Ti-Jean and His Brothers Analysis

Ti-Jean and His Brothers, written by 1992 Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, is both a simple and complex dramatic piece. According to Theodore Colson the play is "a parable of man's confrontations with the devil and more particularly of black man's confrontations with the white devil". Walcott's use of poetry, imagery and allegory epitomizes the conflict of the plot efficiently and effectively. More specifically, the anger, comedy, sacrifice, greed and darkness drawn by the peasantry of Walcott's characters and the complexity of the issues that they face represents and addresses more than the surface of the play, providing the audience with not only a greater grasp of the struggles faced by the Afro-Caribbean identity but also a platform for the analysis and examination of the effects of colonization on a nation of people. Within the play, Walcott utilizes various characters and techniques so as to effectively communicate his point such as the animals, the mother, the devil, the planter and Gros-Jean.

Firstly, the animals play a major role in the play but especially in characterization. The animals give us as the audience, critical information about the mother and her three sons. The animals characterise the mother through their conversation as a woman in the midst of poverty due to her ex-slave status and someone struggling hard to survive. The animals also link her to folklore and detail her past encounters with evil and her awareness of it being present. The animals illustrate Gros-Jean as being physically endowed as opposed to intellectually gifted. This characterization provides the audience with insight as to what to expect where hi behavior is concerned throughout the play and how his lack of intellect leads to his downfall "his arm was strong as iron but he was very stupid. The animals speak about Mi-Jean as being academically gifted as opposed to gifted with common sense and that due to this flaw, simple tasks necessary to keep the family alive such as fishing is difficult and this becomes detrimental to his awareness and his ability to handle situations: "So between de bait and debate".

The animals also play a role in setting as they are in the forest and this indicates that the play is set in the pre-independent era in which poverty is quite evident as is the case of the mother and her three sons. This links them to being a part of the lower echelons of society.

Secondly, the mother is utilized to enable the examination of Walcott's attempt at uniting modern drama to Caribbean culture. The mother is Walcott's representation of folk wisdom. Unlike her son Mi-Jean, her intelligence is not derived from the pages of books but instead from experiencing and embracing her culture and identity as an Afro-Caribbean woman in post-colonial times. "I tell u there is something outside", this quote is a clear indicator of the mother's folk wisdom