Immigrants have some common experiences that include uncertainty, fear and hope. Literatures on immigrants are mostly about racism, separation, and fraud. Caribbean fiction stories also draw ideas from this perspective writing about immigrants. Some of the ideas in Caribbean short stories are about local dialect, trade, culture and racial tensions between Northern and Southern worlds.
Individuals across the globe recognize these pieces of writing. The reason is that the stories are accessible and parallel to the lives of immigrants around the globe. This paper critically summarizes and analyzes the Caribbean story “Chutney” by Persaud Sasenarine. The author is a poet, novelist and short story writer born in Guyana. In this book, he is depicted to be a narrator and protagonist of the Indian culture.
The author has chosen to explore his ideas with long narratives. For example, the narrative of Guyana is a fiction story that explains the emotions of Guyanese people expected to migrate to North America. He continues to say that these individuals have often moved to the urban places, like Miami, New York and Toronto.
Unfamiliarity with the western culture and lack of connection to new homes forced the migrants to find ways of belonging. For example, they chose to make chutney from green apples rather than from traditional mangos. This kept them away from staying idle in public parks. This commonality is also used to describe the poor Geese originating from Canada.
The opening sections of “The dog” shows the sentiment of bewilderment. The dog is characterized as a spiritual family pet. It also brings out the different cultural relationships with animals. The use of other term to refer to the migrants shows that the author embraces philosophical orientations with deep fascination. It is also correct to say that the narratives are not overwhelming.
There is no complete story that appears real apart from “dookie”. It is a romantic tale between a Hindu boy and Muslim girl. A film with the same name also explains the westernization of the Hindu culture related to feminism. In the recent days, the Brahmin culture believes that a man should bless a woman. However, Persaud’s story is different because it talks about the opposite.
The use of dialogue and reflection shows that the author completed the story in a hurry to bring out different themes. In the first story, the author says that his grandfather was to train to Tantra. This demonstrates the author’s admiration for philosophical practices and beliefs. The beliefs are controversial because the author portrays the manipulation of physical laws mostly called Jadu or magic by other people.
The evasion of such expositions by the author raises questions of character validity. The Caribbean language is complex, hence, there are reasons for the author’s perspective.
In the first half of the stories, Persaud uses many narratives to bring out different themes of his writings. However, in the second half, the author uses imagery to characterize his characters. The author brings out the rhythm of the speech by using Sam Salvo-like English.
The lyrical tone used by most modern Caribbean writers is absent in Persaud’s work. Dialogues used by the author make the stories appear real to readers. By using phrases to describe the Guyanese culture, Persaud identifies five stories of unpredictable characters in the book. The greatest contribution of Persaud is the use of characters that appreciate tokens of humanity.
Modern Indo-Caribbean writers have not cultivated this contribution in their writing. The authors show a tiring nature of racial history. Persaud says that although he is well educated, the Asian origin memories will exist in his life forever. He applies this in his writing while talking proudly and courageously about Asian characters.
The second half of the book navigates through human wonder by telling stories of his Indian stars. He frequently eludes several philosophies on yoga to diminish the gap between his Asian memories and modern cogitations. The writer uses first, second and third persons to bring out the different dimensions of human interactions. Irony is also evident in the author’s work.
For example, Persaud says that a woman with painted eyebrows resembles a tree. Some of the alluded characters used by the author do not conform to the practice of the Hindus. For example, he named the second dog “Shiva”. This is similar to a catholic priest calling a dog “the holy virgin Mary”.
In conclusion, the tales by Persaud have widely been accepted due to the different accents in his writings. The author tries to capture the mind of the reader and not the heart. The closing story for the author (Arriving) seems odd. The title used creates a notion that the book has just begun.
Persaud’s poetry shows that he understands human travail in all mature and fashionable ways. In the author’s writing, a reader cannot find any soothing words. The plot of the story is based on truth with little fiction because the tales are widely accepted by other Canadian literature writers.