The Ballad of General Fisheye, of the People’s Liberation Army Earl Lovelace’s, “The Dragon Can’t Dance” is the story of the people living in the town of Cavalry Hill, a slum in the Port of Spain. Oppression and poverty runs rampant throughout the city and plays a heavy role in the everyday life of most of its residents specifically, a man named Fisheye. Fisheye, the former leader of an anti-oppression group, portrays the oppressed citizen in that he both characterizes someone who is being oppressed and also resists, but ultimately cannot stop his white oppressors. Through dialogue, acts of violence, and rebellion Fisheye embodies the perfect idea of someone who is being persecuted. To show how Fisheye is being oppressed and how it affects
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After a brief series of events, Aldrick realizes how late the time is and insists that Basil go home to his family. The boy then refuses to go home because of his abusive stepfather, Fisheye. This is the first time the reader hears about Fisheye and it is clearly meant to portray him in a negative light, or else he wouldn’t be beating his family in the first place. Tales of Fisheye’s reputation had already reached Aldrick’s ears so he has second thoughts about getting involved with Basil’s situation, although he ends up helping anyway. Basil tells Aldrick, “You don’t know him when he get drunk. My big brother, Leroy, he beat Leroy so bad he break Leroy hand, and when he was carrying Leroy to hospital, he tell my mother to tell the doctor that Leroy fall down from a tree, else he going to break her hand too” (Lovelace Act 1, 14). With the weight of an institutionally oppressive system weighing down on him, Fisheye resorts to beating his son because of the different stresses that come as a result of this system. T.R Deepak in his essay, An Evaluation of Caribbean Postcolonial Culture in Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance supports this idea stating, “In this way the Caribbean history shows light on the tragic history of slavery, indentured labour and racial miscegenation” (Deepak 198). The ideas and values of the people in this area at this time are very much influenced by the oppressive society they live in. So while this is not the only factor that leads Fisheye to beat his son, (drinking, family history, and tendencies) it is a very influential one subconsciously and it clearly takes its toll on the human mind as one can see from Fisheye’s behavior throughout the story. Although, one could argue that all of
After a brief series of events, Aldrick realizes how late the time is and insists that Basil go home to his family. The boy then refuses to go home because of his abusive stepfather, Fisheye. This is the first time the reader hears about Fisheye and it is clearly meant to portray him in a negative light, or else he wouldn’t be beating his family in the first place. Tales of Fisheye’s reputation had already reached Aldrick’s ears so he has second thoughts about getting involved with Basil’s situation, although he ends up helping anyway. Basil tells Aldrick, “You don’t know him when he get drunk. My big brother, Leroy, he beat Leroy so bad he break Leroy hand, and when he was carrying Leroy to hospital, he tell my mother to tell the doctor that Leroy fall down from a tree, else he going to break her hand too” (Lovelace Act 1, 14). With the weight of an institutionally oppressive system weighing down on him, Fisheye resorts to beating his son because of the different stresses that come as a result of this system. T.R Deepak in his essay, An Evaluation of Caribbean Postcolonial Culture in Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance supports this idea stating, “In this way the Caribbean history shows light on the tragic history of slavery, indentured labour and racial miscegenation” (Deepak 198). The ideas and values of the people in this area at this time are very much influenced by the oppressive society they live in. So while this is not the only factor that leads Fisheye to beat his son, (drinking, family history, and tendencies) it is a very influential one subconsciously and it clearly takes its toll on the human mind as one can see from Fisheye’s behavior throughout the story. Although, one could argue that all of