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Gender Theory in Olive Senior's Summer Lightning
The story Summer Lightning illuminates the experience of a young boy who has a suspicious encounter with an older man who seemingly preys on little boys. The story of this riveting encounter is told by one of the Caribbean’s most decorated writers – Olive Senior. Born in 1941 to Jamaican parents of mixed heritage, Senior’s rural-influenced upbringing played a major role in consolidating her love for the creole lifestyle and its limitless expressions. At the tender age of four, Senior knew she wanted to become a writer, and that she did. Her work, though, reflected the unique culture and value system of a colonial society with creole expressions, minimizing the role of British values. Though the language utilized to tell the story of Summer Lightning is strictly British English, the experiences and characters are of a creole nature. The story details how a young boy moves in to live with his aunt and uncle, and comes into contact with an old man who also visits and stays with the family for short periods. The boy is fascinated by the old man’s quiet, somber demeanor, but the two ends up developing a strange friendship. This threatens the boy’s friendship with another character, Bro. Justice – the only named character in the story. Bro. Justice, a devout Christian, becomes aware of the boy’s evolving friendship with the man, and is extremely skeptical and worried because of a past experience between him and the old man. That experience, compounded by an awareness of the vulnerability of the boy, leads Bro. Justice to make a personal commitment to protect the boy from any harm lurking in the shadows. If harm were to greet the boy though, it would be in an isolated room where the old man stayed and where he – the boy – found solace – especially during downpours which are generally accompanied by lightning. This body of work will attempt to critically review the four most robust themes in this 10-page story: power, relationships, survival, and coming of age. Those themes will be used to frame a discussion around key societal issues such as patriarchy, manhood, and womanhood. The role of language and its utility in shaping opinions and beliefs will also be briefly assessed.

Power
Within any form of human organization, there exists variations in the level of control individuals have over themselves, others, and the environment. Shafritz, et al. (2015) describe this ability to influence or exercise control as power. Summer Lightning provides several instances where power was leveraged by characters to advance or protect their interest(s). The old man’s power over both the boy and Bro. Justice was perhaps the most interesting case. On one hand the old man had very little physical control over himself, as evidenced by the fact that "he did not appear to see too well… [And] his mouth trembled”. But at the same time, he exercised enormous mental control over Bro. Justice who was still angered by the old man’s touching of his face some years back; and the little boy who, despite some amount of reluctance and skepticism, didn’t mind being in a room alone with him. A power-struggle also existed between Bro. Justice and the aunt, for she felt that he relinquished his duty to respect her after his embracing of a religious lifestyle. This particular incident ushers in consideration of the subtle role of patriarchy and the extent to which it was either challenged or supported. Patriarchy represents a system of social structures and practices that create an unequal balance in the roles of men and women by advancing the interests and ideas of men at the expense of those of women (Christ, 2016). That Bro. Justice’s subscription to Christian values imposed on him a form a ‘liberation’ which no longer forced him to see himself as a subject of authority – in this case, the authority being the aunt. He perhaps had discovered, through biblical revelations, that a man’s place in the world was not to be a subordinate to women, but rather the other way around. This could have possibly contributed to him not adhering to the aunt’s historical codes of respect. Power was also reflected in the boy’s ability to control his thoughts and imagination which brought him great peace.

