CHARACTERS Benjy Paul Mac is the old shoemaker in the village SETTING An unnamed village SUMMARY The third-person narrator relates the events of the theme of hate. Paul is not comfortable with the relationship that he shares with his twin brother Benjy. He does not like the fact that Benjy is self-sufficient and that… Read More Blood Brothers by John Wickham
CHARACTERS Black man White woman SETTING Jamaica SUMMARY The third-person narrator is unnamed. The story centers around a black man asking a white woman for light from her cigarette. She feels that the man is trespassing on her personal space. The woman has a problem with the colour of the man’s skin and shows… Read More Blackout by Roger Mais
by Olive Senior (Jamaican) CHARACTERS Del Elaine/Towser The narrator Maureen Jason Aunt Rita (Maureen and Jason’s parent) Uncle Rob (Maureen and Jason’s parent) Uncle Frank Eulalie Ermandine Pearlie Mr. Kincaid Mr. Samuels Melody-Ann SETTINGS Jamaica Rural Jamaica Urban Jamaica SUMMARY OF STORY Senior uses contrast to share the experiences of the child narrator. This extends… Read More The Two Grandmothers
by Langston Hughes (American) CHARACTERS Milberry Jones/ Berry Mrs. Osborn (head housekeeper) Dr. Renfield Martha Renfield Miss Baxter (the nurse) Mrs. Hill (the nurse) The handyman gardener – chauffeur SETTINGS New Jersey Dr. Renfield Summer Home for Crippled Children The kitchen The beach SUMMARY OF THE STORY Milberry’s story starts with his arrival at the… Read More Berry
Pearl Crayton (American) CHARACTERS The narrator Rena Miss Daya The narrator’s mother The narrator’s father/the deacon Reverend Davis Catherine Sam SETTINGS 1936 United States of America Louisiana Plantation SUMMARY OF STORY Flashback is used in the story as the narrator recounts an experience she had when she was just twelve years old. The story is… Read More The Day the World Almost Came to an End – Analysis
CHARACTERS Emma York Dorian York/ Dory Jack York Maria Mrs. Ruby Robinson Frank Grandaddy (Emma’s father) SETTINGS The York’s house The mall The train station SUMMARY OF STORY Dorian or Dory is the only child of Jack and Emma. She tells the story of the relationships in her family. Dorian and her father do not… Read More Emma by Carolyn Cole (American)
James Berry I wish my teacher’s eyes wouldn’t go past me today. Wish he’d know it’s okay to hug me when I kick a goal. Wish I myself wouldn’t hold back when answer comes. I’m no woodchopper now like all ancestors. I wish I could be educated to the best of tune up, and earn… Read More Dreaming Black Boy
It is the constant image of your face framed in my hands as you knelt before my chair the grave attention of your eyes surveying me amid my world of knives that stays with me, perennially accuses and convicts me of heart’s-treachery; and neither you nor I can plead excuses for you, you know, can… Read More It is the Constant Image of Your Face by Dennis Brutus
Elma Mitchell We shouted out ‘We’ve got her! Here she is! It’s her all right ‘. We caught her. There she was – A decent-looking woman, you’d have said, (They often are) Beautiful, but dead scared, Tousled – we roughed her up A little, nothing much And not the first time By any means She’d… Read More A Stone’s Throw
The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;… Read More God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley-Hopkins
Your mouth contorting in brief spite and hurt, your laughter metamorphosed into howls, your frame so recently relaxed now tight with three year old frustration, your bright eyes swimming tears, splashing your bare feet, you stand there angling for a moment’s hint of guilt or sorrow for the quick slap struck. The ogre towers above… Read More Little Boy Crying by Mervyn Morris
Essay Topics for Raymond’s Run
Birdshooting season the men make marriages with their guns My father’s house turns macho as from far the hunters gather All night long contentless women stir their brews: hot coffee chocolata, cerassie wrap pone and tie-leaf for tomorrow’s sport. Tonight the men drink white rum neat. In darkness shouldering their packs, their guns, they leave… Read More Birdshooting Season by Olive Senior
Wilfred Owen Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf… Read More Dulce et Decorum Est
by Mark McWatt You think I like all this stupidness gallivanting all night without skin burning myself out like cane –fire To frighten the foolish? And for what? A few drops of baby blood? You think I wouldn’t rather take my blood seasoned in fat black-pudding, like everyone else? And don’t even talk ‘bout the… Read More Ol’ Higue
