Leaving This Island Place

by Austin Clarke

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Miss Brewster

Miss Brewster serves as the head nurse at the almshouse and guides the narrator to the room where his father lies dying. The narrator's portrayal of her conjures up images of death, reflecting his fears about his father's impending demise: "She is old and haggard. And she looks as if she has looked once too often on the face of death; and now she herself resembles a half-dead, dried-out flying fish, wrapped in the grease-proof paper of her nurse's uniform."

Cynthia

Cynthia is the narrator's girlfriend. She comes from a much wealthier family and belongs to a higher social class than the narrator. Her socio-economic status is symbolized by her Jaguar sports car. When the narrator informs her that his father is dying, she laughs and admits she didn't even know he had a father. Cynthia promises to see the narrator off at the airport when he departs for college, but she fails to appear. The narrator reflects, "Cynthia is not coming through the car park in her father's Jaguar. She has not come, she has not come as she promised."

Narrator

The unnamed narrator is the main character, and the story is told from his first-person perspective. The narrative focuses on a time when he is preparing to leave Barbados to attend college in Canada. At the start of the story, he is visiting his estranged father, who is dying in an almshouse. Although he comes from a lower socioeconomic background, he has risen into the privileged world through education and his achievements as a cricket player. His girlfriend, Cynthia, and his friends, who organize a farewell party for him, are from wealthier families. The narrator is also conscious of being a "bastard"—a child born without a legally recognized father—and carries his mother's surname. He feels guilty about leaving for college while his father is dying, yet his longing to "leave this island place" and escape his family and cultural roots for a higher education drives him to board the plane as planned. The class disparity between him and Cynthia is evident when she fails to say goodbye at the airport, as promised. As the plane takes off, he reminds himself once more, "I am leaving the island"—a phrase he has repeated throughout the story, capturing his feelings of regret, guilt, alienation, and the deep desire to escape his past for a new beginning in another country.

Narrator's Father

At the beginning of the story, the narrator visits his father, who is on his deathbed in an almshouse. The narrator reveals that his parents were never married, resulting in him not bearing his father's last name and being brought up by his mother and stepfather. He shares that his father, once the captain of the village cricket team, was physically and emotionally worn down due to frequent arrests for drunkenness by a local officer. Despite his mother's strict prohibition against mentioning his father's name for eighteen years, the narrator occasionally risked punishment to see him. He struggles with guilt for leaving the island as his father is dying but feels disconnected from him. To cope, he tells himself that his departure from the island is inevitable, and his father's passing doesn't significantly impact that decision.

Narrator's Mother

The narrator's mother became pregnant with him out of wedlock, leading him to bear her surname instead of his father's. She later married another man who became the narrator's stepfather and strictly banned any mention of his biological father's name in their home.

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