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Gender Theory in ´Anancy An Wasp´, ´Anancy An Crab´ and ´Anancy An Dawg´


Profound poet, Folklorist, Radio and Television personality, Lousie Bennett-Coverley was a Jamaican born in Kingston, Jamaica on September 7, 1919 and died in Canada; July 26, 2006 at the Scarborough Hospital after collapsing at home; her body when flown to Jamaica to lie in the National Arena on August 7 and 8. To many Jamaican’s she was known as ‘Miss Lou’ she was regarded as the ‘the mother of Jamaican culture’ for her work popularizing the Jamaican Patois on a international scale. Encyclopedia Britannica Miss Lou was known for her short stories, song writing, poems and play writing and storytelling skills which not only told the story of the Jamaican community and itś culture but; influenced the conceding of the literary world to pay attention to the dialect of the Jamaican creole in not only the written aspect but the spoken language.

Some of her most famous pieces were; ´A Little Miss Lou´,´Selected Poems´ and the ´Anancy Stories´ just to name a few. Miss Lou was a cultral icon and revoltionist who has earned her place in the hearts of many Jamaicans at home and the dispora and is gone but not forgetten has her work lives on in the Jamaican people. This research is not just to give an understanding of the work she placed in the history if Jamaican culture but, explore how Miss Lou manipulates Gender and Lingustics and the Jamaican Creole to represent womanhood and manhood into her lifeś work.

The History of Anancy Stories
The Anancy Tale or the ‘Anansi, is the tale of a spider that originated in West Africa, they were brought to Jamaica and the New World  by the Ashanti slaves. Over the generations the tale of Anancy has been passed down as the orally, he exists as a spider, a man or sometimes even both. He was greedy, manipulative, lazy and an innovative trickster that was commonly established as a part of Jamaican Folk Tales Anansi stories in Popular Culture. Some people believe that he was a mythical creature, that brightened the link between the African culture and the Jamaican as Myths.While Miss Lou incorporated him into folklore she didn't just write the stories for mere entertainment, Literary Devices, Gender Languages were used to mask the truth behind her pieces. For example, Anancy stories were stories shared by the plantation people, which express their ancestral memories of sabotage, the cultural continuities and marronage and also political issues African people faced.

Summary of Stories
´Bredda Wasp was a handsome man,who love laugh and show him teeth´ was the introduction to the Anancy An Wasp, this was a story about how brother Anancy used his tricky, maipulative ways to destroy brother Wasp radiant smile, strong teeth and loved to bite. ´Sometime him grine off him teet dem, sometimes him shine dem´ Wasp was overly excited about his teeth and extremely confident. Anancy grew envious because even when Wasp had no real reason to smille ´him a show teet´ but plenty of people didn´t like Wasp because of his teeth. One day, Anancy came up with a crafty way of scheming Wasp Anancy into doing his mailing job for him, with a deal that Wasp could bite him anywhere he wanted expect his head, Wasp agreed. A week after doing Anancyś job for him, Wasp arrived at Anancyś house fueled with excitement he rush to Anancy and bite his head, Wasp bit Anancy and lost his front row teeth, he never smiled again.

Anancy An Dawg

Brother dawg watched Anancy come home each day from work and not eat the food his wife provided, at first dawg was brother dawg was skeptical because he knows ´Anancy love him belly´ so why would he refuse food? Dawg followed Anancy one day only to realize he didn´t eat at home for he already ate on the road. Anacy would find ´duckunno´ and eat it all for himself. Dawg watched as Anancy flee from the tree grabbed his food and ran into a hole. Anancy used a song Dawgś girlfriend used to sing to him and in her voice lured him out of his hiding place. Kicked him in the side and took the food away from him, Miss Lou said ´whenever yuh see mawga dawg pan the road itś Anaancy´s doing.

Anancy An Crab

Mother Cantinny had no human children, she had animals that she raised like children goats, ducks, crab, henś. She was evil and no one knew her name, the children had to promise to keep her name. She would use the young ladyś from the labour and would only pay them at the end of the day if they could guess her name. Anancy dressed up like a woman to work for her, and tricked Grab into revealing the name of his mother. ´Remember yuh seh anything mi want yuh will help me´.

Prominent Themes

Decieption

In all three stories Anancy, he could be seen as a conniving trickster who found crafty ways of getting others to do his bidding. It should be noted that the major theme of every Anancy story is deception, for the writer uses it as personality trait for the main character (Anancy). It was because of his greed and selfish persona that impelled the drive he had to succeed in every aspect of his life disregarding whomever might get hurt. In Anancy An Wasp, he convinced Wasp to deliver the mail for him ´because the bag was heavy ´Come een, Bredda wasp. me not feelin well´ knowning brother Wasp really wanted to bite his head of all places Anancy made a master plan, wasp took a big bite when lost a few teeth and gained a splinter in his mouth that Miss Lou said came from an iron pot.

