The Novel Small Island by Andrea Levy - Essay Example

?The nature of ‘knowing’ and ‘otherness’ as related in a story of migration in the novel Small Island by Andrea Levy Introduction The issue of migration is important in the public discourse as it helps in creating an identity as it is framed through the movements of ancestors, both ancient and recent, in order to formulate the way in which the social construction of culture can be examined and understood. The issue of migration has infiltrated the public discourse through literary examination as a textual dialogue provides context for the influence that migration has created within the creation of sociological settings and constructs. Through looking at the novel Small Island, the dialogue centers around colonization and the influences that the British Empire has had on the evolutions within outside cultures and the consequence of migration as the extension of citizenry provided opportunities in London. As cultures influenced one another, social thought has changed and evolved, creating a connectivity between location and philosophical social construct. Geography and Culture Simply put, geographical location does not provide the context that is needed to understand a culture. Cultural identity is formed by the family and community that influences the philosophical thought of an individual, which is then expanded through the influences that press upon those ideals in order to shift and morph them into new concepts of world understanding. It must be understood that these influences begin to filter through a culture, changing it and evolving the socialization that occurs through each generation. In other words, migration becomes a part of the identity of everyone within a culture. The transnational links that occur as migration becomes relevant to the existence of socio-economic stability, or at least to the increases to unstable socio-economic circumstances, must be recognized for their relevance to the moving to locations that represent new opportunities. Colonialism provided for both the destruction of social systems and the introduction of Western ideals in such a way as to transform the socio-economic structures of the regions in which the British Empire stretched its rule. Through the destruction of relatively isolated cultures with the imposition of Western ideals that took land and valuable resources away from the indigenous populations, the expansion into global concepts of social integration was sometimes the only way in which to find new ways in which to live and thrive within the human existence. The reach of the British Empire through colonization created a mobile workforce that still exists through the effects of that colonization effort that imposed the will of the British people on those whose power was not such to stop their expansions. As an example, the Bangladeshis are still under the influence of the migration that was imposed upon them as their people were shifted for the value of their labour to other locations, this sense of dislocating from their home origin now a natural part of their socio-economic structure. An average of 200,000 people leave Bangladesh annually, searching for Western methods of survival that have changed the stability of their originating methods of sustaining their life. Approximately one million people who have migrated from Bangladesh and currently live in other countries through legal immigration currently send 3.8 billion back into the country, their transactions coming from a shifting number of geographical locations much of it represents the proceeds from migrant and nomadic workers who follow the work (Wemyss 2009). One of the time periods in which migration from colonized cultures spiked was post-World War II. The British Nationality Act of 1948 honored the nations that had provided soldiers for the British war efforts in giving them status as ’commonwealth citizens’, which was not a new status, but one that was officially recognized with the act. While there were appreciated differences between British subjects and ’commonwealth citizens’, the people from locations in the West Indies and South Asia came to Britain with rights that were equitable to British subjects as they could travel without a visa throughout the Empire. This opportunity provided hope for many people and the book Small Island by Andrea Levy provides a textual account of how this recognition of freedom of migration affected those who migrated and those who were introduced to those who migrated. The event of the passage to Britain becoming affordable on the ship the “Empire Windrush” in 1948 brought 417 Jamaicans, along with sixty Polish women who needed refuge after World War II. This large influx of immigrants elicited a response within Parliament who realized that there was no real legislation to create controls on the migration of people between the states within the Empire. In 1947 there had been an effort made through sending the Chief Welfare Officer of the Colonial Office to the Caribbean to discourage immigration on the pretense that the conditions in England did not support the move. However, this was unsuccessful, and despite more private discussions on discouraging ‘black’ migration, the public policy had to present a more positive and encouraging attitude (Spenser 1997). Public policy, however, is