Old Story Time
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Todays Jamaica seems overly preoccupied with the issues of class and colour. In Old Story Time Trevor Rhone mirrors a Jamaica struggling with the same subject in the Mid Twentieth century. Discuss these concerns of the play in detail making comparisons/contrasts to the current Jamaican and Caribbean societies.
In Old Story Time Trevor Rhone mirrors a Jamaica struggling with similar subjects in the mid century. Concerns that are brought out in Old Story Time are still evident in the Jamaican society today. The issues of class and colour that are presented within the play are still issues in Jamaica today. In the effort to rise to a European standard of beauty, blacks are still slaves to this mentality. This European standard of beauty (aquiline nose, long hair, and white skin) was not only considered as the epitome of beauty within Caribbean societies in the past but is still largely accepted in Caribbean societies today. Despite the fact that there is nothing wrong with European beauty, this becomes an issue when a racial class considers itself inferior to another racial class because of years of mental conditioning. Trevor Rhone ingeniously highlights this issue through the personalities of the characters in Old Story Time. The mental inferiority shown in these story bound characters as a result of years of slavery and colonization are still evident within our society today, and are here discussed as they are show in Old Story Time.
Black women of antiquity were legendary for their beauty and power. During this time, the African woman with her typical African physiognomy was believed to be the standard of beauty in that part of the ancient world. As shown in the character of Mama/Miss Aggy in Old Story Time, Mama was driven with the similar strength as her ancient female counterparts in her wanting to see her son Len become successful. In her effort to see her son succeed, she was willing to do anything for him. However, in order for Len to have progressed on the social ladder, it was Mamas belief that Len had to work towards particular “standards” for his advancement. One of these standards was that of beauty, according to Mama, “Miss Margaret, Revered Greaves daughter, a nice brown girl with tall hair down to her back, She is advancement” (14) Noticeably in her comment, Mama refers to Margaret as “Miss”, by referring to a young girl like Margaret as “Miss” Mama is abasing herself for this young girl. Also, in Mama addressing Margaret with superiority without seeing any fault with her words, this instance can be compared to the days of slavery, wherein all white members of a household, regardless of age, were referred to as Ms, Mr, or Mrs. Mama evidently and without her own knowledge has held on to principles attached with slavery.
As a consequence of years of mental conditioning, as is evident in the Caribbean today, Mama showed in Old Story Time that fair skinned or white individuals are to be shown a greater level of respect than blacks. Rhone truly represents the issue of this mentality through Mama by having an adult lower herself for a little girl without being cognisant of her own action. Consequently, Mama appears to have been cultured in this manner, as are many Jamaicans in the society today. Therefore, Mama is not as crude as she appears to be, she is actually a product of her society.
Another issue that comes up as Mama is reprimanding Len for carousing with Pearl is the issue of beauty. Mama refers to Pearl as “Miss Esmeralda frowsy-tail, jiggerfoot, jeysey ears, board head gal…” (14) It is after describing Pearl in this manner that Mama tells Len that she has a girl picked out for him ” a nice brown girl with tall hair down to her back” (14). To quote a famous African writer Kola Boof in her book Diary of a Lost Girl:
“Black women come from Africa blood…so most of them do not have long, naturally flowing hair like the women in movies, television, commercials and the women in the NBA….Long flowing hair simply isnt a biological characteristic of authentic black women and of course there has NEVER been a single pre-colonial society in Africa, not even in Egypt or Ethiopia where long [flowing-added by writer] hair was the standard of beauty (at least not until 1900)”(166).
Apparently, the same misconceptions of beauty that Mama had in Old Story Time still exists today, wherein many individuals of African decent have been poisoned and brainwashed into thinking that the genetic beauty of Europeans is better than the genetic beauty of Africans. Mama derogatorily refers to Pearl as a “board head gal”, this racist statement, made in Mamas ignorance, insults the naturalness of Pearls hair. Mamas understanding was that Pearl could never be compared to Margaret who had long straight hair down to her back. Moreover, in the society today, a black woman is generally looked down upon if she has the courage to walk about without having a perm. This need for a black woman to straighten her hair has become so permeated in the media that one cannot help but see and hear commercials asking black women to straighten their beautiful hair. In Essence Magazine for example, there is an advertisement which shows a flustered-looking, very pretty black woman with wild African hair. The commercial then shows her on the next page with bone-straight permed hair looking more relaxed, relieved and smiling. Hence, women are being shown that to be psychologically well and thus less frustrated with their God given black beauty they are to accept the standard of beauty shown to them in these advertisements.
Another issue brought out in Mamas statement is that of colour as she refers to Margaret as “a nice brown girl” (14). This significant statement that Mama makes has ballooned into a critical issue within the society today. What Mama is convinced of is that people of a fairer complexion have all the advantages. The best complement for her educated son Len is therefore the “brown” girl Margaret. Thus, Mama could not conceive of a black girl complementing her son when he had achieved in life. As a part of the “status quo” a brown girl with hair down to her back was the epitome of beauty for Mama, and seeing that Mama wanted the best for her son, Margaret suited Mamas ambitions for Len perfectly.
Furthermore, as in Old Story Time, skin colour remains an issue within the society today. Blacks have resorted to skin bleaching in an attempt to become more socially acceptable. An article on the web site www.africana.com said:
“One Kenyan TV ad features a young woman staring lovingly at her boyfriend in a college cafeteria. Another pretty woman with slightly lighter skin walks by, upon which the man jokingly asks the girlfriend