Leaving This Island Place (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Austin C. Clarke
- First Published: 1971
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: About 1950
- Setting: Barbados
- Principal Characters: The narrator, Cynthia, His father, His godmother, Miss Brewster
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, Love or romance, Class consciousness, Poverty or poor people, Islands, Lower classes, Illegitimacy, Terminal illness or terminally ill, Sports, Parties, Track athletics
- Locales: Barbados
The Story
The narrator, who is from a typical lower-class Barbadian family, has gained a reputation as a track athlete and cricketer at Harrison College (a high school). He is in love with Cynthia, the attractive daughter of the local middle-class rector and a student at Queen's College. Aware that Barbados holds no future for him, he is preparing to leave the island to attend a university in Canada. Before he leaves, he feels compelled to visit his dying father in the local almshouse. His father is in the section used as a hospice for the terminally ill, a ward that smells of...
[The entire page is 1489 words long]
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