Stories of growth: Caribbean Women Writers (3)

Olive Senior’s “Bright Thursday”

Outline

• Olive Senior: Introd.• “Bright Thursday”

– color scheme and education; – the father’s (lack) of influence

Olive Senior: an Embodiment of Conflicts

• • The daughter of peasant farmers, she grew up, after four, with well-off relatives whose lifestyle was the opposite of what she had known as a child. tension between two different households, between rural and urban settings

“two Jamaicas”; (source: http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Biography/bio_OLIVESENIOR_Jcanauthor.htm

) 

“Bright Thursdays”--Genealogy • Dolphie Watson Miss Christie

• Mina Bertram Myrtle Johnstone(white U.S.) (brown) (dark)

Laura 2 sons (2 fathers)

(Bertram’s Mistake; Bertram’s stray shot)

• A child’s perspective—a gradual process of alienation

“Bright Thursdays”--Questions• Why is Laura’s story not like ours visits of our

grandparents? • If we divide up the story into the beginning, middle and

end, where is the “middle” part in which the action starts?

• Why does the story have a long introduction? What does the intro. show about Laura? Why does she feel alienated from her siblings? What is she afraid of?

• What is the significance of the photographs, mirror, the mountains vs. the wide open space, and the clouds?

• What does the ending mean?

Color System in the Caribbean Society

• Ms. Christie: “Dying to raise their color all of them” (199)

• The color triangle: white

brown

dark

“Bright Thursday”: intro.• Intro. Pp. 194 - 207• Myrtle as a single mother in conformity with social values

– Myrtle’s view of Laura’s father—proud of being associated with him, not expecting him to do anything (p)

– Myrtle’s dream of status improvement (197-98; 200)– Myrtle vs. Ms. Christie – Myrtle all polite and Ms. Christie,

condescending and implicitly critical (pp. 198-99;) • Laura in the two households

– at her mother’s: feeling well protected p. 200 – at Ms. Christie’s: feeling displaced and scared p. 195;

196

Contrasts between the two households

• Mountains vs. hills pp. 203 – 204

sense of insecurity

Space and its Symbolic Meanings• Spatial imagery

1. psychological -- Laura’s sense of displacement• Feeling alienated (because of the mother’s special

treatment) even at home. • transported from mother’s house to father’s• out of place or no space (photos on the bureau195)

2. Social -- Laura’s sense of inferiority – enclosed and protected(mother’s house in the

mountains, hemmed in 203); – empty space (the dining table 196; father’s house 204-

05) – fear of the open space, which is still constraining ( like

a “blue bowl” 204-205)– Fear of bright Thursday and the need to walk to school

206-207 (the bus)– Need protection and safety from the earth (digging

potatoes 207)

The Cloud and Agoraphobia• geographic metaphor attached with social meanings:

The Cloud = Christ’s judgment?

1. A projection of social hierarchy from one social field (the other people) to another (religion/Christ);

2. Metonymic displacement of Christ to the Cloud which he is associated with.

• Laura’s fear of open space or agoraphobia – – physical factor: moving to an area she is not

familiar with – psychological factor: sense of placelessness and

inferiority – Social factor – see definitions of agoraphobia

agoraphobia• Agoraphobia is a condition where the sufferer becomes anxious in

environments that are unfamiliar or where he or she perceives that they have little control. Triggers for this anxiety may include wide open spaces, crowds, or traveling (even short distances). Agoraphobia is often, but not always, compounded by a fear of social embarrassment, as the agoraphobic fears the onset of a panic attack and appearing distraught in public. This is also sometimes called 'Social Agoraphobia' which may be a type of social anxiety disorder also sometimes called social phobia. …

• Agoraphobia occurs about twice as commonly among women as it does in men.[4] The gender difference may be attributable to social-cultural factors that encourage, or permit, the greater expression of avoidant coping strategies by women. ….

• Branches of the social sciences, especially geography, have increasingly become interested in what may be thought of as a spatial phenomenon. One such approach links the development of agoraphobia with modernity. (source; see also panic attack)

Middle part1. The grandmother

-- calls Laura “my little adopted,” instead of granddaughter

-- criticizes Myrtle’s attempt at whitening her family, but she herself has been doing it.

2. The father – present only as a photo 208; few fathers around; – dreaming about being rescued by her father; – will bring nothing but bright Thursdays (208)

Ending: final revelation and initiation• Color hierarchy represented by the

opposition between the mother and Mina p. 210

• A story of disillusionment—the breaking up of her hope and dreams—“bloody bastard” (211)

• Turned into an orphan + no more clouds = isolation and independence?