MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND COMMUNICATION

NAME: Rejoice ,NYASHA , T MICHEL

SURNAME: Shumba , MUGABE , SIMBINI

REG NO\\: R199916a,R1911867E, R198947Y

M.O.E: CON

MODULE TITLE:CARRIBEAN LITERATURE

MODULE CODE:BAEH 213

LECTURER: DR.T. MHITI

QUESTION:” FOR THE COMMUNITY ON THE HILL,THE CARNIVAL IS EVERYTHING”DISCUSS

THE IMPLICATION OF THE STATEMENT AND GIVE EASONS FOR YOUR VIEWS.
Indeed the people of the hill depended on the carnival for everything and the portrayal of

the power of carnival as an indigenous form of resistance. However, Carnival was not able

to for fill its people’s needs.

The carnival gives its people self-respect. The common element among the people of

carnival hill is their self-respect and the assertion of their own pride and values in the face of

a society and a system that seek to marginalize them. Carnival people have created their

own value system indifferent ways. Aldrick’s life is centered upon the role as the dragon

costume he painstakingly creates each year. Carnival became the identity of the people of

the hill and the people were prepared to fight for carnival. Hence the carnival was

everything to the people of the hill.

Carnival played a significant role in this community since it enabled lower class men

costumed as the Dragon to be a powerful threat to the colonial hegemonic system while

reaffirming the core identity of the community. However, carnival after emancipation

gradually becomes tourist attraction losing its original meaning .Aldrick the dragon and

Fisheye the bad john in carnival begin to question the true power of carnival and

consequently their masculine warrior identity. Thus carnival was important to them but

since nothing works in Trinidad as the dragon cannot dance the people can no make carnival

their real home.

In addition to the above, the ability of the poor black people of the hill to survive and in the

process of surviving to create a cultural traditions as a guaranteed of their existence. Philo

and Paria who were already marginalized men due to their lack of manliness gained social

mobility by skillfully adopting themselves to the new social system of neoliberalism and a

new gender role. These people presented a race that has resisted slavery colonialism and

the continuing dehumanization of the present system. Out of this struggle for survival and

resistance to oppression come the cultural forms and institutions that give these poor

people a measure of identity and establish their own personhood. Therefore one can say

the people of the hill totally depended on the carnival for their own survival and identity.

More so, the call for unity and power to the people makes the community to be united and

powerful. In a desperate attempt to keep this unity Aldrick, Fisheye and the other men

highjack the police van and drive crazily through the town center telling people to rise and

claim their manhood which is the carnival. Despite the poverty and disenfranchisement in

various ways, but all have the normal will to go on and keep on struggling .In the hill the

theme of power struggles for recognition plays a large part in carnival community. This is

revealed when Miss Cleothilda feels threatened by the prospect that Sylvia might be taking

over head of women’s position on the hill and adjust with the situation so as to keep her

position safe with her. Hence, people of the hill are struggling to keep carnival safe with

them in that it shapes their own identity and if defines then.

Carnival is a formidable opportunity for lower class men to recover their humiliated

masculinity and reaffirm their power within the community. The Carnival is temporary and
nothing rely works in Carnival as everything returns to the way it was and nothing changes.

This is shown when Aldrick and Fisheye when they are no longer able to find social

acknowledgement of their masculinities .They both failed despite trying so hard to protect

carnival. In addition the carnival is not able to for fill its people’s needs in that the carnival

can no longer provide the people’s needs and wants. When tourism encroaches on carnival

and reshapes its original form, Aldrick remains completely helpless likewise Fisheye is

terrified when he finds out that all he met with were old bad John’s warriors who had seen

time and lived now on their fame their very names forgotten by everyone outside small

circle acquaintances. Their past reputation is no longer recognizable and Aldrick and

Fiasheye got imprisoned due to their only and last battle against the government. Hence,

the disappearance reflects Lovelace view on the marginal masculinities of Aldrick and

Fisheye.