A Story about a Story

Haley Williams

English Review #4

A Story about a Story

“Mister Pip”, a prize winning novel by Lloyd Jones, uses meta-fiction to show how a village on a remote tropical island, cut off from the rest of the world due to a civil war in the early 1990’s, becomes enraptured by a story and endangered by those who cannot or will not separate fact from fiction. Set on the Papua New Guinean island of Bougainville during its conflict with the main island, the novel presents the reader with a bleak situation with no hope for escape. With the island abandoned by all those who could leave, including the protagonist’s father who leaves Matilda and her mother Dolores, the islanders must make do with what they have and to survive by their own devices. Armed with only his copy of Dickens’ Great Expectations, the only white man left on the island (married to a local) steps up to become the new school teacher.

Thirteen year old Matilda becomes enraptured with the story of Mister Pip and the issues that he faces in 19^th England. This becomes a point of contention between Matilda and her strong willed mother who believes that the children should be learning more important things at school, for example the teachings of the Bible. Dolores neither approves of the book nor the teacher and this leads to conflicts that affect the village in disastrous ways.

This novel brings to light the importance of telling of stories and how it can affect the people around us. Through his teaching, Mr. Watts introduces the children to their capacity to think in new ways and their ability to remain hopeful in dire situations; “[we] have all lost our possessions and many of us our homes, but these losses, severe though they may seem, remind us of what no person can take, and that is our minds and our imaginations (123).” The story becomes a chance for escape from the harsh reality of life and this knowledge is something that Matilda takes with her throughout the rest of her life. “Mister Pip” is a thought provoking novel that is innovative in its approach to combine well-known literature of the past and situations of the present into a new work of art.

Mister Pip is special

Cristina Moody

Some readers are always tempted to read the last page of a book to see if they’ll like it. But you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But maybe you should judge the novel Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones, winner of the commonwealth writer’s prize for best book, by its last page. The cheesy lesson that “whatever else happened to us in our lives our voice could never be taken away from us” is an Aesop-esque finale that might tempt one to read this book to their children. But heed this warning: don’t.

The Constraints and Conflict of Category

           Lloyd Jones “Mr. Pip” presents to the world a perspective on colonialism that most post-colonial literature rarely explores. This story of violence and civil war is played out on the beautiful and serene South Pacific island of Bougainville. In contrast to what most might expect from the actual horrible events that occurred in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the novel breezes over specific violent events. Jones prefers to delve into the struggling lives of those left on the island who have found themselves as pawns between the island rebels and ‘red skins.’ Jone’s two primary characters he focuses on are that of Mr. Watts and the young Matilda who presents the story through her eyes.

            Mr. Watts is an odd character that is symbolic of Umberto Eco’s quote that Jones uses in his opening pages “characters migrate”. As the rest of the white foreign people working on the island are evacuated off the island Mr. Watts chooses to stay with the rest of the villagers who find themselves cut off from the rest of the world. He becomes this moldable character that is shaped to fit into whatever position is needed.  As all the primary educators are evacuated and schools shut Mr. Watts steps in to fill the role as teacher. He acknowledges the fact that he is not by any means the most qualified but he provides them with an invitation to grasp the power of their imaginations and escape to find hope of life continuing on beyond such uncertain times.

            Most post-colonial literature it seems the white man is seen as the cause of all evil.  In contrast to that through Matilda’s perspective we can come to see the inherently good nature of his character that unfortunately only the children can see. On the other hand, though it is not voiced directly to him by the villagers he is representative of the white men. The white men that “were to blame for the mine and the blockade” (p.49). Matilda’s mother Dolores is extremely hard to convince. Only until the last moments of her life she believes that “she had Mr. Watts all summed up. She could not see what us kids had come to see: a kind man. She only saw a white man” (p. 49).  Sadly it takes the deepest kind of kindness, self-sacrifice, for them to realize his good nature.

            This novel differentiates itself from other post-colonial pieces of literature by not showing the direct fight between the colonizer and the colonized but by the ethnic tensions between a country’s own people brought on by colonialism and of those caught in between. He not only touches on aspects of assimilation and exile but he also sheds light on the hard position of being stuck in the same category as colonizer and the significant impacts that has.

 

Not for the Faint Reader

Jennifer Tooley

At times we come across a literary work which jars us from the comfort of our leisurely reading time; Jamaica Kincaid has not only taken us from our comfort zones but has made us feel a level of shame, guilt ‘and level of discomfort like no other. We feel as if her narrator is in the room telling us the history of ‘A Small Place’ which she herself associates with and the role in which we westerners have played in it’s current state of destitution. Difficult to compare to anything else A Small Place becomes an instantly distinct, memorable and thought provoking book. Upon reading some sympathetic and sensitive readers will almost feel sick.

