Joseph Zobel’s Black Shack Alley is a story encompassed with true raw human emotion and the brutalities of life. It was an amazing read, albeit there were heartbreaking moments of inequalities where I felt genuinely sad; Zobel does an incredible job of engaging the reader and evoking emotions. From the very first line, “Whenever the day had […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Generational Trauma, Joseph Zobel
Black Shack Alley by Joseph Zobel was a touching read that had so many unique perspectives on growing up. At the core of this novel, we are taken through Jose’s journey of growing up, which is what we have seen in quite a few of the books we have read so far. However, Jose’s experiences […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Colonialism, education, family, Joseph Zobel, Martinique, race
I really liked this novel and the themes of perseverance throughout. From the start of the book where a younger José despite his circumstances is seen meeting up with his friends and causing a raucous. While I can’t relate completely to his situation, I found myself reminiscing on my own childhood where my own gang […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Joseph Zobel
Joseph Zobel’s ” Black Shack Alley” is a deep and fascinating story that explores the complexities of identity, family, and societal expectations. It is a touching and vivid depiction of life in Martinique. The story follows José, a young child facing the difficulties of puberty in a culture characterized by racial and cultural divisions, amidst […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with education, Joseph Zobel, literature, poverty
One thing that was interesting about this novel, similar to the others that we’ve read in this class, is that it is told from a child’s perspective and point of view. I expected that it would be a bit darker in a sense simply because of the fact that it deals with racism and plantations […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with childhood, description, Joseph Zobel, M'man Tine, race, racism, setting
Favourite book so far. The first section of the book where José describes the alley was the most impactful to me. There is a strong sense of imagery and I think the setting is very well built. This section is … Continue reading →
Posted in Blogs, Zobel | Tagged with french, Joseph Zobel, M'man Tine, Martinique, Mr. Méduoze, racism
This week’s novel Black Shack Alley by Joseph Zobel talks about the life of the main narrator José who lives with M’man Tine. This novel uses a linear narrative to tell the story of his experiences in Black Shack Alley and pursuing education to address the problem of colonialism, racialization and class inequality. I wanted […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with black, education, Joseph Zobel, life, love, race, reality
Black Shack Alley captivated me from the beginning and I was not able to put it down. Following the young life of José and his journey through his upbringing. Initially, in his childhood, it was sweet to read how he played with the other children and the dialogue really brought a sense of joy and […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Joseph Zobel
This definitely wasn’t my favourite book that we’ve read probably do to the constant theme of cruelty and punishment that carries out during the novel. However with that being said I do think that this is a very important read because it further educates its readers about the tough and brutal realities of slavery and […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with cruelty, Joseph Zobel, life, trauma
I read Black Shack Alley this week, and here are some of my reading experiences.
For me, Amantine, little Joseph’s grandmother, is the unique character in the article, with a tragic but extraordinary fate. The author describes how his grandmother correctly made little Joseph’s life ordinary and warm in such a poor situation. Despite the hard work on the plantation and how the clothes on his body were worn, little Joseph never touched the ruthless side of reality under the care of his grandmother. As a result, grandmother Amantine’s image of a loving, simple, and hard-working black worker jumped on the page. Later articles tell the story of Joseph Jr. and her grandmother living a poor and miserable life on a sugar cane plantation. Nevertheless, The assertive Little Joseph’s grandmother, Amantine, understood that knowledge was the key to the broader world. She worked hard to get a better life for Little Joseph.
By looking up relevant information, we can learn that Black Shack Alley is set in the French colony of Martinique in the 1930s. In this context, the meagre income and hard life of black workers and various painful histories are described in the book, which makes people move and think about it. In this case, the children in the plantation have always maintained their innocence and childlike fun; the brave struggle to find a wider world and the future expectations that the future grandmother and little Joseph still have. This tragic background has formed a sad and touching life and expressed a kind of awe-inspiring concept. The book’s rhetoric is not gorgeous, but just describing the background of this protagonist is enough to make the reader experience a dull feeling in this heavy and straightforward experience, a reflection on history based on people’s empathy.
In the book, childhood is always cheerful and straightforward. Those children who do not have a clear understanding of the nature of life do not care about rudimentary food and clothes that cannot cover privacy; everything is innocent and funny as if adding a sunny filter to the hard life. Looking at the author’s life from the perspective of his childhood, the cruel life we can feel is softened by such a filter. So this misery, which should have been stinging, became a continuous dullness. My question is: Is it easier for the reader to have the courage to continue reading than to bluntly analyze this tragic experience from an adult’s point of view?
Posted in Blogs, Zobel | Tagged with Joseph Zobel
