Final

Brown Girl in the Ring

Final Blog

Choosing Brown Girl in the Ring as my novel to blog about was an outstanding decision as I did not expect this novel to be viewed through so many aspects. The cultural conflict was a huge part of this novel as the novel is driven by the traditions and cultural beliefs of Caribbean society. Both Ti - Jeanne and he Grandma are witch doctors, her grandma is trying to teach her about the visions that she keeps seeing. This relates to the elderly teaching their next generation about their heritage and helping them understand it better. This was an example of self vs self-conflict that Ti - Jeanne was encountering throughout the novel later on it was resolved in the end as she learned how to use her gift and defeat the villain using her voodoo magic. Also throughout the there was a conflict which regarded the cultural aspect of good vs. evil magic. However a contemporary issue that occurred was that Nalo Hopkinson should’ve focused more on the Caribbean influences on science fiction as this novel falls in the both the Sci- Fi and Magic genre. Also another issue was that since nalo Hopkinson is known as a black queer writer and in this book she hadn’t fulfilled that as she only had very minor characters that were gay and they didn’t enhance the plot. It’s as if she assumed that every gay character must be rich which isn’t the case and especially since the story took place in Toronto, LGBT people can belong to any class system. A social injustice way played by the part of post -colonialism as this book was written 15 years ago so the fact that Nalo Hopkinson predicted that Toronto would become bankrupted and there would be no sort of order because of the conspiracy is totally wrong. Even though today in Toronto there is a lot of corruption the city is still prospering and hasn’t decayed 15 years later. The henchmen were very significant as they represented tax men and the pound of flesh they ask for is the taxes so basically this novel represents taxmen coming around for taxes and if you don’t pay them then Toronto will go bankrupt. The solution here is to always pay your taxes.

Reflecting back to blog post 2, I spoke about how her childhood experiences with Caribbean cultures and tradition clearly affected the approach she used to write her novel as well as the social surroundings of her time. After I read the novel is was clearly evident that my initial assumptions stayed true. Hopkinson wrote about a single mother who is trying to avoid her baby’s father because he is not the best to be around with as he is a drug addict. This is bias towards to single fathers that have children to take care of as not all men are the same. Sometimes the women in the relationship isn’t an appropriate role model for the kids, it goes both ways in parenting. The character Tony was presented throughout the text in such a way that he hadn’t cared about the child but that’s not always the case, in reality there are many fathers that still care for their children provide the best of the best for them. One can see the views Nalo Hopkinson has towards marriage and parenting which is very bias to men’s role. Brown Girl in the Ring was the first novel Nalo Hopkinson published therefore she was heavily bias about the city she grew up in which is also the setting of the novel, Toronto. She had described the city to be heavily ungoverned by law enforcement and the ones that did exist were of ghetto terms. Hopkinson wrote about specifics that she knew or at least what she was grown up around rather than looking through another perspective. This is noticeable in her lack of knowledge about sexuality preferences as she had forgotten what makes Toronto so unique, that is Toronto is known for accepting LGBT people. In her novel only two minor roles were giving to gay characters, some readers say that “Just because you happen to be in the LGBT community does not mean that you were born in a silver spoon in your mouth” as if she had assumed that every person that is gay is born in a rich family, after all the rich and privileged had fled the city in the novel, one can conclude that the gay happen to not exist in lower class societies. As they say there is always two sides to a story and Nalo Hopkinson didn’t neglected the other side and stuck to hers which still lacked a lot of facts.

"Run The World (Girls)"

Girls, we run this motha (yeah!)

GIRLS!

Who run the world? Girls!

Some of them men think they freak this like we do

But no they don't

Make your check come at they neck,

Disrespect us no they won't

Boy don't even try to touch this

Boy this beat is crazy

This is how they made me

Houston Texas baby

This goes out to all my girls

That's in the club rocking the latest

Who will buy it for themselves and get more money later

I think I need a barber

None of these niggas can fade me

I'm so good with this,

I remind you I'm so hood with this

Boy I'm just playing

Come here baby

Hope you still like me

F- you pay me

My persuasion can build a nation

Endless power, with our love we can devour

You'll do anything for me

Who run the world? Girls!

It's hot up in here

DJ don't be scared to run this, run this back

I'm reppin' for the girls who taking over the world

Help me raise a glass for the college grads

41 rollin' to let you know what time it is, check

You can't hold me (you can't hold me)

I work my 9 to 5, better cut my check

This goes out to all the women getting it in,

You're on your grind

To other men that respect what I do

Please accept my shine

Boy I know you love it

How we're smart enough to make these millions

Strong enough to bear the children

Then get back to business

See, you better not play me

Oh, come here baby

Hope you still like me

F- you hate me

My persuasion can build a nation

Endless power

With our love we can devour

You'll do anything for me

Who run the world? Girls!

Who are we? What we run? The world (who run this motha, yeah)

Who are we? What we run? The world (who run this motha, yeah)

Who are we? What do we run? We run the world! (who run this motha, yeah)

Who are we? What we run? We run the world

Who run the world? Girls

I chose the song “Run the World” by Beyoncé because it talks about the empowerment that women have on society, men and the decisions females take in their lives are all independent decisions. This song relates to Ti - Jeanne as she is a woman of black race and is trying to survive societies and her baby’s father’s decisions that are thrown at her. She is surrounded by the lack of choices, and the people and situations that surround her force her to learn very quickly on what she can do. When Beyoncé says “My persuasion can build a nation” it shows how a women smart enough and has enough will power can do whatever she desires if she puts her mind to it. Ti - Jeanne represents this lyric because she is making a life out of nothing with the city of Toronto under bankruptcy and her relationship problems with Tony, likewise the villain taking control over Toronto with his evil voodoo powers, she takes her revenge to destroy him and ultimately she wins in the end and shows how powerful a woman is. Also when Beyoncé says “Strong enough to bear the children” it refers to all the single mothers out in the world taking care of their kids and Ti - Jeanne is one of them. She isn’t afraid to leave her baby’s father cause she knows she is strong enough to survive without him in her life.

 Works Cited

“Fangs For The Fantasy: Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson.” Web 24 May. 2016.

http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2011/09/brown-girl-in-ring-by-nalo-hopkinson.html