The story School Days follows the young
narrator through his need for excitement and learning outside of the home. He
is often excited to get out of the house and run little errands for his
mom, Mam Saliniere, but he quickly gets bored and wishes to go to school and
walk the streets alone, as the other school aged children do without their
parents. He has four siblings. Baroness, his older sister, who is seen as the
disciplinarian and that goes to school initially, but ends up stopping her
education and helping her siblings with their studies. “The implacable Baroness”
the boy calls her. One of his brothers, Jojo, is a math whiz, and his oldest
brother Paul is a musician. (Marielle is fourth sibling.)
Mam Saliniere plays the role of mother, encourager
and teacher to the Little Boy. She is a preschool teacher and very much a
comfort to him as he starts pre school. She calls him “fearless” because he is
so eager to begin his studies and he is very much so “enchanted” by her. She
praises him when he’s done something correctly, like writing properly, which
ignites a fire in him to do more. Be better. (27).
Colonial education is a big factor in the piece. The teacher starts off playing the role of an oppressor, trying to assimilate the children with French culture. Creole is not
to be spoken, but French instead. He even insists that the children’s parents enforce
the rule while they’re at home, and bans them from speaking the language even
in private conversations among each other. “No Creole under any circumstances (64).”
His rejection of Creole culture is
conflicting to the Little Boy, who eventually gains a love for words, literature,
books, etc. from the teacher. "To the little boy, the teachers books were like fountains of life (128)."
I viewed Big Bellybutton in the
role of the rebel, because of his attitude toward the teacher and him trying to
assimilate the children. Attitude not in a negative connotation, but his
feelings about conforming. BB took refuge in their Creole language in a way that the
Little boy did not, but came to understand and appreciate later on. "I am grateful to you, Belly Button, for your underground language (128)."
you have some good points here i know you could expand on---it's slightly underdeveloped (as everyone's is this week). This book has so many layers and you name some that work concurrently. Let's explore this in class.
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I agree that Big Bellybutton is a rebel. Although he is viewed negatively by teachers and society, he shows the most resistance against colonization by preserving the Creole language. In doing so he determined his identity and the value of his language. Years later the "little black boy" realizes, "You were not a storyteller--you were a repository of memories."
ReplyDeleteGood observations. I've been thinking about how each character seems to hold a part of himself (the narrator/writer) and the ways in which third person POV allows him to capturing the complexity of the main character. He is thankful for the School teacher because they share something intimate together (a love for learning and literature). And he is simultaneously thankful for big Bellybutton because of his decolonial rebelliousness. This is all going to tie into our convo centering Gwens ideas on how the author captured "school fish"
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ReplyDeleteThis may sound stereotypical, but School Days reminds me of what seems like the global schooling treatment of Afro- “you fill in the blank” kids in every small town, city, country, you name it. How can I even know/measure that huh? I told you I’d sound stereotypical. It’s just that, I feel like I’ve heard this story over and over again from Afro-decent people. (This one just with a Creole accent). The Teacher, as well as Monsieur le Directeur are depicted as wardens, watching over the children’s every move and at some point, seem to take pleasure in seeing them abused. YES! I call it abuse. “Seeing the little boy kneeling outside the classroom door sent Monsieur le Directeur into boundless fury (72).” This equals the Teacher intentionally placing the children in his view, so that they would receive extensions to the punishments they were already getting.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Chamoisea shows gratitude, or a form of reverence, towards his instructor helping to mold him into the man he becomes, the text not only displays much about the individual characters, but also about the time/setting in which he grew up in. Picking switches and begin whipped to the point one could see whelps on the skin is cause for contacting CPS. Acceptable then, but certainly not now. (I know! My mother works in Child Protective Services, not that it takes knowing someone on the inside to understand the measure of this offense). In addition, there is certainly a contrast to that of the Teacher and headmaster in comparison to the softer gentler Mam Salinière.
His preschool teacher has a closer resemblance to that of his mother, Mam Ninotte. This is why it’s so hard for the little boy to adjust. “But there with Mam Salinière, in that universe centered around him with enthusiasm as boundless, fearless, unquestioning (27).” While Salinière’s character made the children feel, special, valued, important, the learning environment completely shifted in school causing the children to fear, opposed to respect. It’s sad, because the narrator describes his schooling experience as “anxiety” and “sorrow” stricken at one point, which causes him to feel a lack of freedom in communicating with his own mother. “Mam Ninotte seemed to confer supreme authority upon the school,” something I’m told was quite common in this particular day in age (74). (The preface says he was born in 1953.) Between my grandmother born in 1934, my mother born 1960, and many of my aunts born in-between, (I say aunts because the men in my family aren’t really storytellers), I find this type of authority given to school leaders as a common theme.
And poor Belly Button… He never had a chance did he? His character was nothing more than a scapegoat, bullied by the Teacher and the children alike when he couldn’t pronounce the French words correctly. “…the class dunce, the Teacher often used him to demonstrate the evils of ignorance (76).” Likewise, my grandmother recalls her teacher standing over her, repeatedly popping her hands with a ruler when she’d get an answer wrong. This to make an example of her before the rest of the class. Wong answer = Punishment! Setting? Back home in Louisiana where teachers etc. where seen as “extensions of parents,” my grandmother says. Like I said, I’ve heard this story before.