Characterization and Thematic Connection
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Named after Amer. Movie char.
Has no family; quiet and to himself
“most bored man [the narrator] ever saw”
Plays cards
Leaves to America and changes for the worst
Key issues:
◦ Concept of becoming “americanized”
◦ Drinking, gambling, marital relationships
◦ “being a man among we men”- fathering a child =
manhood?
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Tone is diff.; narrator likes Popo
“poetic man”
Creating the “thing without a name”
◦ Always working but to what avail?
◦ Defines his identity
◦ Source of stress
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Popo is a “man-woman”; his wife leaves him;
he cleans up; she comes back; he is jailed for
stealing to impress/play the working game
Concept of dreams versus reality
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Looks just like his donkey and causes fear in
narrator and town
He brutally beats his kids and his wife
Taunts narrator when he walk by
Elias excuses his father (29) as old and
unintentional
Mother dies: worst funeral he has ever seen
Dolly giggles out of nervous incapacity for
control
George finds a new woman but it is short-lived;
opens a brothel; Dolly marries and then is
humilated to her breaking point and leaves
George dies at the end; Elias attends funeral
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Elais is diff. : Brains and determination
Elias attempts to pass Cambridge Cert. at the
school Titus Hoyt runs
Wants to be a doctor
Narrator finds “litritcher” beautiful in Elias’ mouth
Receives 3rd grade on exam; tries for 2nd grade;
teaches at Titus’s school; decides to be a sanitary
inspector because he “like[d] the work”; tried to
fly to places and pass the test- failed each time
Physical labor vs mental labor
Work versus education
Without education, cannot work in higher paying
jobs
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Man-man = mad; town left him alone
Ran for “every election” in the city
Never worked but was never idle (47)
Scribbled “schoooooool” when narrator went to
school- equates to work
His “accent” was like an Englishman
Uses his dog to steal from town; used dog to get
back at shop owner who threw him out
Used his dog to sully clothes and sheets so that
they would become unusable and then thrown
away so he could scavenge them
Sadly, his dog was run over
Saw “God” and attempts to use religion to get
attention; state that he is the new Messiah
“stone me brethren”- went “crazy” and taken away
for good
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English was “so good that it did not sound
natural”(57)
Poet; invites narrator over to eat mangoes- has a
garden and tells story of one boy and his
pregnant girl who are in love until she dies and
he loses both
“look up at the sky”(60)- narrator forgets all of
the “anger and the tears and the blows”
“the greatest poem in the world”- one line a
month; he is not concerned with money
Poet not feeling well and tells narrator that all he
said was a lie; poet then “vanishes” as if never
existed
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Big Foot never smiled, “looked” dangerous so
inspired fear; his father beat him but was killed
in a riot
Mischievous and mean (those who knew him
knew him as such and not a comedian)
Americans were in Port-O-Spain: Hat had all kids
begging and selling gum and choc.
Big Foot saves narrator from drunk soldier
Big Foot scared of the little dog: exposed his
weakness and fear; cut his foot and narrator saw
more weakness
Became a boxer and cried when he lost
Looks can be deceiving
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Full of rage and tries to be a comedian beat his children
(10 of them)
Hat does not think him funny and thinks he is lying to
himself (83)
Harrassed neighbor Bhakcu
More like a ”bird” than a man
Wants attention to feel like a man; got drunk and
threatened to beat up everyone; morgan and family left to
country
He was caught cheating and his wife holds him up by the
waist and scolds him: “For the first time…he was really
being laughed at by the people…and it completely broke
him” (90)
House catches on fire and fireworks go off and he is
charged with arson– irony: his work and search for value
causes him to have to leave
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Hat says Titus is a thinker
Teacher and challenged the narrator; “one of
the sadnesses in [his] life that [he] never
fulfilled Titus’…hopes for [his] academic
success” (97)
Believed in faith
Issues of the war are broached
Formed a literary club; took a trip to Fort
George- Titus lies and all upset—Titus is a
dreamer versus reality of education
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Laura: 8 kids from 7 men
Narrator catches on to how Laura lives (109); she is a
prostitute
Nathaniel moves in from “outside”: mistreats women
Calypso about beating women(111): “everyone needs
a good dose of blows” – acceptable?