A Small Place: Accusing Antigua

by Johannes Valdes

Born as Elaine Richardson in St. John’s, Antigua, Jamaica Kincaid changed her name, as her family did not approve of her writing.  Possible reasons for disapproval can be perceived when reading her essay titled A Small Place.  Simple and divided into four parts, Kincaid portrays precisely her thoughts on New Antigua and her resentment of its past.

            Puzzling to allocate such a book into a specific category, Kincaid begins her bitter narration assuming that readers are tourists in this small exotic island of Antigua. As the first section is read, you take the role of perhaps an ignorant visitor traveling for a short time by reason of getting away from your developed land and habitual lifestyle.  Presumed that your short stay would be without worry and brimming with pleasure, the living conditions of locals “must never cross your mind” (Kincaid, 4).  Following a conceivably satirical opening, Kincaid then recalls Antigua and its occupation by Great Britain.  Irritated with the English culture and legacy of slavery at the time, she finds that the oppression of the past continues to corrupt Antiguans in the present.  Moving her focus back to present day, Kincaid then analyzes further the dishonesty of those in power such as the re-building of an old library not motivated by the desire to aid but rather to remember previous forms of ruling.  She continues to criticize Antiguan authorities as well as articulating the fears inhabitants have of the future. 

            Despite her resentment of past influence, Kincaid concludes with a passage expressing the splendor of the island of Antigua.  As poverty is a component in the everyday lives of Antiguans, this essay is metaphorical to the crises that many developing nations face.  With a firm state of mind in her arguments, the message of A Small Place is open to the interpretation of the reader.

A White Man stuck in a Black World

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A White Man Stuck in a Black World

“You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flame.”

Lloyd Jones’s Mister Pip does just this, captivate immediately, while delivering a fictional story portraying a very real world. Based during the early ‘90s Bougainville Conflict in Papua New Guinea, Mister Pip shows how one islands past colonization propels its citizens into an unstable future of suppression and war. The economic frustrations revolving around a copper mine leads to devastating conflicts and results in the complete closure of the island to the outside world. Black skinned Matilda, Mister Pip’s teenage narrator, tells about her life on the island during this time, with her mother Dolores, ‘substitute’ teacher Mr. Watts, and the Rebels and Redskin Soldiers.

When the island is evacuated of all other whites, Mr. Watts is the only white who chooses to stay behind with his wife Grace. After weeks of boredom Mr. Watts, also known as Pop Eye, decides to assume the role of teacher to the children. Mr. Watts’s personal method of educating is through the story Great Expectations his aim is to provide an escapism while teaching his pupils to be moral citizens of Bougainville, or in other words, gentlemen. Matilda at one point suggests that Mr. Watts’s intelligence is limited because he chooses to bring the mothers and kin of the students in to help educate each class. However, we eventually discover that Watts has respect of the culture of Bougainville; he lets the people of Bougainville teach the children the fundamentals of the island life. Furthermore, he portrays the white world of one that is not so much better than the one they are currently living in. Throughout Mister Pip this cultural sensitivity is reaffirmed by Mr. Watts’s humble disposition (and parallels Jones’s own experience in Bougainville as a journalist during the ‘90s). Unfortunately, Matilda’s mother Dolores does not see Mr. Watts’s intent and finds any way she can to refute his educating. This unfortunate vengeance escalates into a major conflict for the village and results in the death of two people, however ending in redemption of Dolores herself.

Mister Pip was winner of the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best Book in 2007. Jones’s successes in his story are numerous: his writing style is fun, thought provoking and delivers profound statements you can’t help but reflect on like, “thanks to dreams, in the history of the galaxy the world has been reinvented more often than there are stars”. The traumatic events of Mister Pip show how writing and literature can allow one to escape or deal with the realities and affects of war. Jones invents a story that tells the secret of Bougainville, but one that is sadly recognizable. The ending of Mister Pip seems to lack the fluidity and entertainment that his early chapters give. However, how does one end a mid-life tragedy? Overall Mister Pip is an enjoyable and educational read.

