to have taken the role from child to caretaker when his mother, Adele, had been diagnosed with dementia. Upon facing reality, the narrator chased and followed his dreams in the begginging of the novel, but in the end, learned that you can never escape where you came from. The narrator had foreseen the future when he had left Adele along with his brother and father, but then returned feeling regret and guilt. By doing so, the narrator turned from a boy to a man when taking on the responsibilities a child should never have to bear. At the age of seven, the narrator found it hard to cope with, let alone, understand what dementia even was. “I don’t know what scientists called it; it was hard to understand, some sort of memory loss syndrome” (Chariandy 18). During the beginning of the novel, the young boy had been going through many struggles and was seen as a target for racism and discrimination. “Get off the bus; you don’t deserve to be here” (Chariandy 12). (EXPLAINATION, WHO SAID THIS, AND WHAT SITUATION?) Coming to Canada was meant for a brighter future, FOR WHO? as the family had planned out there lives. But, in the hindsight of these terrible events, reality had taken over their dreams. The narrator did not have the chance of going to TO WHERE? because his father and brother both left the family in their own ways. “ Father had died not long after being laid off at work, and my brother left quietly because it was who he was” (Chariandy 16). Adele and her son were both alone and it was up to the boy to take care of her. It seemed as if the opposite of everything that was planned for the family had turned up. Instead of the mother taking care of the son, the son was taking care of the mother. In addition, it was hard for a seven year old to do this when her