Additionally, evidence of the theme can be found in Anancy An Dawg when brother Anancy pretended he was not hungry and being a caring father figure allowed his wife and children to eat the food at home, for he thought it was unfair to them to share the little they had with him. When brother dawg ´hide backa busg an watch Anancy' eat until ´him belly full´ when Anacy saw brother dawg he still asked him to help him reach another ´duckunno´ from the tree when brother dawg grabbed the duckunno and ran brother Anancy used deception to regain it and pyhsically hurt brother dawg.

Lastly, in the theme deception evidence can be drawn from Anancy An Crab to support this claim, dressed like a female Anancy conspired a story to manipulate Mother Cantinny and with the help of Crab he did just that. Crab thought he was a female who was flrting with him and made a ´promise´ to help him if she needed anything, Anancy complained about being over worked and Crab felt sorry for him telling him the name of his mother. Anancy was succesful and left with half of everything Mother Cantinny owned.

Selfishness

In each story, Anancy compelled the other characters into doing deeds that were soley for his benefit. The entitled behaviour portrayed by was that of any human hetrosexal man, the average father in Caribbean societies are known as the bread winners of the home; and for Anancy in Anancy An Dawg to lead his wife to believe he was starving so they could eat was nothing but a selfish maniplative gesture. Anancy did the same sellfish act in Anancy An Crab when he left Crab to face the wrath of Mother Cantinny eventhough Crab was aiding Anancy by doing a kind gesture. In addition, in Anancy An Wasp the theme of selfishness was also portrayed when Anancy manipulated Wasp into delivering his mails for him, while he was home plotting to remain victorious against Wasp.

Gender Theory
Patriarchy

Patriarchy Is one of the dominate therories used in all three stories, the main character is a man. The devious and sinester acts portrayed by Brother Anancy are the behaviour of the average man who is entitled. The language used by Miss Lou in the hidden format, Miss Lou wrote in Jamaican creole not only to spread her cultural beliefs and unravel the truth behind Standard English. The contrast between how male and female characters are potrayed in the story is really how the comtemprary Caribbean society views each individual and assigns roles. Anancy and the other main characters are called ´brother´ in all three stories while, the women are called ´gal´. ´Gal´ is a term used losely today in popular culture but is not associated with respectable working class women, it is a associated with mainly young females whom have no upstanding character. Also, the women are never the users in each story they are the inferior one to their male counter part being used.

Masculinity and Feminity

In the story Anancy An Crab, Miss Lou portaryed gendered roles in the Anancy had to dress like a female to get a domestic job, in the Caribbean women are the gender that are naturally care givers who should stay in the home, wash cook, clean and take care of the children these are all the duties of Motherhood. Feminity, along with motherhood gives gender roles which they associate with being an ideal woman. In Anancy An Dawg, Anancyś wife was in the home doing her motherly duties and trying to comfort her husband by providing him with a home cooked meal which he in turn refused, knowing his selfish acts that he committed while she was home. Dawg found out his plans and Anancy tricked Dawg, by pretending to be his girlfriend. According, to an old Jamaican proverb ´what you live by is what you die by´ eventhough brother dawg didn´t die he got hurt because he cared about his woman. Miss Lou, tried to move away from the traditional ways of how women and girls were viewd in contemporary Caribbean societies and strike a balance in her writing by representing women in a positive light, even if it was a mere role in her stories. In the Victorian and Elibeathen Era women were not even allowed in the theathers as actors so Miss Lou changed that perspective.

Masculinity, in the Caribbean is often times defines as the strong, unemotional man who is a bread winner for his family and upholds the rules in the home. A manś manhood is defined by his ability to overcome obsticles that prevent him from doing so. Gendered roles forbid him from being a domesticated individual, hence why in Anancy An Crab, Anancy had to dress like a female to get the household work while in Anancy An Dawg, his wife was the home body. In Anancy An Wasp, Anancy was doing a post manś job for a living and post officer is a career associated with men. Masculinity, is a direct representation of Patriarchy that allowed male dominace in every aspect of the Caribbean society until Miss Lou, started to challenge this.

Race and Culture
Miss Lou used manipulated the language in the sense where she mixed all the different languages of persons who visited Jamaica and used the animals in the Anancy stories to represent them. The aim of her writing was to allow, the people of Jamaica to gain some form of appreciation as it relates to how they spoke. In the 1919´s to the 1950´s there was little no appreciation for the Jamaican creole, the language promoted was the Standard English that many Jamaicans couldn´t speak fluently or even read. For many years the Jamaican creole or Patois was seen as a corruption of the English Language. The Jamaican Creole is a coded dialect, this means that Jamaicans understand Jamaicans and everyone who has no knowlegde of certain terminolgies, phrases and slangs are unable to understand what Jamaicans are saying. Miss Lou, took pride in such things and advacated that Jamaicans embrace their culture and race. The Ananacy Stories were written to be an identity marker for Jamaicans at home and in the dispora would embrace their culture and share it with the rest of the people they may encounter in life for ´Language as culture is the collective memory bank of peopleś experiences in history´.