Identity and Existence

As Maria T said in her entry, the human being has been always worried about its existence in the world. The human beings are always searching for something that builds their identity and give sense to their existence. Everyday of our lives, we are struggling with ourselves, facing with the most terrible fears, emotions, and feelings inside, and dreams trying to find ourselves in a world that sometimes seems to be opposed to us and most of the times we should learn to live in if we want to survive. We need something to base our existence on, an idea or a belief. That worry about existence is portrayed in the three poems discussed in class on Monday 14. The caribbean authors expose the main human being conflict between what I want, my will and what the world around allow me to do like in "Bein g Always". They show how our human existence is limited by the circumstances, normally, external factors that escape from our hands, as in the case of the "Patriot" in which the speaker lives in Canada, and his/her wish is to be part of that foreign culture, but at the same time keeping their own identity, values, customs and beliefs from his/her country of origin making designs in the snow. The same thing happens in "Give T'anks"; The speaker has his lover in another country and the love he feels for this lady is affected by the distance because he is far away from her. The only thing he has is to pray God and thanking for the love that none of us possess. Time and distance in this case, are the enemies for that love.
In other situations, culture conditiones the human existence as in the case of the essay "The Media's image of Arabs" where the author explains how the stereotypes, especifically the negative ones, divulged through the media-mass, has affected the vission and our perception towards Arabs and others in our society. The author claims respect towards individual differences. Everyone is different, unique. No matter the skin, race, religion, social condition, and nationality. The most important thing is TO BE.

To be!

The Human being is always in constant search of transcending mere physical existence. From Greek philosophers to the latest academic trends of thought, death has been a prevailing topic in literature, and in English this was no exception. Fear of death has driven Man to ponder on human existence turning Man towards philosophy, religion. The struggle humans go through finding themselves in the world, beseeching identity and purpose in life has been, still is and will continue to be an important issue for writers to develop in their literary works. Thus, finding sense to the question "what are we here for", attaining a fulfilling existence, feeling that we belong to one or more cultures that may or may not share ideas and/or religious beliefs is a universal issue that may appeal to anyone in the world.

As it has been mentioned in previous posts, Caribbean writers share the struggle of having a mixture of customs, languages and other cultural aspects as a substantial part of their heritage. Their literature reflects their search towards understanding their incidental cultural identity and what is to be their purpose of existence. In his poem Patriot, Cyril Dabydeen writes about what could be interpreted as a cultural encounter between North America and his own Caribbean culture, specifically the Guyanese. He addresses the need to stay true to his roots as he invites the Canadian to join him in a practice that could be more likely theirs than his own, playing with the snow. Martin Carter, also from Guyana, deals with aspects of the nature of existence in his poem Being Always as a compound of aspects that the speaker may take into his or her own hands and those that fall out of them. On the other hand, the Jamaican Mervyn Morris has preferred to Give T'anks for what has been granted to the speaker, celebrating another year of grateful existence.

But not only Caribbean writers tackle the existential dilemma humanity is going through. Jack G. Shaheen calls attention towards the fact that religious and political leaders, people in power who are in control of the media may sometimes inflict a false image of people who do not share the same ideas or beliefs as their own. In his essay The Media's Image of Arabs, he points out the difficulties that Arab Americans face due to the stereotyping they have undergone in films, TV programs and the media in general. Another Jamaican, Christine Craig addresses the issue relating it to that which has consistently been discussed in previous posts: choice. In her short sotry In the Hills, the political and ecomomic situation of a city affects the life of its inhabbitants making them desperarate to "find a way out"; it shows how leaders may influence masses of people who want to make changes in their life, or how ideas may change people. A growing interest in issues related to existential aspects in a world that, if not already such, tends to be globalized is taking over many contemporary writers who address this matter in their literary works. The universality of the topic allows for an enormous amount of possibilities in this area that will surely attract readers attention, granting the authors of today's literature what could be an infallible deal for effectiveness, given that they have mastered the crafts of developing a distinct writing style.

Restricted Existence

One of the universal issues, the human being has always worried about is that of the existence, and we found that worry portrayed in contemporary writing in English. The poem “Being Always” by Martin Carter posits the question: Do I live my life or is it my life that lives me? This question is a way to summarize the conflict between my will, what I want to do and what circumstances allow me to do. In a way, this poem becomes a criticism to the religious dogma which states that the human being has free will, he has freedom to choose what he/she is and wants to be. However, the poem proposes a wider perception of reality which includes that freedom is limited by reality and; although it is true that people have freedom, it is also true that the choices are limited by external factors. And from this reality emerges Ortega y Gasset’s famous maxim "I am myself and my circumstance".

The same idea of limited set of opportunities is reinforced by the poems: “Patriot” by Ciryl Dabydeen and “Give T’anks” by Mervyn Morris. In this poem, the idea of existence conditioned by circumstances is presented as in the verses: “I am tropical to the bones” the problem of identity that will determine who and how you are. This limitation can be either voluntary as in the example above or not-voluntary as it is expressed in the essay: “The Media’s image of Arabs” in which the author explains how the perception of the world about Arabs has been affected by the negative stereotypes divulged through mass-media.

Human existence is delimited or conditioned by culture. People either conditioned their being to their culture because of a sense of identity (voluntary) or are being conditioned and determined by their culture because of stereotypes (not-voluntary). There are other reasons to condition the existence like resources, time, etc. In any case, Christine Craig gives us a hope in this dilemma through her short story: “In the Hills”. She lets us know that although circumstances get us trapped, culture exerts pressure on us, or any other restriction, there is always a way out.

Caribbean writers

One of the main reasons for Carribean writers to write is to show or to let the world know about their real identity. The identity they have lost for many years. Through poems, essays and short stories, they can express what their culture really is, which is the richness of their language, the exaltation of their customs and the beauty of the Caribbean people. Although they say they "feel multicultural" they keep on struggling for preserving something that is and will always be important to them, their "real culture." Grace Nichol´s essay "The Battle of the Language" criticizes the way black people are treated and are being treated, it is also mention the way she uses language in order to create a world of her own, because in the world that she lives in is full racial discrimination. When Grace Nichol writes, she feels she has the control of the world, she can recreate a world that she really likes, perhaps a world where black women or just women are not invisible. Besides Nichol´s essay, there is a short story from Marie G. Lee " My two Dads" This short story is also related to culture, the rescue of the Korean culture. Within the story the narrator experienced two different cultures, two different worlds, two different dads and of course two different narrators as well. Even though Marie Lee is not a Caribbean writer, her short story fits perfectly here, because through her writings, she struggles for her own culture and for her own indentity, the identity she had lost just for being Korean- American. People can say many things of Caribbean writers, but one thing is for sure they are going to continue, through literary texts, to prove the world that they have their own identity, their own culture. To end this session about Caribbean writers and to highlight their struggle for being themselves, it is important to write this: "I was always being told I should be something, and then my whole upbringing was something I was not: it was English." Jamaica Kincaid ( a Caribbean writer).