Laura beats Nathanial
Oldest daughter Lorna old enough for education and
Laura wishes this for her child and for her not to
become like her (115)
Lorna pregnant; Laura cries for the first time: Lorna:
“swims out and out until [she] tired and can’t swim no
more” (117)
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Eddos works at a dump and deals with junk
yet brushes his teeth all the time
Found a new pair of shoes at dump- they
looked good
Collected books and proud to sell many of
them for cheap- value is having them and not
reading them (like Gatsby’s library)
Got a girl pregnant from a “wild Spanish
looking girl” and when brought to him, it was
obvious she was not his
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Miss Hilton dies and new couple moves in:
focus on gossip of small town
Man (Toni)was rude, drunk and even his dog
ran away from him; soldier
Mrs. Herreria was white and had married him
“to take care of him” ; she eventually leaves;
ending imagery is her sitting in a lawn chair
outside of a fancy house
Narrator’s mom befriends her and helps her
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Ironic: Mr. Bhacku has no idea how to fix cars
Wants to feel value for his work as a man and
fails
Narrator likes him for the same reason he
liked Popo: he was an artist: “He interfered
with motor-cars for the joy of the thing, and
he never seemed to worry about money”
(157)
Mr. Bhacku became a pundit for hinduism;
how easy is it to become religious? How
devoted is he?
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Bolo warns against propaganda; war is over and
he does not believe it; Amer. Soldiers leaving
George V Park
Bolo was “born sad” (166)
Used to read the newspaper a great deal when
the war broke out; played a “lottery” to find the
missing ball
Bought into a housing scam due to having read
about it in a magazine- lost faith/trust in news
Tries to leave to Venezuela; sells box cart to
Eddos; got scammed again
“you see how black people is. They only quick to
take, take. They don’t want to give. That is why
black people never get on.” (174)
Secretly played the sweepstakes for 3 years and
does not believe it when he wins
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Edward, Hat’s brother; artist who liked to paint
Got a group together to go catch crabs
They looked suspicious so were stopped by the
police (had a van and shovels)
Then “Hitler invaded France and Americans
invaded Trinidad”(184-185)
Edward changed and dressed like Amer. when the
soldiers came; all trinidadians tried to become
Amer.; worked out, drank white milk and showed
off their arms, sang in public for attention
Has to get married due to “making girl pregnant”;
Hat disagrees; she was dubbed “a modern girl”
and disliked; edward lied to make it seem ok that
he married her
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Boyee and Errol are Hat’s nephews
Hat took 13 boys to cricket game; narrator learned
Hat’s “…passion for impossible bets” (202)
Narrator sees that Hat enjoys life
Dogs resemble their owners and Hat has a tame dog
Has parrots
Hat got in trouble with the police for small thingswatering down his milk to sell, cock-fighting
Discussion of the corruption of law in Trinidad (205)
Narrator noticed that Hat enjoyed simple things; did
not need more
Hat brings a woman home (Dolly) and breaks up the
Miguel Street Club
Hat’s wife ran away with all gifts that he bought her;
Hat snaps and kills a woman –but not Dolly- and
sentenced to 4 years
Narrator no longer a boy, but a man, left school and
he “was earning money”
“When Hat went to jail, part of me had died”(214)
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Narrator was drinking and acting wild
“Is not my fault really. Is just Trinidad. What else
anybody do around here besides drink?”(216)
Wants to study engineering abroad, but onky one
scholarship left, so decides to study drugs to go
to London
His going away party was like a “wake”
Uncle Bhacku took he and his mother to the
airport
He leaves while respectfully acknowledging his
uncle’s artist self: he hears the “tappet knocking”
He sees his shadow: “a dancing dwarf” on the
tarmac