Listen to Me

What is it about tales from faraway, exotic lands that entice us so? Maybe it’s the thought of a different life, an escape from our own. Our mundane lives aren’t so bad, but we want to try something different. We want to get away, go somewhere, anywhere but here. Lloyd Jones flips the tables on us with Mr. Pip. Matilda is a young teenage girl living in 90’s Bougainville, an island now part of Papua New Guinea, trapped in the midst of civil war. She dreams of a faraway town called “London” in a story she hears, Great Expectations. It’s a subtle piece of meta-fiction about a girl telling her story about the experience of a story told to her by Mr. Watts, the last white-man on the island and substitute teacher. The story Mr. Watts tells is something like Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, in that it is that story but with some liberties taken with its interpretation as read to the children of the island. Great Expectations enraptures Matilda and as the events of Mister Pip unfold, the life lessons of Great Expectations and Mr. Watts weave together to blur the lines of reality and literature and teach not just the children, but the adult islanders that “our voice was special, and we should remember this whenever we used it, and remember that whatever else happened to us in our lives our voice could never be taken away from us” (256). If you have nothing else in this world, you still have your voice. In the quiet stillness of one’s mind, voice is all you need to make whatever of yourself and for yourself. A story and a character can become whatever you need it to be.
In a story, the writer’s voice can be heard in the story’s mood and tone. As a story is presented, it is unfolded and interpreted in the voice of its actors. And in the quiet stillness of a reader’s mind, the voice reading the written words has a curious interpretation of a story. Mr. Pip asks the reader to a read a story about a girl who writes her story on a story that impacted her life. It’s a story about storytelling. Will this story impact our lives the way it did her (fictional) life? Probably not, but it will do what it was intended for: give the importance of voice, in all its forms, its due respect.

A Small Place: Angry, Unfortunate, Accusatory, but Necessary

I strongly recommend the book A Small Place to any potential tourists; and since, as Jamaica Kincaid herself points out, “every native of every place is a potential tourist, and every tourist is a native of somewhere” this book is a must read for everyone (18). Kincaid’s book highlighting Antigua, from a tourist and a native point of view, is enlightening. However, readers must be prepared to find anger, unfortunate truths, and accusations directed toward themselves between the covers.

The tone is angry. As editor of the New Yorker magazine put it, A Small Place “was very angry. Not badly written. Angry.” (qtd by Bouson 93). This is why Kincaid’s essays—originally intended to be published in the New Yorker where she was a staff writer—were published into a separate book instead of a magazine. However, the book’s anger is necessary; there is no other way to express the wrong-doings of so many on the natives of Antigua. Kincaid and this book are angry, and they have every right to be.

Readers will begin to understand this anger as they find out about many of the atrocities the Antiguans go through on a daily basis. From corrupt governments to ex-slave traders still making dirty money; from tourists to big corporations in a tax-free zone; it seems that the Antiguans have lost their sense of self due to the daily barage of imposition from others. They gained emancipation years and years ago yet somehow this does not seem to have fixed the overarching problems. As Kincaid says,

[h]ave you ever wondered to yourself why it is that all people like me seem to have learned from you is how to imprison and murder each other, how to govern badly, and how to take the wealth of our country and place it in Swiss bank accounts? Have you ever wondered why it is that all we seem to have learned from you is how to corrupt our societies and how to be tyrants?” (34).

and thus readers realize that Antiguans are suffering, and blame could be placed on one’s own society.

This quote is an excellent example of how readers are implicated as the wrong-doers in Kincaid’s book. The first few pages may be difficult to read for this reason. However, is this wrong? Many people from North America—who we realize is her main audience as we remember that the essays were originally intended for the New Yorker magazine—travel to other countries often. We stay in all-inclusive, five-star hotels and don’t think about how our actions are affecting others. Even the most enlightened tourists are having an impact on the world they enter. From this more understanding place the reader should continue and take from the book the lessons it has to share.

Do not be turned off by the anger, scary facts, and accusations presented in this book. Kincaid may bring a point-of-view to tourism you had not considered before, but this is good. Learn from other tourists’ mistakes, understand how you are impacting others, and figure out how to do better next time. Feed off of Kincaids anger, get angry, and do something about it. Don’t sit idle. These are the lessons we can take from Kincaids’ edgy and brilliantly written book A Small Place.

Want to go on a (Guilt) Trip?

by Christina Hall

If you are looking for a book about what to expect when traveling to Antigua, then Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place is an option, though perhaps not of the variety you had in mind. Part travel guide, part memoir, Kincaid’s novella takes us on a tour of Antigua past and present; from a small island under British colonial rule, to a small island trying to stay afloat, dependant on everything it has tried to rid itself of – an outsiders presence.

Mister Pip

by Joey Davis

“Everyone called him Pop Eye.” However, this character named Mr. Watts, who would also come to call himself Mr. Pip, was far more than the young children in a small Bougainville village could even begin to imagine.  Mister Pip is a brilliant novel that portrays a crucial growing period of a young girl named Matilda in a small island village, and shows how her life was so profoundly changed and influenced by an old white man who had volunteered to teach in times of conflict.