Who is Gallows in Samuel Selvon's The Housing Lark?
In The Housing Lark, Gallows belongs to a group of West Indian immigrants who pool their money to buy a home.
The group is led by a character named Battersby ("Bat" for short). Interestingly enough, the story is told from the viewpoint of an unnamed narrator, who is part of the group. The plot begins with the friends getting together in Bat's basement apartment to discuss the idea of buying a home.
The group of Trinidadians and Jamaicans consist of working-class men who have a penchant for women and alcohol. They include Alfonso, Sylvester, Poor-me-One, Gallows, de Nobriga, Fitzwilliams, Bat, and Harry Banjo.
In the story, Gallows is portrayed as a man who's obsessed with finding a five-pound note he once lost. When he enters Bat's basement apartment, he immediately begins looking for the note. Because of his preoccupation with the lost fiver, Gallows consistently walks with his head...
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leaning forward.
In the end, only seven of the friends decide to buy a home together (Gallows making up the seventh member of the group). The narrator tells us that Gallows never has a unique thought in his head. He's portrayed as a man who relies on the ideas of other men.
In fact, the narrator insists that Gallows came to England by accident, as a supposed stowaway on a ship bound for Plymouth. At the time, Gallows worked as a stevedore. After being caught in Plymouth, he served a month in prison and then lived with a Scandinavian woman in London. With the last of his money, Gallows made his way to Brixton, where the story is set.
Even though Gallows lacks purpose and ambition, he has the tendency to appropriate the ideas of others as his own. So, he comes to believe that the idea of buying a home originated from him. Gallows provides much of the comic relief in the story and plays a major role in the plot development.
Who is Fitz in Samuel Selvon's novel The Housing Lark?
Fitz begins as a character who vocally belittles and insults women. When he is around his friends, they believe that he will be the "last man in the world to get married." He calls himself a "professor of womonology," and most of his theories support his own sense of dominance over women. When the group discusses how Alfy's girl has been spotted with another man, Fitz insists that he would "beat she like a snake" if he were in Alfy's position and adds that "all [women] are the same."
Later, Nobby's cousin Teena comes to live with him. At first, Fitz demands that Nobby throw her out, especially when Nobby begins complaining that Teena wants to boss him around. Teena tells her cousin that the guys are "only encouraging him to idle" and that he has to stop gambling and drinking so much. Her comments only make Fitz more certain of the "evils of woman."
The group is therefore surprised when Fitz and Teena are spotted together holding hands at the Piccadilly Circus. Two weeks later, Fitz and Teena are married. He transforms after getting married; instead of gambling and drinking with his friends, he spends evenings scrubbing floors and doing other housework. Before long, Fitz settles into the new role of a father.