The Role Of Water In African American Literature

The element “Water” plays a prevalent role in all African American Literature, whether that role be in the form of tears or a huge body of water that slaves had to go across. Although water is often viewed as the chance for opportunity and a chance for better life, in some instances it is the exact opposite. In some cases water is often interpreted through painful emotion or described as a gruesome stand point in one’s mind. This controversial element is presented to us in Andrea Levy’s “Small Island”, in which the character Gilbert describes himself being pulled from “drowning in the sea”. In this paper I will examine how Andre Levy wants us to not only think about the general use of water in many text about the diaspora, but to also think about what a mental toll water takes on us. …show more content…
When arriving there, all of the expectations wasn’t met. In the scene where Gilbert is asking for help from the four Caucasian men, they used racial slurs like “darkie” and “savage” to describe his wellbeing. Even though Gilbert had every right to defend himself, he felt shameful and confused about him being there. The element of confusion occurred when the Englishmen stated that “There’s decent Englishmen that should be doing your job,” (262) which defeats Gilberts purpose of coming to London for better working opportunity since he joined the RAF. His will to travel over this large body of water hasn’t paid him in full yet, in fact that water did the opposite and made life much worst for him. He faced adversity, causing him to drown himself in his mind questioning if he made the right choice on going to London or not, as if he wasted his