School Days

In this book, everything and everyone is a character- not only is there the little boy, his siblings and friends, and Mam Ninotte, who are the most memorable, but there's also the Repondeurs, whose chorus reflect and explain what happens during the tale. It took me a minute to get used to the Repondeurs- at first I found them distracting, but as the story progressed, I enjoyed the fuller view they gave of his world. There's a scene where the little boy is new to school, and just learning that he must speak French instead of Creole. We feel his dismay when he realizes- "Oh, the Teacher was French!" (48) 

Then the Repondeurs sing, 

"All along the Horizon,

 on a calm sea, 

use your Creole. 

If the weather changes, 

surging billows,

wallowing troughs, 

gird your loins, 

get a grip on your French." (48)

This gives us a broader picture of what an impact this new language is to him- his world, the "Horizon" is Creole- it is the language spoke by his family, friends and neighbors. But in the new strange world of school, where teachers beat and ridicule students for speaking a language to them that is as natural as breathing, the only language that can be spoken is French. He describes his 'lil-mama tongue' as being on "house arrest. (65) Formerly talkative and observant children, he and his classmates are silenced whenever they enter the schoolgrounds, and are chastised for speaking Creole to each other even during play. In this way, language is a constant and recoccurring character in this book.

Another thing Chamoiseau does well is having one character represent a larger issue or theme. Big Bellybutton was one of these characters. He is deeply black and extremely poor; his French is dismal but his math skills are brilliant, and he is harassed by the Teacher because he isn't one of the lighter and more affluent students from an upper class family. Big Bellybutton is symbolic of the colonized people of Martinique. His "blackblack skin, his kinky wool, his flat nose, his Creole accent, his complete ignorance of French vocabulary- his chronic tardiness," are results of the "same no-account world that had produced the Creole culture: each barbarous element implied the other." (78-79) Just as the people of Martinique were colonized by the French who considered them "barbarians," and disregarded their culture, language and intelligence, Big Bellybutton also endures a kind of colonization process as school, where his appearance and lifestyle causes him to be persecuted and the Teacher is on a constant mission "hound the child. To defeat him." (79)

One of the techniques I enjoyed most in this tale is the character becoming a city. In my own work, whenever I talk about home, certain cites become characters for me- there is Brooklyn, where I lived most of my life, and the small town in Virginia, where my family is from. Cities play such an important role in the setting and development of stories, because they give us a solid world where our characters land. I know very little about Martinique, but getting a close view of the little boy's city made the story more complex, layered and rich. One of my favorite scenes is the little boy's walk home from school.

"Taking a detour flushes out Downtown...you discover houses without voices, their windows gaping onto a lifeless stillness...you discover bars of light-streaked gloom where black men wearing small hats pulled low over their eyes sip quietly at peaceful intoxications...You discover that watchmaker who has become immortal beneath the remains of countless clocks...You discover the melancholy return of fishing boats up the slack water of the canal when the catch has been too meager...You learn about the other Downtown." (95)

School Days is an interactive story; everything and everyone makes an impression on and responds to everything else. The little boy observes his world and the Repondeurs elaborate on these observations. The island of Martinique is colonized and there is the battle between the language and culture of the French, who are seen as educated, and the indigenous customs of the Creole people, who are seen as primitive. This struggle creates the world that the little boy enters when he attends school and influences everything; the way he and his classmates are taught, the way they are treated by the Teachers, and the way they treat each other. It even influences the parents, like when Big Bellybutton's poor father is called into school, chastised in French for the behavior of his son, and the father, seizing on a "millennial rage," beats his son in front of everyone like he was pulling up a "damned weed by the root." (84) Throughout the description of this scene, the language Chamoiseau uses lets us know that the father, while angry at the son, is also angry at the world he now inhabits, and is performing the discipline that is expected of him. And like the people of Martinique, who continue to survive in the ways they are able, Big Bellybutton endures his punishment but remains "undefeated in his heart of hearts." (85)

Rashida