Relationships
Regular social encounter, between characters, over a period of time, allows for a better understanding of contexts and interpretation of situations. Argyle and Henderson (1985) explain that this ongoing encounter establishes what is called a relationship. The relationships between characters in Summer Lightning were dynamic. The boy and the old man shared a relationship which, when studied, warranted consideration of position and authority. The old man was cognizant of the fact that the boy found him to be an intriguing character, and he (the old man) exploited the innocence of the boy to forge what was awkward relationship. Position and authority also describe the relationship between the boy and Bro. Justice but in striking contrast. Whereas the old man seemingly sought to take advantage of the vulnerability of the boy, Bro. Justice sought to protect him from potential dangers. It is important to note however, that Bro. Justice was restricted in his attempt because his relationship with the boy went dormant after the old man’s arrival. Meanwhile, the relationship between the old man and Bro. Justice was seemingly toxic. That Bro. Justice immediately became furious at the thought of the old man taking advantage of the boy reveals to us that the old man was held in disdain for years. The fact that Bro. Justice also deemed it fitting to have his machete at hand in the event that he needed to protect the boy against the old man, is very telling. It indicates that Bro. Justice, was willing to violate his religious principles to administer ‘justice’ in the event of a violation. Judging from his posture, it can also be concluded that Bro. Justice’s actions exemplified manhood, particularly in a Caribbean context. How? Schrock and Schwalbe (2009) tell us that manhood is arrived at after satisfying a set of requirements through which the identity of a man is established. In this particular case, it is within the Caribbean culture to expect a man to respond violently if he believes his masculinity is threatened. Loosely, masculinity refers to general behaviors and social roles which society believes ought to correspond with being a man. Senior tells us in Summer Lightning that Bro. Justice kept watch over the little boy using a machete, because there was a possibility that the old man could strip the boy of his innocence.

Survival
Important in the assessment of a character is examining how they navigate difficult circumstances since it reveals underlying traits. Survival featured prominently as a theme in Summer Lightning on at least two occasions. Bro. Justice was an interesting character to study, particularly because of his approach to life as someone who had a spiritual rebirth. In this phase of his life, what was important to him was reliance on spirituality and a sudden need to physically isolate from the world. This behaviour offers us insight into one of the possibilities of a spiritual rebirth, and how new converts or deeply religious persons survive. It reveals to us how a deep sense of spirituality could readjust how we socialize and exist within a certain space. The following excerpt from the story justifies that position: “…in going away, he [Bro. Justice] had lost that respect for them [the aunt and uncle]… Bro. Justice refused to address her at all…”. Additionally, it should be appreciated that the story ended with the boy not having comfortably adjusted to his new life, with his new family. It could be deduced that he had a very reserved attitude towards his new guardians. Part of the story tells us that “he [the boy] felt displaced, as if he had been plucked from one world which was small and snug and mistakenly placed into another…”. What sporadically compounded this issue were episodes of thunderstorms which forced him to “wait out the storm” in the isolated room. With no one to seek comfort in, his coping mechanism was to rely on the power of his mind to give life and meaning to objects in the room, and that allowed him to survive the storm. It was of little concern to him that he was braving two battles alone. In a Caribbean context, men are socially conditioned to believe that they must not be fearful and learn to rely on self. It is evident that one of these conditions, or prerequisite of manhood, was not satisfied, since the boy was fearful of the thunderstorm. Not limited to fear of the thunderstorm, the end of the story paints a picture of a terrified little boy who would inevitably be overcome by the brute force of manhood in the most immoral way. The foregoing review intricately examines the story Summer Lightning and deconstructs some of the gendered terms and concepts on which this story is pivoted. Jamaican-born writer Olive Senior relies on the use of British English to offer to us a story of a little boy who might be devoured by an old man who seemingly has predatory tendencies. The experience of the little boy is punctuated by moments of chaos, fear, happiness, and even isolation, as he grapples with adjusting to a new life with his aunt and uncle. The review was framed within three broad themes: power, relationships, and survival. These themes provided the scope for concepts such as patriarchy and manhood to be interrogated within a Caribbean context. As was mentioned before, the story does not, in a holistic way, challenge representation of Caribbean manhood, but rather reinforce it though the detailing of several actions by leading characters. One such instance was Bro. Justice relying on the use of his machete to resolve a potential dispute with the old man. That incident, along with many others serves as reminder that men generally settle disputes in a physical or violent way because they are taught to be tough. Despite being one of the Caribbean’s leading feminist writers, Senior did not sufficiently and strategically use language in this story to challenge those problematic historical contentions of manhood. As was just highlighted, in subtle ways, she reinforced the satisfying of elements of manhood which legitimizes those historical beliefs that continue to disrupt contemporary societies. Credit must however be given to the author for maintaining a moderate tone throughout the story, the inclusion of Jamaican vernacular would have rendered the story much more compelling.