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= Gender Theory in Olive Senior's "Summer Lightning" =

Though the language utilized to tell the story of Summer Lightning is strictly British English, the experiences and characters are of a creole nature. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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Olive Senior creatively uses Jamaican Creole in telling the story of “Summer Lightning” as the character Bro. Justice, who was a devout Rastafarian, navigated throughout the setting and people using the language.

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 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, therefore she creatively uses Jamaican Creole in the telling the story of “Summer Lightning”. 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 end up developing an atypical friendship. This threatens the boy’s friendship with another character, Bro. Justice – the only named character in the story. Bro. Justice, a devout Rastafarian, 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 and survival. 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
Power in this instance can be described as the ability of a person to influence the actions, beliefs, or behaviour of others. Furthermore, group can exert dominance over another. Female, Caribbean writers of the postcolonial era took a special interest in and explored the theme of dominance. In the case of this story, Senior explores dominance in terms of class and gender. The power dynamic between the old man and Bro. Justice is one instance that displayed one man’s dominance over the other. It is important to note that this dynamic falls in line with pictures painted of men by these Caribbean women as negative. Some of the writers regarded men as being victims of the “social and historical factors that sanction male tyranny”. Male tyranny is mainly carried out between the old man and Bro. Justice where Bro. Justice recounted that the old man's smile had held a promise and a threat after he had gently touched his cheek when he was a young boy. The resulting effect of the old man’s advances towards Bro. Justice leaves a hierarchy with the old man on the top and Bro. Justice on the bottom which lasts years later even in the old man's frail condition. The little boy who, despite some amount of reluctance and skepticism, didn’t mind being in a room alone with the old man but towards the end of the book experienced a power shift with the old man accumulating power.

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 women. Bro. Justice’s subscription to Rastafarian values may have influenced his mind 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. The perceived disrespect noted by the aunt of Bro. Justice’s refusal to acknowledge her lends a hand to intersectionality. In the 1970s, the second wave of feminism began question which set of women’s experiences were being pushed to the forefront. Intersectionality has its origins in feminists and womanists of colour which pointed out that much of the feminist scholarship at that time was focused on women who were educated and from the middle-class. A notion came into being: Gender overlaps with other social identities such as race and class. It is in this critique the experience of social identity is broadened to encompass many aspects that interact. Therefore, despite being a woman, the aunt is understood to be of a higher class, because her husband owned semi-precious stones that were from Panama and Costa Rica. She therefore believes she deserves to be addressed as her social rank is higher. Bro Justice's lower status can be deduced from the fact that he provides manual labour for the aunt and uncle. Manual labour is routinely carried out by working class individuals throughout the history of the Caribbean and is often regarded as poor people’s work.

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? 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 faced with the old man’s intentions of making sexual and/or romantic advances towards him despite his fear.

Heteronormativity
The patriarchy defines masculinity and, in this definition, men must be straight to be deemed as ‘real men’. This provides a framework for any culture that incorporates patriarchy, thus weaving heteronormativity into it. Heteronormativity is the assumption that heterosexuality is the norm and that it is good, and right. This outlook on life would be a major reference point for Bro. Justice, especially in Caribbean culture. Bro. Justice's reaction to the attention from the man alludes to the shame associated with being a queer person in this culture. He felt a deep shame after the man had lightly touched his face and the story also mentioned that Bro. Justice's father was alive at the time of the incident. This alludes to Bro. Justice pondering on what his father would have said about him and the situation. A contributing factor to this way of thinking is the homophobia prevalent in Jamaica. Therefore, it is important to note that this may have impacted Bro. Justice's perspective on the matter.

Bro. Justice also enforces heteronormativity through religion which is a major part of culture. The use of the words "Sodom" and "sin" show that his position on queer men is unfavourable based on his religious beliefs. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is often used by religious persons to illustrate their claim of homosexuality being a sin. Hence, the term ‘sodomite’ being leveraged against homosexuals. According to Callis, there has been correlation in literature that reveals predictors for negative attitudes towards same-sex relationships in the U.S. Factors that tend to positively correlate with homophobia are high church attendance, specific denomination and their degree of fundamentalism. More specifically, black churches in the U.S have homophobic tendencies based religious beliefs.

Use of Language
Olive Senior subtly use Jamaican Creole to differentiate between characters. Bro. Justice is noted to have been the only character that used Jamaican Creole and it helped to form his identity as a Rastaman. Rastafarianism is a religion native to Jamaica that forms a large part of Jamaican culture. More importantly it functions as a counter culture to many major colonial mindsets. Within this culture, Rastamen are known for holding Jamaican culture in high esteem, therefore they speak the language which also originated in the country (Jamaican Creole). This forms their identity and set them apart from the then strict colonial atmosphere and culture.

The manner in which the story was written also displays code-switching. Many Jamaicans are familiar with this behaviour and its use displays the richness of the culture. The type of language spoken can also be used t denote class. The author also used the character’s name as symbolism. Usage of "Bro" is typical of Rastamen, while "Justice" reflects how he is the character determined to carry out the task of justice for the little boy.