Banana Bottom | Banana Bottom

At a glance:

Author: Claude McKay
First Published: 1933
Type of Plot: Regional romance
Time of Work: The early 1900’s
Setting: The country town of Jubilee and the village of Banana Bottom in Jamaica
Principal Characters: Tabitha (Bita) Plant, Malcolm Craig, Priscilla Craig, Crazy Bow Adair, Hopping Dick, Herald Newton Day, Squire Gensir, Jubban
Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Regional fiction
Subjects: Caribbean, Blacks, Love or romance, Race, Sex or sexuality, Twentieth century, Missions or missionaries, Religion, Rural or country life, Villages
Locales: Banana Bottom, Jamaica, Jubilee, Jamaica

In a series of flashbacks the reader learns that Bita Plant was “seduced” by Crazy Bow Adair (actually, it was a willing sexual union, but the social niceties of Banana Bottom required that a twelve-year-old had to be an unwilling victim); that she was adopted by the Reverends Malcolm and Priscilla Craig, who wanted to demonstrate their ability to transform a wayward black girl into a cultured Christian; that she was educated in England and had visited Europe before returning to Jubilee seven years later.

Banana Bottom | Banana Bottom

At a glance:

The Novel

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