SPECIAL BOOK – ALL ABOUT A WOMAN OF DESTINY
Featuring: A Woman of Destiny: A Calypso Novel
Destiny and the Novel's title
What does the novel title “A Woman of Destiny” mean?
The first time we see an emotional connection between Joanne and her mother was during her parting comments, as the mother prepares to leave Grenada bound for England. Her expressed wish is for Joanne to “have a destiny”. The meaning of the word “destiny” for Joanne’s mother and later for the village folks can be translated as expecting something good, fortunate and extraordinary to happen to Joanne that characterizes and ensures her future success.
From a wider frame of reference, destiny is a shared success, meaning that Joanne’s success will ultimately be adopted by everyone who is connected with her as also being their personal success as well. The washing of the child, “the last quick care”, though performed as a “duty,” could symbolize a form of purification/cleansing, in preparation for the child’s eventual claim to her destiny.
The dominant, and recurring motif throughout the novel, is the prediction by the narrator’s grandmother and those around her that Joanne will become A Woman of Destiny. This means their prediction is for Joanne to become a very successful person; whose life will reflect all that they have not achieved but wanted for themselves. Several villagers empower Joanne to become a woman of destiny; beginning with Reverend Blackman in the Prologue. Therefore, secondary characters, being members of the village as a whole, have a part to play in helping Joanne as she grows, to become that “Woman of Destiny.”
Joanne’s grandmother does not only project this destination of success for her but she empowers Joanne by discipleship, making her learn to be observant when she points out those she regards as successful role-models for Joanne to emulate. She also ensures that Joanne takes up all opportunities which she believes will prepare the girl for the projected “destiny” she envisions.
In Joanne’s farewell event in Chapter 8, as she prepares to leave the island, Gran-gran gives pellucid details of the characteristics of being a woman of destiny entails; her projection for Joanne’s future. In this chapter, after all the expressed good wishes from villagers, we see Gran-gran having the last say as the farewell ends; with her own string of advice and emotional farewell to Joanne. Gran-gran goes through great lengths to explain the essence of what being a Woman of Destiny entails and does so incisively, beyond mere expression.
- Being a woman of destiny has its characteristics in tenacity; fighting for what you want, “Sometimes you have to fight hard to get your way in things.
- Gran-gran refers to strength as a pre-requisite to being a Woman of Destiny which must be unsurpassable, as the example she gives is the Ashanti warrior – Joanne’s great-grand mother: “My mother was a strong woman. She did never give up.”
- She refers to the vital part to be placed by memory and actively remembering: “Remember the mortar and the pestle. Be like them.”
- Also she advices to remain unchanging, and endorses being steadfast rather “like the mortar and pestle,” whose presence demonstrates staying-power across the generations.
- She tells Joanne to refuse to be dominated or suppressed and gives her instructions as to what strategy to adopt should things go wrong: “Don’t let anyone keep you down. If you fall, rise again.”
- Advocating pragmatism, Gran-gran tells the young girl, “Never let your heart be troubled.”
- Finally, Joanne is instructed on the kind of practical action she is required to take with the beads which Gran-gran gives her; (previously belonging to Joanne’s great-grand mother); since she is sure that as a would-be woman of destiny, Joanne will need some form of external support. Therefore, use of the beads ensures a point of contact since, “focusing on them will help you dry your tears and lift you up in times of sadness. They will bring joy when you have sorrow.”
Gran-gran is a seasoned, 70 year old, whose life has been very eventful. Therefore, she does not look at life through rose-tinted glasses, or suggest that all will be well. Instead, she is quite down-to-earth and honest in the advice and instructions she gives the young Joanne, about the expected twists and turns as she meanders through her paths in life.
For a more comprehensive focus on “Destiny and Men” in the Novel, get our: “Study Guide to the Text: A Woman of Destiny: A Calypso Novel” AVAILABLE NOW!!!
