Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog. The book for this week is Black Sheep Alley by Joseph Zobel. The book tells the coming-of-age tale of the author José, a young boy growing up on the island of Martinique, an overseas region of france and former colony. I really enjoyed the read, and found it […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Colonialism, coming of age, education, family, poverty, Week 6
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
This book was an easy read, although it was slow. The story is told from the perspective of a child who is first protected by the shield of his childlike innocence. It depicts a time when slavery had been abolished, but they were still forced to work under the same conditions. The book was delightful […]
Posted in Blogs, Zobel | Tagged with education, impostor syndrome, poverty, race, stories
Zobel’s “Black Shack Alley” was an amazing read. Following the life of José we see his slow innocent realization of poverty and the world he was born into. José represents the numerous challenges and discrimination due to his race and socioeconomic status, but José is determined to improve his circumstances. I really liked how this text went into great detail about the interactions and memories of José’s childhood. Through this, José unfolds his memories but also depicts his shifted perspective of his reality. One theme that I really appreciated in…read more
Hey everyone! This week I read Black Shack Alley written by Zobel. I didn’t enjoy this novel as much as I have enjoyed the other reading material in this course. I found it a bit slow to start, but I found it interesting in regards to the way it discusses themes of race, class and […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with class, education, poverty, race
Black Shack Alley is probably my favourite novel compared to the others we have read in this class. I noticed that in most of the books we’ve read so far, literature has a significant effect on the protagonist of the book. For Jose, books allowed him to deepen his knowledge of the world. He saw […]
Posted in Blogs, Zobel | Tagged with childhood, innocence, literature, poverty
“Nada” by Carmen Laforet had me questioning if this was the craziest, yet oddly realistic, family I have ever read about. Aside from all the comments about the women in the book acting like animals, from the grandmother or men, I still could not understand why Andrea bothered to stay so long in this family […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with abuse, crazy, family, Men, poverty, women
Hi everyone, For week three of the course I read the novel Mad Toy written by Roberto Arlt. This novel is about a young criminal and his life in poverty as he grows older. In comparison to Proust’s Combray I found it to be a faster, more enjoyable, immersive read. If I was rating […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with character development, class, poverty
Hello everyone! My reading for this week is Roberto Arlt’s Mad Toy, a novel that explores the life of Silvio, a young man entangled in a turbulent life of poverty and adolescence. This tale is not about the life of a carefree youth growing up but rather explores a different phase of development, an identity […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with identity, life, poverty, reality, violence
Hello everyone, this week I read Roberto Arlt’s “Mad Toy”. Seeing that the protagonist is just a teenager, I found this book more bleak than I expected as it discusses heavy topics such as class and betrayal. Silvio as a character was relatable in…
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with adolescence, class, labour, poverty
