Novel: For the Life of Laetitia by Merle Hodge

Setting

Two important settings in this novel are Ma’s home in Sooklal’s Trace and Cephas’s house in
the city. The description of Ma’s home during Christmas preparations takes us into a lively,
welcoming space, filled with children tumbling over each other in excitement, adults rolling
out linoleum and painting the steps, new curtains being put up and chairs being varnished. It
is a typical Caribbean scene, but, importantly, it is also creates a mood of joy, togetherness
and contentment. The happiness and vitality felt in this setting are not present in the
description of Cephas’s home: “It was crammed with upright furniture, most of which was
dressed in dark velveteen. There were crowds of ornaments that jostled each other on little
tables, on the walls, and on the big television set that was out of order.” Lacey feels it is “not
a place where family could “cock up lawlessly in their chairs.” The fact that Cephas has his
own private ‘bachie’ quarters built on to the main house tells us that there is no togetherness
in this home. The ‘upright’ uninviting furniture creates a funereal mood that matches the
‘mournful’ cowed appearance of Miss Velma. Merle Hodge cleverly uses contrasting settings
to make the reader feel how happy Lacey is in grandmother’s home, and how unhappy she in
in her father’s home, filled as it is with ornaments instead of children.

The Characters

Comparison of Anjanee and Lacey : Two girls at the same school, both of them from country
backgrounds. Both are under a great deal of pressure at school, but whereas Anjanee commits
suicide, Lacey recovers from her breakdown and faces the future with hope. What is different
in the situation of the two girls? We see that Lacey is encouraged, loved, supported by Ma
and the family, and her education is considered important, but this is not the case for
Anjanee. Although Anjanee longs to be educated and have a life that is more fulfilling than
the one her mother has, she has no supporting network to turn to: in her family’s thinking, a
woman’s place is in the home – cooking, cleaning and having children.

Comparison of Lacey and Michael: Theyare children of the same father. Lacey is neat and tidy,
well-disciplined, considerate and helpful; Michael is ill-mannered, untidy and dirty in his
habits, inconsiderate and unhelpful. Michael changes when Lacey comes to live with them,
kindly but firmly insisting on better behaviour. The contrast between the two points to the
fact that home training is what shapes a child. With the kind of training that Lacey gives to
Michael, he perhaps will not grow up to oppress women in the way that his father does.

Both Lacey’s grandmother, Ma, and Ma

Comparison of the strong women and the brow-beaten women:
Zelline are strong women. Ma is a respected matriarch, and her word is law in the household.
Ma Zelline has opted to remain single and enjoy her independence. These two are very
different from Miss Velma, who is afraid to play the radio or speak above a whisper, or
Anjanee’s mother, whose entire life is spent serving the menfolk.

Comparison of Mrs Lopez and Mr Joseph: Mrs

Lopez, the Maths teacher, is immediately hostile to
Lacey and her grandmother when they meet at registration and makes it clear by her
impatient manner that country people should not be at the school. She is overly made up,
sports a foreign hairdo, and wears too much jewellery. She is arrogant, and clearly considers
herself superior. In class, her attitude and behaviour towards the students is always offensive
and intended to put them down. In contrast, Mr Joseph, the English teacher who rescues
Lacey at registration time, is respectful and understanding. When he insists that Anansi
stories have just as much merit as Greek myths, he is implying that Caribbean people and
their lifestyle have the same validity as people anywhere else. He encourages self-respect and
pride in local culture, while Mrs Lopez, in contrast, tells the children they are unworthy, do
not know how to speak properly, and will never make anything of their lives. Lacey exclaims,
“This woman made people feel like cockroaches.”

The contrasts among the characters point to the key themes in this novel, which are:

 the need for a re-examination of the role of women in society

 the importance for a child of strong family support
 a re-definition of ‘family’ that takes Caribbean reality into consideration
 the need for education that is relevant to the growth and self-actualisation of children
in the Caribbean.
 the crucial role of teachers and a nurturing school environment
 the need for social change in society’s attitude to women, and the role of education in
achieving that change.

Conflict between Lacey and the community

Lacey finds herself in an unfriendly relationship with Mrs Lopez, her Maths teacher. Even at
registration, the ‘circus-horse’ makes it clear that Lacey was not wanted at the school. Lacey
has proved her talent by winning a place in the government secondary school, and,
encouraged by her family, she sets out to be all that she can be in life. Mrs Lopez, though,
with her foreign ways, her ‘proper’ accent and her air of superiority, looks down on people
who are not like her. Due to the fact that Lacey’s mother was unmarried, and because Lacey
lives in a country village. Mrs Lopez considers the girl insignificant and unworthy of her
attention.

