"Black Shack Alley" - Zobel
Hi everyone, this week I read “Black Shack Alley” by Joseph Zobel. The story follows José, who starts out living in Black Shack Alley, as he grows up with his grandmother M’man Tine. I found this book harder to get through than the other readings. Access to school should be a human right and the various setbacks José faced in pursuing education made me sad.
Out of the other books I have read for this course, I thought that “Black Shack Alley” has the most connections to “Mad Toy”. Both books are about a young boy living in poverty, struggling with navigating social class. Like Silvio, José and a group of friends cause mischief by attempting to steal- sugar in this case. Fictional stories are also part of both books. In “Mad Toy” Silvio reads books about adventurers and imagines being like them. In this book José starts finding enjoyment in reading novels at the lycée. I thought the biggest difference between the two is the ending as Silvio's ending signalled a new start for him while this was not so much the case for José.
The frequent mentions of food stood out to me most while reading. In part 3, José casually mentions eating chocolate for dinner when this was a food he previously dreamed of eating at his previous school when he saw his teacher eating some for lunch. I thought this was a clever way to show how starting school at the lycée was a massive change to his life compared to the school he was at before.
As well, he is now eating more processed foods such as bread and margarine at the lycée. Looking from a nutritional standpoint, it is not a massive improvement and perhaps even a downgrade to be eating processed foods rather than whole foods like cassava flour and fish back in Black Shack Alley. I think it is an allegory for black youth in this story, in that pursuing education and “success” may not actually result in a massive improvement from living conditions in Black Shack Alley.
Food is used in the story both as tokens of kindness and as a weapon against him. José was comforted when his grandmother was sick by people buying him dinner and bringing him bread to eat. But while at school, Mme Leonce uses giving José a free lunch as a guise to take advantage of him for labour.
My question for the class is: Was being at school better for José than living in Black Shack Alley?
Your comments on the importance of food are observant and interesting. Including the fact that at issue is not simply how much food Jose has access to, but also what kinds of food. There's a distinction (for instance) between raw and processed food: sugar cane is raw, and more or less easily available, for instance; sugar, however, is processed and almost a luxury in Black Shack Alley. Similarly, perhaps, is this book about how a "raw" human becomes "processed" by institutions such as the school?
ReplyDeleteHi Arissa, I really enjoyed reading your blog post! Your mention on the importance of food was really well said. To answer your question I would like to say that José attending school was better for him...even though he may disagree. Whether he enjoyed it or not, school allowed him to experience new things and get a chance at a "better life".
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