The social visions for the Caribbean as depicted in, In the castle of my skin by George

Lamming and Miguel Street by V.S Naipaul

By

Nhlanhla Dube
This paper discusses the social vision the two authors V.S Naipaul and George Lamming have

for the Caribbean. Their social visions are extracted from the two respective texts Miguel

Street and In the castle of my skin. This paper also highlights the similarities and differences

in the social visions of the two authors. This is done in order to accurately depict the

thoughts and opinions each author has as an individual. The question on whether the two

authors have different or similar social visions is addressed through explaining the events

that occur in the texts. A social vision is an opinion of present day society and it is also an

epiphany on the future state of affairs.

Miguel Street is the tale of a street in Port of Spain,Trinidad that mirrors the greater

Trinidadian society. The reader is taken through the experiences of the characters through

seventeen short stories that mainly focus on individuals .The characters that are found in

the street vary in complexity and enlightenment. The story is told by a narrator who lives on

the street. The narrator describes the world around him and the day to day events that

occur. The narrator starts describing his environment as a small boy growing up.

The reader then goes on a journey with the narrator as he moves into adolescence and

then ultimately early adult hood. As the narrator grows up, his perceptions and descriptions

of the characters in the street become more refined and questioning. The naivety of his

assessments of the characters as a young boy, is replaced by the critical opinion of an

individual becoming aware of a larger social context.

The characters in Miguel Street are plagued by the inability to form a tradition and lifestyle

free from foreign influence. Several characters exhibit shocking copy cat tendencies that are

obviously foreign. Bogart takes on an American accent and his name is similar to that of a

popular movie character. Wordsworth is a black version of the popular poet. Man-Man
attempts to relive the life of Jesus Christ in his quest to find acceptance. Above and beyond

this, Man-Man has a distinctly English accent. The narrator says this about his accent “If you

shut your eyes while he spoke you would believe an Englishman who wasn’t particular

about grammar was talking to you” . There is lack of confidence therefore in a very obscure

Trinidadian identity.

Failure is a major theme in Miguel Street. Elias fails his school leaving examination several

times before he eventually passes with a third grade. Uncle Bhacku is a poor mechanic and

he damages every vehicle he gets his hands on .Uncle Bhacku even tampers with cars that

clearly do not have anything wrong with them. Characters that on the surface seem to have

succeeded in obtaining their goals, are shown to have actually failed. An example of this is

Morgan, the pyrotechnicist, who wanted to be the street comedian and have people laugh

at him. He achieves this in the end but he quickly moves from miguel street because as the

narrator explains “when a man gets something he wants badly, he doesn’t like it”.There is

therefore failure in success, in the lives of these characters.

The community in the street is stagnant .Nothing happens that improves the lives of the

residents of the street. The men of the Miguel street club are mere gossipers. They do not

discuss national events but rather they speculate on what happens behind closed doors.

There is a lack of creativity and progress in the street. Examples are, the thing without a

name which is never completed and Wordsworth’s poem which is to be completed after a

period of twenty or so years.

V.S Naipaul paints a grim picture of the Caribbean through Miguel street. The Caribbean is

depicted as a hopeless place. This is embodied by the narrator eventually deciding to leave

Miguel street .He does this so that he might progress as an individual. The narrator is
already descending into a life of alcohol fuelled partying by the time he becomes an adult.

Escaping from entrapment is thus the ultimate goal. V.S Naipaul’s social vision of the

Caribbean is therefore bleak. The Trinidadians do not have the moral and psychological

ammunition that is required in order to fully embrace independence.

They still look to foreigners for guidance .They depend on foreigners in the same way

children who are unable to take care of themselves depend on adults. The characters in

miguel street show that Trinidadian society is immature and static. The future is

consequently very bleak. V.S Naipaul’s social vision is therefore one of a Caribbean society

that is doomed and unable to cope future challenges.