There is conflict too between Lacey and her father, Mr Cephas, like Mrs Lopez, puts limits
on what Lacey should aspire to, but his prejudice is different. He sees Lacey as one of the
many ornaments in his home- there to be admired and to bring him praise from his friends.
He takes her into his home so that she can attend school, but in his heart he believes that
education for girls is unnecessary because a woman’s place is in the kitchen – washing,
cleaning and cooking. He is angry when he sees Michael doing this kind of ‘women’s work,’
and his treatment of Miss Velma shows us what he really feels Lacey should be trained for in
life.

Winning the scholarship shows Lacey that she has ability. Her mother’s experience inspires
her to work hard to get an education, so she approaches her studies with enthusiasm.
However, the community she lives in has other ideas – she should know her place, they say.
As the child of an unmarried country woman, she should not expect to rise in society and as a
female she should understand that her role is to stay home and serve the man.

Conflict within the individual

Lacey also experiences conflict within herself. She wants to get an education, but does not
want to live in her father’s home. She wants to do well in her schoolwork, but when she does,
she hates the way Mr Cephas boasts about her to his friends. She wants to be a model student
but resorts to breaking the rules so that she can be sent home. She is a very polite girl, but she
is so infuriated with the way Mrs Lopez taunts Anjanee that she explodes and answers her
very rudely. After her illness, she is tempted to give up the struggle, but she agrees to go back
to school for the sake of her mother and her grandmother, and even as a tribute to Anjanee.
These inner conflicts contribute to the nervous breakdown that she suffers.

Style, narrative devices, and language

The narrator

The story is told by Laetitia herself. This is called a first-person narrative. The voice
(language) is that of a twelve-year old child as, too, is the point of view. It’s an effective
narrative device because we see so many of society’s problems through the eyes of a young
girl, who has high hopes for her future that are in danger of being crushed.

Epistolary form

Some novels have been written entirely in the form of letters. These are called epistolary
novels. In For the Life of Laetitia, letters from Miss Patsy are inserted as a narrative device.
This is useful because we are provided with another perspective on migration, and another
dimension to the themes of family and a woman’s place.

Dreams

A writer sometimes inserts a dream into the narrative to suggest thoughts that are not actually
expressed. When Lacey dreams that she has thrown her Geography textbook into the dustbin,
her subconscious is telling her that she is throwing away her chance to get an education. The
imagery of the dream is more powerful that a simple statement of the facts.

Imagery

Imagery is a literary device used in poetry, novels, and other writing that uses vivid
description that appeals to a readers' senses to create an image or idea in their head.
Imagery in the novel is vibrant, suggestive and often funny. Mrs Lopez’s appearance is
described as “like a damn circus horse,” and poor Miss Velma is “like a dog waiting for tis
owner.” Lacey feels so comfortable listening to the grown-ups at her grandmother’s home,
she describes herself as being “cradled in their conversation.”

Symbols

An object or event in the novel sometimes seems to hint at a deeper meaning. If the object or
event points to a deeper meaning, it is called a symbol. Here are some examples:
- The Home Economics teacher tries to pin up her picture of the Happy Family, but it keeps
falling down. That happens literally, but there is also a symbolic aspect to it: the ‘happy
family’ she is trying to show to the children is one entirely outside of Lacey’s own
experience, yet Lacey knows that she is supremely happy in her unorthodox family back in
Balatier. The foreign definition and image simply won’t stay in place!

- We read, that Cephas’s home is filled with ornaments. That it is literally so, but there is also
a symbolic side to it, because Lacey feels like an ornament – not loved for herself, but there
to be shown off to his friends.

- We can notice the strong women in the novel – Lacey, Ma Zelline, Ma – have gardens.
Selling the produce makes them independent. Again, the gardens are literally gardens, but
they also symbolize (and indeed provide) economic independence, which is something that
Anjanee’s mother and Miss Velma lack.

- Mrs Lopez’s jewellery and make-up are literally jewellery and make-up, but they also
symbolize the fact that Mrs Lopez is not pleased with her natural self, but feels she has to
cover up and try to look like someone else.

- Food is also given symbolic meaning in the novel. Uncle Leroy explains that high – class
people eat spinach, and only low-class people eat bhaji! Anjanee is ashamed of her home-
cooked food, but when Lacey smells it, she wants to throw away her own luncheon meat
sandwich!

