Caribbean Literature- Summer Lightning by Olive senior

 

Short Story

Summer Lightning

-                                                      -Olive Senior

About the Author

Olive Senior was born in rural Jamaica in 1941. She edited the journal Social and Economic studies (1972-1977). In the year 1982, she joined the Institute of Jamaica as an editor of the Jamaica Journal. In 1987, she won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for her first collection of stories. She has published three collections of poems, Talking of Trees (1985), Gardening in the Tropics (1994) and Over the Roofs of the world (2005). Her Short story Summer Lightning (1986) won the commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Her first novel Dancing Lessons (2011) was shortlisted for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize in the Canada region.

Characters

Ø  The boy (stands for all of Jamaica), the nameless main character of the story

Ø  The aunt is the representative of colonial order

Ø  The Uncle represents the international business affairs

Ø  The old man, a stranger

Ø  Brother Justice (a representation of Rastafarian culture as well as justice), a Rastafarian, his only friend.

Summary

            The main character of “Summer Lightning” is a boy who is taken from his parents to live with his better-off Uncle and aunt. The boy has no name in the story. His loneliness is mitigated only by his imagination. It helps him to create a world of his own during the afternoons spent in the garden room, the only place where he feels safe during thunderstorms. Even his parents were excluded from this place. Brother Justice, a Rastafarian, the only human who has access to his imaginary world. The old man comes to stay at the boy’s relative mansion. Brother Justice suspects the man in sodomy as once the old man gave a wrong attention to him when he was small. So he decides to keep an eye on the room, hoping that God will give a sign if the boy is in danger. When the man decides to abuse the boy, the boy has to decide the door from which direction he will search for help. The three doors are the ways out for the boy when he is threatened by the old man. One door leads to the living room, the domain of his aunt and therefore the colonial heritage. She is not a biological relative to the boy which enhances the distances. The second door leads to the side veranda, seek the uncle’s help. As he stands for the international business relationship with other countries, the side veranda is a place with lot of strangers. Besides, the danger comes during summer lightning, when the aunt and the uncle usually at a nap. Therefore, they are unlikely to hear the boy. He chooses the third way leads to Brother Justice, a representation of Rastafarian culture, as well as Justice. The boy hoped that he will see the sign and save the boy.