This paper now discusses George Lamming’s social vision of the Caribbean as depicted in the

novel In the castle of my skin. The novel In the castle of my skin, is a story of the black

masses in a village as told partly by G, a young boy, the elderly couple Pa and Ma and a third

person narrator who gives a broad perspective of the village. We follow G on his journey,

that is fuelled by education, which sees him eventually leave Barbados. The setting is

colonial and the villagers struggle to cope with the psychological torture that comes with

colonisation. A more economic battle is fought by the villagers concerning their houses and

land which they ultimately lose.

The most striking aspect of the novel In the castle of my skin is the number of characters

that do not have proper names. A good example this is seen in the characters boy 1 ,boy 2

,boy 3 and boy 4.The narrator himself is simply referred to as G. This signifies the lack of

identity that is present in the Caribbean. Names are not important because there is no real

value that can be obtained from them .The desperate nature of Barbados makes names

irrelevant because life itself is meaningless.

The villagers are exploited and although they resist their efforts are in vain. Mr Slime’s bank

succeeds in purchasing the land the villagers’ houses are on. This is a huge blow to the

villagers because the ownership of a house is considered a huge achievement. Mr Slime’s

bank represents the global capitalist machine and how it continually seeks to suppress the

poor. The potential for economic emancipation is therefore non existent for the villagers.

The villagers do not believe in the concept of change. As a result the true concept of history

does not exist. To acknowledge history would be to suggest that the situation is capable of

changing. The denial of history is seen in a conversation the boys have in the school yard

concerning slaves. One of the boys says “it had nothing to do with Barbados...it was in

another part of the world that those things happened. Not in little England.”.The majority of

the population of Barbados is descendent from slaves. The denial of history and the idea of

change shows that the villagers are content with a stagnant society and do not seek a

change from the status quo.

George Lamming’s social view can easily be extracted by analysing the style and form of In

the castle of my skin. The text is stylistically dense. It has vivid descriptions of the minutest

of objects like pebbles, stones and the air. These descriptions make up a considerable

portion of the novel. Concern with such small things shows that Lamming does not have a

much to say about the people and the issues they are grappling with. There is no human

story important enough to command as much attention as that given to pebbles, stones and

the air. This illustrates the lack of substance and depth the villagers are faced with. As a

result Lamming can not tell their story because the villagers have no worthwhile story to

offer.
George Lamming’s social view is therefore just as bleak as that of V.S Naipaul. The villagers

in In the castle of my skin have lost a battle and they are doomed. Their hero Mr slime has

turned villain and G leaves Barbados. The last vision we get of G is him walking into the night

and into darkness. The social vision that Lamming has for the Caribbean is also one of

darkness.

There are minor inconsequential differences however, in the social visions of the two

authors. Naipaul seems to suggest that the economic prosperity of the people in miguel

street should not be linked to the economic and financial positions. Rather prosperity

should come from inner happiness. This comes from the fact that no person in the street

lives in abject poverty .Their problems stem from other issues. Lamming on other hand

argues that prosperity is hinged on the economic welfare of the people. This is explicitly

evident through the contentious issue of the houses and land in In the castle of my skin

In conclusion, Lamming and Naipaul share the same social view of the Caribbean .That social

view is one of despair and failure. The only hope the Caribbeans have of escaping this hell is

to leave, just like the narrator in Miguel Street and G in In the castle of my skin. The

unfortunate scenario is that this despair is pervasive and can be found through out the

Caribbean.
References

Dooley,G. 2006. V.S. Naipaul, man and writer. Univ of South Carolina Press.

Kortenaar, N.1991. George Lamming’s In the Castle of My Skin: Finding Promise in the Land.

London: Karia Press

Lamming,G.1953. In the castle of my skin.London:Longman

Naipaul,V.S. 1958. Miguel Street.New York: Vintage Books

Pouchet,S. 1982. The novels of George Lamming. London: Macmillan

Weiss, T.1992. On the Margins: The Art of Exile in V.S. Naipaul .University of Massachusetts

Press.

Forkner ,B.2012.Short story cycles of the americas, a transitional post-colonial form: a study

of v.s. naipaul’s miguel street, ernest gaines’s bloodline, and gabriel garcia marquez’s los

funerales de mama grande . Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical

College. Unpublished thesis.