not the same as the nature of the public prejudices. The way in which the culture creates social separation, identifying aspects that are associated with ‘otherness’ provides for a way in which to segregate people, those with power oppressing other through denying access to those who have signifiers that suggest an ‘otherness‘. ’Otherness’ has been a means with which people have taken undesirable human traits and designated fused them into an entire culture based upon mythologies. According to Gupta and Chattopadhyaya (1998: 232), ‘even in the most unfamiliar culture we can expect to find that men do whatever they need to do, in whatever manner their cultural rites require, to eat, drink, satisfy sexual urge and to celebrate/mourn birth and death‘. However, there is an urge to adapt to a conventionality that provides for stability within the expectations of the individual within the cultural context. Small Island Through looking at the nature of acculturation, both for its meaning in the way in which a child is nurtured for belief systems and in the sense of a migrant who must find a way to integrate the locative culture into his or her own history, the novel Small Island provides a written account of the way in which the colliding of worlds is managed within the social context. The story begins with a statement that defines the nature of cultural dislocation, that feeling that a sense of the ‘other’ has become a part of one’s experience. Queenie, so named because of her name, Victoria, which is, of course, the name of the long-lived Queen Victoria, begins her part of the story by saying ‘I thought I’d been to Africa’ (Levy 2010: 1). Her actual experience was that, as a small child, she had attended an exhibition that was a recreational experience with her family in which other cultures were represented. However, in this statement is the beginning of the textual discovery of the idea of otherness and the way in which culture is a product of multiple ancestries that collide. The title of the novel, Small Island, creates an immediacy on providing for the discussion on how people are similar. The Jamaican migrants live on a small island, as is the British state of England on a small island. The people of both locations start from a similarity. This, of course, quickly slides into contrasts that include a dialogue about power and disparities between the experiences of Caucasian and non-Caucasian people. Racism is a part of the Western culture and when it is encountered by two people in the novel who had expected to be accepted and honored for their hopes and their accomplishments, the dark specter of what it means to devalue a person due to their heritage and their skin color is revealed for the disrespect it creates to all human beings. Gilbert and Hortense Joseph come to England from Jamaica with hopes. Hortense epitomizes the argument made by Van Hear (2004) that socio-economic factors are relevant to the issue of migration and come into play after a conflict has effected a nation. While it was England that was affected and not Jamaica, their living situation with Queenie is predicated by the socio-economic stability of the nation when they arrive in England. Gilbert intended to study law and came ahead of Hortense to set up their life together. Gilbert had volunteered for the Royal Air Force, and through his experiences there, a dilemma erupted within his sense of self. He both disliked the cultural problems of being in a country where the inhabitants were prejudiced against him, but found that Jamaica no longer provided him with the sense of future that he perceived he could get if he migrated. Hortense is an educated teacher in Jamaica, but her credentials are not accepted in England, thus she faces the loss of the respect and value of her educational achievements. In migrating, Gilbert and Joseph lose respect of the community in which they live, a sacrifice they make in hopes of finding a better future. The bitterness of the disappointment in what they find in England created discord within their identity and they way the would and could engage the world. In the end, the main theme of the story is in the ‘knowing’ of the characters and how they simply do not know each other. The revelations are for the reader, not for the characters and they continue forward without much of an understanding of each other (Mullan 2011). The characters of Queenie and Bernard, the Caucasian characters are not revealed to Gilbert and Hortense, so the continuation of misunderstandings between cultures is thematically symbolized in the way in which they characters stay in secret, their individual sets of ‘otherness’ qualities speaking to the larger sense of what it means to be without a connectivity within the culture. Prejudice is built upon not knowing and not understanding, and within the novel this is symbolized in the relationships between the four main characters as race, gender, and misunderstandings rule their interrelations. Location and Migration Histories The differences of how a city has evolved can be seen through the migration histories of a geographic location. In one country, different locations will have appreciated differences through which the culture will be affected, the prejudices, evolutions of traditions, and the way in which the cultures have collided will provide individuated