To Da-Duh in Memorium by Paule Marshall

About the author – Paule Marshall

Paule Marshall’s short story ‘To Da-Duh, in Memorium’ was first published in 1967 and
later include in her 1983 collection Reena and other stories. Marshall was the daughter of
parents who were part of the first wave of Barbadian migrants to the U.S.A. growing up in
Brooklyn. She was strongly influenced by Caribbean origins of language and culture which in the
story are represented by the grandmother, Da – Duh.
As a child, the author visited her grandmother in Barbados and this autobiographical tale
– told comes from the child’s narrative perspective but is reflective since it is told from an adult
point of view. There is a quest for identity through the bond and conflict between two strong
women as well as the transition from rural island customs to modern, urban ways of life that
frames their relationship.

The Plot
“To Da – Duh in Memorium” begins in 1937 as the nine – year old narrator, accompanied
by her mother and sister arrives by boat in Bridgetown, Barbados from Brooklyn for a family
visit. The father notably stays in New York, deeming the trip a waste of money. The narrator is
struck by the respect her mother who left Barbados fifteen years earlier, shows Da – Duh, the
family matriarch, and describe her as becoming a child again. The narrator has never met Da –
Duh before and as the 80 year old sizes her up, she boldly meets her stare, which establishes
the complex bond of matching strengths, strong wills, rivalry and respect between the girl and
the elder who calls her ‘fierce’ and takes her by the hand to meet the rest of the relatives before
they head to Da – Duh’s home in St. Thomas. Da – Duh’s physicality as described by the narrator
– small and status – quo with a rigid face and lovely eyes along with her quick movements –
attests to her alert and assertive, dominating personality and single-minded disposition.
The following day, Da – Duh takes the narrator out and shows her the numerous fruit
orchards and sugar cane fields. She asks if there is anything as nice in New York, adding that she
has heard the city has no trees. When Da – Duh asks the narrator to describe snow, the latter
says if it piles up higher than her grandmother’s house and is cold enough to freeze someone.
She literally sings the praise of the city and of American culture by performing popular songs
and dances for Da – Duh who reacts in silent bewilderment.
Da – Duh is rendered even more speechless by her granddaughter’s revelation that she
beat up a white girl in class, which resonates starkly with the grandmother’s wish to have had
white boys as grandchildren. She in fact had grandchildren from the illegitimate children of
white estate managers. Da – Duh’s constructive attitudes in terms of gender and race relations
qualify her as out of tough with progressive values and rights and ironically reveal her forceful
personality to be embraced by the dynamic of colonial exploitation. Significantly, her
appearance of the sugar cane plantations never probes the economic power structure that
surrounds them because she automatically assumes the white man’s natural position to be at
the top of the food chain.
The narrator spends most of the remains of her visit with Da – Duh, telling her all about
the buildings and technology New York has to offer. The grandmother is taken aback and is
almost fearful of the descriptions of this modern metropolis. Her last stand is taking her
grandmother to Bissex Hill and showing her a tall palm tree – the tallest thing she has ever laid
eyes on. She asks the narrator if there is anything so high in New York and the narrator says yes
the Empire State Building. She promises to send the incredulous old woman a postcard upon
her return. Da – Duh never receives the postcard. After the family leaves, the 1937 Bridgetown
strike takes place leading the British to send planes to fly low over the island and scare the
people protesting. Da – Duh is the only one who refuses to take refuge in the cane fields and
stays home later the townspeople find her dead in her chair by the window.
For a while, as an adult, the narrator paints landscapes of the sugar canes fields of
Barbados in fond remembrance of her grandmother whom she vividly imagines seeing the
planes come at her like ‘monstrous birds’. Her entire apocalypse vision frames Da – Duh’s
demise symbolically as a view on an entire way of life.

Writer’s Style / Technique

The story is narrated in the first person using a young nine – year – old girl as the
narrator. However, at the end of the story, the narrator speaks as an adult looking back at the
past and her encounter with Da – Duh. The point of view is that of the adult narrator and many
references are made to the past nature of the narrator. “For a brief period after I was grown I
went to live alone, like one doing penance…”
In general, the narration is in Standard English while the dialogue is heavily dependant
on the rhythms and nuances of the Bajan dialect. “They’re cane father, bo.” She gave a proud
arrogant nod.
The characterization of Da – Duh remains one of the intriguing aspects of the narration.
The writer had endeavoured to present a very detail and complete picture of a puzzling
character – one who contained all the opposites.
“Perharps she has both, both child and woman, darkness and light, past and present, life
and death…”
The attempt to present even minor characters in a very vivid and earthly way is
consistent throughout the story. The Barbados of the 1930’s is presented as a rual island
overgrown by candefields. The narrator “thought of them as giant weeds that had overrun the
islands leaving scarcely any room for the small tottering houses”.
The writer has successfully presented a very lively and vivid picture of colonial West
Indian island through the eyes of a child.