So soon does one learn the bitter lesson that humanity is never content just to differ from you and let it go
at that. Never. They must interfere, actively and grimly between your thoughts and yourself—with the
passionate wish to level up everybody and everything. (“Mixing Cocktails,” 37, found in Rhys 1992)
In 1976, the Dominican writer Jean Rhys published a collection of short stories in “Sleep
It Off, Lady”. The first story within the volume, ‘Pioneers, Oh Pioneers’, concerns the fate of
Mr. Ramage, a young Englishman who comes to Dominica, buys an estate, marries a colored
woman of a questionable reputation and attempts to go native. The members of both the black
and white population see his behavior as highly odd. He is criticized in a spiteful, false and
misleading way by the whites and in the end he commits suicide or is finally killed. Very
important also, is the young girl Rosalie, whose empathy for and identification with the Ramage
is central to the story’s theme, though it lies on the periphery of it (Staley, p127).
The story is set in Dominica in November of 1899 more than half a century after the
abolishment of slavery. Significantly this date introduces a sense of uncertainty and
displacement, on the edge as it was of two seasons (fall and winter), two years (1899 and 1900),
and two centuries (the 19th and the 20th). Because of this emphasis on a binary division this year
also comes to be a symbol of the contrast and juxtaposition of the two major worlds within the
text, that of the blacks and the whites, and of the idea that crossing this cultural gap is very
difficult if not impossible. Also at the opening of the story the significance of the depiction of
Market Street, its people, sights and smells is also much more than mere setting. According to
Malcolm, 1996 (p85) this is where images of the West Indies and England physically clash in the
mind of the narrator in the form of the black and white women who are moving about in the
street. Miss Menzies wears a “thick dark riding habit” while the black women wear “gaily striped
turbans and highwaisted dresses” (Rhys p9). So, even clothes come to be used as a motif to
illustrate the clear division of the society. Also this divided world foreshadows the inability of
the protagonist, Ramage, to fit in any one group or place.
In terms of the narrative perspective, this story is written as a third person limited
omniscient piece since the narrator does not participate in the action of the story as one of the
characters, but still has the knowledge of how certain characters feel and what they think. This
perspective really makes a difference to the effect of the work because while we are given
glimpses of the story from the consciousness of Rosalie (Rhys p9 and 16), Dr Cox (Rhys p10-,
Eliot (p12-13) and even Mrs. Cox (p 16-17)we are never allowed into the consciousness of the
major character Ramage. This point of view also helps to foster within the reader a sense of
distrust and uncertainty as to the truth of the gossip that surrounds Ramage. We are left
wondering whether this ‘king among men” is capable of committing the terrible act of murdering
his own wife and we are allowed to witness, first hand, the power of hearsay, by how it shapes
our own perspectives and opinions toward Ramage until the very end.
In this story characterization is also used skillfully to highlight the themes of
victimization and powerlessness. Usually within the fiction of Jean Rhys, men are the oppressors
however in this story Ramage is undisputedly a powerless and victimized outsider who comes to
identify more, with the women of Rhy’s fiction (Malcolm p82). He is described as having hands
that were ‘long and slender for such a big man’(Rhys p11), a clearly feminine quality which
alludes to the idea that his personality is not compatible with the expectations society has of him
since gentleness is an ill suited quality to a colonist. The fact that he consciously decides to set
himself apart from others and that this actively contributes to his victimization is even more
tragic. It has been said that Rhy’s picture of a male destroyed by the contradictions of a society
polarized by race and class is even more powerful because she has used a figure of traditional
male power and authority to do this, the white male colonist (Malcolm p83). Thus we can
appreciate the irony that the seemingly admiring title “Pioneers, Oh, Pioneers” is actually more
like sarcasm or mockery.
In terms of character Ramage is very interesting as well. Initially he seems to posses all
of the qualities that would allow him to be liked and accepted by people. He is described as
handsome, tall, and dressed in tropical whites and having money to invest in the small island
(Rhys, p 10). Indeed as Malcolm has rightfully pointed out he has the makings of a cultural icon.
Ramage however comes to be associated not with the empowered males of Rhy’s fiction but
with the powerless and ostracized female group. He rejects every opportunity to belong and
comes to be seen as very unsociable. His rejection of the very institutions that support white
island society, the dances, tennis parties and moonlight picnics(Rhys p10), sets him apart at odd
and what is more, as dangerous. His choice not to fit in is nonsensical to both white and black
society. Both of whom can only reconcile his behavior as being that of a lunatic or zombie.
Just as the song he sings to Rosalie, Ramage is a “black sheep” among the English on the
island, who declare him mad, and is hated by the blacks who think he is a murdering cannibal. In
the end he is destroyed because he can find no peaceful place to belong and in him Rhys extends
her gallery of outsiders to include a white European male something very similar to what she
does with the damned and lost Rochester figure in Wide Sargasso Sea.