context for the development of a specific city (NiijKamp 2004). Dense populations attract higher levels of migration as work is more likely to be in more heavily populated areas than in other areas. Thus, the migration experience and history of a city will be very different than that of an urban location (Harzig, Hoerder, and Gabaccia 2009). London is known as a cosmopolitan city in which the nature of the overall culture has been highly influenced by the influx of migrants who have come to experience the opportunities available within the city. The unfortunate circumstances of current migration, however, is that those who migrate are often characterized as either victims or villains, good or bad according to the point of view of the one applying the stereotype (Anderson 2008). Because of policies that support restrictions on migration, the number of illegal migrations has risen, making it villainous to have the desire to move to a location with more opportunity. Therefore, the histories are tainted by prejudices that have been constructed to frame the concept of migration, which throughout history has been a more natural state of movement as people followed survival without constraint. Making an individual into a villain for the desire to move to better socio-economic locations is a problem for the cultures that are influenced in the event of migration. The influences become strained and it creates a high level of disharmony, as shown within the novel. Conclusion The nature of migration creates a great deal of problems as worlds collide, the cultures of one state being in contrast to those of another. Colonization, however, must be understood for the intrusive nature that it created, forever changing the cultures that were put under the rule of a nation whose culture was so powerful and also so different from the nature of the cultures that were touched by its influence. In the novel, Small Island, by Andrea Levy, the nature of the misunderstandings that exists between people is used as a template for understanding the nature of prejudice. The changes that occurred due to the influences of colliding cultures within the framework of colonization created groups of people who saw an opportunity in the British nation that was not available to them in their home nation. Therefore, they desired to migrate into England in order to improve their position, however, this does not always lead to the desired outcomes. When moving from a culture where they have respect of the their person and where their accomplishments place them as valued members of society to a places where the culture rejects them as valuable would have devastating effect on their identity. In trying to find their position within that location, the cultural differences cause a great deal of conflict that is not easily rectified. The representation of the issues in Small Island as they relate to the collision of cultures and the ideas of ’knowing’ and ’otherness’ provides an insight into the nature of the concept of racism and the effect of migration where racism is relevant. Migrants are represented from an interior point of view, the characters developed through their humanity rather than from the perspective of ’otherness’ which often accompanies the characterization of migrants into a Western culture. The novel is a complexity of narration, providing the reader with insight that is developed from meanings and themes that are revealed through the interior world of each of the four main characters, the reader being able to share their experiences through the well developed nature of the writing. A novel such as Small Island creates a fictional link to history, the basis for the events coming from the nature of life and providing the reader with context for understanding the experiences of those who lived the events. Including Small Island as part of an academic study of migration post-World War II is a valuable way to help a student to understand the nature of acculturation and the issue that are dealt with during migratory life choices. Bibliography Anderson B. (2008) ‘Illegal immigrant: Victim or Villain’ Center of Migration, Policy and Society. PDF. Gupta, Chhanda, and Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya. (1998). Cultural otherness and beyond. Leiden: Brill. Harzig, Christiane, Dirk Hoerder, and Donna R. Gabaccia. (2009). What is migration history? Cambridge, UK: Polity. Levy, Andrea. (2010). Small island. New York: Picador. Mullan. John. (29 January 2011). Small Island by Andrea Levy. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/29/book-club-andrea-levy- island Nijkamp, Peter. (2004). Location, travel and information technology: selected essays of Peter Nijkamp. Volume 3. Cheltenham, Glos: Edward Elgar. Sorenson, Nina N. and Karen Fog Olwig. (2002). Work and migration: Life and livelihoods in a globalizing world. London: Routledge. Spencer, Ian R. G. (1997). British imigration policy since 1939: The making of multi-racial Britain. London: Routledge. Van Hear, N. (2004). I went as far as my money would take me: conflict, forced migration and class, COMPAS. Http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/pub lications/working_papers.shtml Wemyss, Georgie. (2009). The invisible empire: white discourse, tolerance and belonging. 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