KEY FACTS
Title: A Woman of Destiny: A Calypso Novel
Author: Roselle Thompson
Type of work: Novel
Genre: Calypso Novel & Historical fiction
Language: English (with Grenadian Creole and idiomatic expressions)
Time & Place written: UK 2014
Date of first publication: December 2014
Publisher: Eagle Publications
Narrator: At first the narrator is a child and is part of the Grenadian community but later she migrates to England, at the age of 13 where she grows up. However, as narrator, she also presents a collective consciousness and speaks with a communal voice.
Climax: The climax of the central plot occurs when Joanne discovers that, contrary to what she had thought, she was not so much an unwanted child but was deliberately robbed of a paternal relationship that could have been; so decides to curtail the search for her father. Instead, she becomes self-directed and determined to be an independent thinker; selective of aspects of her tradition and positive towards her future. However, the novel’s many digressions and meanderings, back and forth in time and place offer not only the main narrative, which is Joanne’s story, but also many alternative climaxes, achieved via sub-characters in the novel.
Protagonist: Joanne, Gran-gran, Aunt Meena
Antagonists: This depends on the reader’s perspectives: the unfulfilled Justin’s dad; the cuckolded Sukram; the ‘African priest’; those against the calypso/carnival tradition are possible characters.
Settings (time): late 1960 to the late l990’s
Settings (place): Grenadian village in the parish of St. Andrews (specifically the village in Gutt), and the Britain, (specifically West London).
Point of view: the point of view shifts throughout the novel but it is primarily that of the master-narrator, with subtle ‘interjections’ from Calypsos/Calypsonians at the beginning of each chapter.
Narrative Style: The novel is narrated in a flashback style. Information is revealed via the “I” persona with Joanne’s story; when we are either told things about various characters in the novel or from the characters themselves. Joanne also overhears information from adults’ conversations. She is a commentator on the behaviour of others in the novel, and of the wider situation in Grenada.
Musically, the novel deliberately mirrors the music of the novel’s sub-title. Various characters “improvising;” presenting solo, duo, trio and quartet as well as group percussionist compositions that fit together to create a whole book/composition. The tone of the novel shifts with Joanne’s solo composition, which is the main story in the novel. This is joined by other compositions from other characters. Many of the elements are the folksy, jovial, carnivalesque rhythms, lament, remembering, regret – reflective of the blues, gospelypso; the call-and-response techniques (from the church services); to the sensual ballads of would-be successful relationships.
Tense: The narrative tense in the novel alternates between past and present tense, using flashback techniques.
Foreshadowing: The novel’s structure (Prologue- Part I & Epilogue – Part II), spells out a cycle of movements of migrants from one landscape (Caribbean to the other and vice versa, in death), leaving little surprise in the story time-line which suggests that both beginning and end are the same. Joanne’s quest for information, whether by direct conversation, being tutored by friends, eavesdropping, or overhearing information; foreshadows her search for her father as well as the possibility of a partner.
Tones: Grenadian vernaculars, with colloquial language, fused with French Creole; familiar; musical; rhythmic; associative; universal; stream-of-consciousness.
Themes: migration, music, storytelling, childhood innocence and experience, religion, adolescence, gossip, sexual exploitation, death, matriarchy, violence, tragedy, obeah, love, post-independence blues, tradition and culture, machoism, corruption, linguistic fusions, landscape & identity, race, motherhood/fatherhood, belief-systems, nationhood, determination, fused generic techniques, destiny/empowerment.
Symbols: landscape, narrator’s story, the quest
Summary: This book is an account of both a personal and historical narrative. It focuses on the lives of the Narrator Joanne with her families in Grenada as well as in England. The novel also provides an account of Grenadian family life in the region during the late 1960’s through to a period of migration that saw many families leaving for the First World e.g. Britain and USA and continuing in a steady flow with their children into the 1990’s. The story is about Joanne, the woman of destiny who sets off on a quest to find her absent father from Grenada to England, is also part of the British-Caribbean migrant story.
For a more comprehensive focus on studying the Novel, get our: “Study Guide to the Text: A Woman of Destiny: A Calypso Novel” AVAILABLE NOW!!!