The ending of this book left me with a myriad of conflicting emotions towards the members of the Boyce family. Selina seems to have reached a crossroads by the conclusion of the book. She realized that she would never be accepted by the white families whom she wished desperately to belong and this crushing realization has led her to connect with the land where her parents come from. I’d imagine this is a pivotal moment for many children of immigrants, there always comes a time when the curiosity regarding where you come from reaches a head. It’s something that I feel is very important, there’s a certain significance to understanding where your family came from. I hang on this point because I very recently visited the small village where my mother’s side of the family lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. Walking around talking with people who all speak the same marginalized dialect of Italian was a surreal experience the likes of which I’ll never forget. I firmly believe it was an integral step to reconciling the two parts of myself, the part of the American child and the part of the son of immigrants.
I’ve digressed too far, bringing this blog post back to the book the ending left me feeling very sorry for the character of Deighton. I can’t imagine the horror of having your dream torn away from you, also the whole losing an arm thing. The land he inherited was his raison d’etre so to speak. Given his personality it’s unlikely he would’ve done anything with the land but agency over it was his and his alone. Yes, Deighton’s actions are incredibly childish but I walked away from the book feeling empathy towards the character. Silla, on the other hand, has earned no love from me. She turned her back on her family to realize her materialistic dreams. It’s obvious that getting her brownstones didn’t make her happy, she destroyed her family to obtain them.
Regarding the idea of transnationalism I think it’s an incredibly interesting concept. Paralleling the current trend of globalization people are forming ties to countries besides the one of their birth. Only through advances in the fields of transportation and communication has this become possible. These advances have allowed people to maintain ties to their homeland while simultaneously putting down roots abroad. This spread of the Caribbean diaspora can be traced back to the turbulent domestic conditions in the post-colonial West Indies, predicated by the dissolution of the imperial system of government set up by the British. Now, obviously people are still emigrating from these areas to ones that offer a greater possibility of economic advancement but now their decision to emigrate doesn’t mean cutting themselves off from their homeland for extended periods of time. I couldn’t imagine a time when I wouldn’t be able to keep in contact with my family but that was the harsh realities ex-pats had to deal with.
It comes as no surprise that businesses have been trying to capitalize on the growing amount of remittences being sent back to these transmigrants home countries. Where there’s a growing market you can be sure that companies will try to take advantage of it. As jaded as I am personally towards big corporations the role they play allow people to send direly needed money back to their families, so some good is coming out of this.
It goes without saying that this trend will continue as people keep migrating. Now, there’s no need to give up your cultural identity even when thousands of miles away. Perhaps if my family had emigrated closer to the present day we would have a much stronger connection with the family who still lives in Italy. Probably not though, they still don’t have internet there.
