Essay Example on Here Come the Sun: Struggles of Life in Jamaica's River Bank

Introduction

The novel, Here Come the Sun, by Nicole Dennis-Benn reviews the life in Jamaica, whereby families are struggling for their life. In particular, Dennis-Benn bases the story in a town of River Bank, which is characterized by a lot of economic challenges and massive exploitation (Harris and Natália 8). The region is highly known for tourism, and hence, rich individuals are striving to build new hotels. Both Margot and her mother strive to ensure the younger sister, Thandi, attends, and access quality education (Donahue 73). However, Thandi is highly attracted to the art, but the family is pushing her to go to school (Maye 1880. Due to her dark skin, Thandi bleaches her skin as she believes that it may distract her learning. The mother wants to protect Thandi for life in the town by encouraging her to focus on education. In this case, the family focuses on ensuring Thandi remains a ‘good girl,’ who will save them from poverty. Dennis-Benn highly focuses on the importance of Thandi’s education toward their life (Dennis-Benn 12). Poverty has been a critical challenge affecting the family. In most parts of Jamaica, poverty is a common aspect affecting life, and individuals are working hard to overcome the issue. In the novel, poverty is one of the themes that Dennis-Benn focuses on. On the bases of poverty, the author triggers an argument on whether Jamaicans strive to solve the issue or not. As such, the research reviews how Dennis-Benn presents the notion of poverty on the bases of exploitation, strive for survival, norm violation, and education.

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Exploitation

Most of the residents in River Bank are poor, and they are striving to ensure they acquire job positions in the tourist hotel. Margot, who is a young girl, is promised a top job in one of the tourist hotels. However, she is first required to provide sexual services to guests in the hotel (Harris and Natália 12). In this case, the manager wants to exploit the young girl since she is desperate for work. As such, she decides to provide the services for her to receive a good job (Maye 187). For many years, Jamaicans have been exploited, especially by white people. The rich class and politicians take advantage of poverty, thus exploiting people to provide even risk services (Harris and Natália 10). In regions such as River Banks, residents strive to acquire positions on white people hotels due to good pay (Dennis-Benn 19). However, some individuals take advantage of the condition for personal gain. A young girl, Delores, is hired to provide sex services to tourists at a young age (Harris and Natália 10). Engaging children to sex is highly criticized as it violates their rights. However, due to high pay, some individuals are forces to use the approach as a way of increasing family earnings.

Dennis-Benn illustrates the region as a center of tourism. Different people across the world come to enjoy a good environment in the region. Hotel owners and wealthy individuals in the regions are mandated to provide a positive image for tourism (Maye 189). However, the approach should be used to improve the condition of people within the region, but the rich and hotel owners take advantage of the poor class to attract tourists (Harris and Natália 13). Most people from the working class are poorly paid, thus affecting their ability to improve their living standards. Dennis-Benn illustrates, “she goes to the employee restroom to freshen up ... and powder her face before sauntering to the client’s room ... She doesn’t see it as demeaning. She sees it as merely satisfying the curiosity of foreigners; foreigners who pay her good money to be their personal tour guide on the island of her body.” (Dennis-Benn 10) In this case, Margot believes that working with a foreigner was much better since they provided more money as compared to local.

Strive for Survival

Throughout the book, Dennis-Benn illustrates that all characters are experiencing economic issues, and are striving for their survival. In regards, Dennis-Benn demonstrates that the residents are striving to counter the drought and greedy individuals who are striving to set hotels (Maye 189). As such, earning a living has become a challenge among all the residences. “The two of us can profit from this. You give me fifty percent of your profit, and I make you into a wealthy woman ... We’ll sell sex. Lots of it ... You will recruit and train girls you see fit for the business. You’ll be the boss lady in charge” (Dennis-Benn 141). In this case, women are using sex as a way of promoting individuals' earning. Due to little economic prosperity from a few individuals, all residents of River Banks are working hard only to benefit a few hotel owners. In this case, all side of the region does not favor lower-class individuals. Instead, they set conditions that make them poorer.

Norm Violation

Society impact the kind of behaviors individuals deploy. Poverty is a critical aspect that impacts the application of social norms. As such, it is the responsibility of the parents to teach and introduce children to approach and activities that promote values (Dennis-Benn 19). Due to poverty, Delores introduces her daughter to provide sexual services to tourists. Socially, prostitution is highly discouraged and is perceived as immoral. As such, prostitution is perceived as a critical aspect that influences the image of society, and the approach causes a lot of harm to the community. Therefore, encouraging prostitution as a way of earning a living is not economically recommended (Maye 189).

Additionally, Delores is highly pressed by the need for money, and hence, she does not care about the state of the child. In this case, poverty breaks the mother connection; thus, the child is subjected to risk conditions to improve their living conditions (Donahue 71). Additionally, Dennis-Benn illustrates that poverty has pushed young girls to engage in norms violations by the participation of homosexual intimacy (Dennis-Benn 23). Homosexual intimacy destroys human dignity, thus affecting the interaction with other individuals. In the community, sex work is perceived as an immoral action, which destroys their social values.

Education

Education has become a critical aspect that people use to overcome poverty. In the novel, Dennis-Benn illustrates how the family of Margot is striving to finance Thandi’s education (Donahue 59). The family believes that through education, they can manage to overcome the ongoing poverty. As such, Margot prefers to risk her life for the same as her sister to access education (Harris and Natália 18). Through education, Thandi will be guaranteed a good job, which will improve the family income (Maye 187). Despite the effort the sister and mother set toward education, Thandi appears to be distracted by external aspects. As such, she lacks the motive to pursue the family goal. For instance, Dennis-Benn demonstrates that Thandi wants to concentrate on her appearance, which distracts her learning (Dennis-Benn 10). In regards, she is advised that they are a few vacant for black girls. As such, he is encouraged to bleach her skin, and thus, she secretly uses skin lightening creams. She believes that using the product will increase her value for marriage. In this case, the author demonstrates that the Jamaicans ignores the power of education and focus on other aspects as a way of improving their living standards (Harris and Natália 13). Education is a critical aspect that individuals can use to earn value, which can assist in overcoming poverty.

Conclusion

Based on the novel, the residents of River Bank do a lot to improve their living, but they are exploited by the rich. Most of the activities that they engage in continuously affect their ability to improve their living standards. Rich people who are supposed to support the lower class continue to exploit and paying them little money. The mother wants to protect Thandi for life in the town by encouraging her to focus on education. In this case, the family focuses on ensuring Thandi remains a ‘good girl,’ who will save them from poverty. Due to external forces, children who are sent to purse education engage in other activities that affect learning. The approach hinders their ability to bring light in society to improve the living standards.

Works Cited

Dennis-Benn, Nicole. Here Comes the Sun: A Novel. WW Norton & Company, 2016.

Donahue, Jennifer Lynn. "Consuming the Caribbean: Tourism, Sex Tourism, and Land Development in Nicole Dennis-Benn's Here Comes the Sun." ariel: A Review of International English Literature 50.2 (2019): 59-80. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/730095/pdf. Accessed on 16th May 2020.

Harris, Leila, and Natália Affonso. "(Dis) Locating the Norms: Marginalized Subjects as Protagonists in Here Comes the Sun." (2019): 3-19. file:///E:/7323-27783-1-PB%20(1).pdf. Accessed on 16th May 2020.

Maye, Dadland. "Here Comes the Sun." (2019): 187-189. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00086495.2019.1565243?journalCode=rcbq20. Accessed on 16th May 2020.