Language

The language of the novel ranges between Standard English and Creole, the Creole is mostly
found in the dialogue. In addition, the variety of our social origins is celebrated using words
and phrases in patois (Creole French) (macommere, salaud, ti-mamzelle, macajeule, complot,
jamet) and words taken from local folklore (soucouyant, Anansi, Ladjablesse, Douenn,
obeah), along with the Spanish cuatro, the French fete and doo-doo, and the Hindi bhaji,
beigan choka, roti and talkarie.

Soucouyant - s a woman by day, but in the night, she can shed her skin and transform into a
fireball.

Anansi – half man, half spider

Ladjablesse - It's a human woman usually having an attractive body and clothing but a
hideous face which she keeps hidden.

Douenn - is a character of folklore best known for having feet that face backwards. They are
also described as having no distinguishable facial features except for a mouth.
Obeah – is the belief that one can use certain spirits or supernatural agents to work harm to
the living

Since race is such an important feature of Caribbean society, it is not surprising that (for
better or worse) we resort to a lexicon of racial terms: doogla, coolie, nigger.

The King James version of the Bible has impacted the speech patterns of Caribbean folk.
Pappy’s solemn words regarding Cephas are an example of this: “There cometh a time in
every man’s llife ….. when he repenteth of the evil he hath done.” This grandiloquent way of
speaking is sometimes called an ‘oratorical style.’
The Themes

Education and the role of women in society

As Anjanee’s situation shows us, there still exists in the Caribbean a strong belief that a
woman’s place is in the home and that education is therefore wasted on girls. Hodge attacks
this belief in several ways. Mainly she presents us with Anjanee’s valiant struggle to get an
education, her oppressive home life, and her tragic suicide. Mr Cephas had kept his wife
confined to home chores, silenced her, and caused her to be afraid to make any decision. By
keeping her in subservience, Cephas has turned a vibrant girl (as seen in her photographs)
into a crushed, unhappy woman: she is “like a plant in too much shade that couldn’t thrive.”

The supposed superiority of things foreign

Some West Indians believe that anything foreign is better than the local version: for them,
spinach must be better than bhaji because it comes form America! Greek myths must be more
important than Anansi stories, Standard English is better than patois, and life in New York is
far better than life in any of our capitals. This novel refutes such beliefs and celebrates things
Caribbean – the food, the culture, the stories, the language and the people.

Race and class prejudice

Caribbean society is a mixture of many races. For the most part we get along with each other
quite happily (as do the villagers in Balatier), but sometimes racial tensions flare up, and
sometimes we witness racist behaviour or hear racist comments. Merle Hodge raises this
issue in the novel, and it is one of the important themes.

The theme surfaces when the children accuse Mr Tewarie of being ‘racial’ because he does
not punish the Indian boys who misbehaved. Marlon jokingly sings a song about ‘nigger’ and
‘coolie’, and pretends to mimic an Indian dancer. Poor Miss Hafeez seems overwhelmed by
the problem she sees: she does not know how to tackle the subtle racism that she sees in the
children’s behaviour.

Back in Balatier, Maharajin rejects her ‘kilwal’ grandchild and Ma lovingly takes her in:
“Yes, my doogal baby ….. You tell your Nani you coming and live by your next Nani, you
hear?” In town, Cephas scolds Lacey in racist terms: “the only thing you could find to friend
with is a coolie?” Cephas’s racist language is sometimes mixed with hints that he is in a
superior class to others; he claims he has given Lacey an opportunity “to live in a decent
home, a decent family, instead of that …. low-class hole, between all those coolie and ole-
nigger.” Class prejudice surfaces when Mrs Lopez mocks the way the country children speak.
Both racial prejudice and class prejudice are very much alive in this portrayal of Caribbean
life.

Klu Klux Klan - with its long history of violence, is the oldest and most infamous of
American hate groups. Black Americans have typically been the Klan’s primary target.

Migration and family relationships

Miss Patsy has migrated to New York and works sacrificially to send barrels home to the
family. Adjustments have to be made in the family life. At her grandmother’s home, Lacey
feels loved and supported, but with Cephas she encounters only lectures, insults, and
criticisms. Despite what the Social Studies teacher says, it is clear to Lacey that the textbook
‘model family’ with two parents and two children is not necessarily a recipe for happiness.
Many families in the Caribbean do not mirror the textbook ideal of father, mother and two
children. The contrast between Cephas’s home and Ma’s home shows that where there is
love, children will thrive.