Griff! I. Background Austin Clarke:

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Griff! I. Background Austin Clarke

• Biography
• Barbadian- Canadian identity
• Born in Bardados in 1934 ? Left for Toronto in
  1955 (University)? Barbados in 1975

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Austin Clarke

• Career
• Broadcaster
• Civil right leader
• Professor.

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Austin Clarke Writing Style

• Theme
• Overall pattern
• Peasant poverty in Barbados
• Immigrant experience in Canada
• Canadian and Caribbean nationhood
• Immigrants
• Exterior and interior life

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Austin Clarke Narration

• Third person narration
• Italic ? Griffs mind
• Repetition
• Irony

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Black Experience in Canada

• Exterior Life
• Racial discrimination
• Example of Racism
• Unemployment
• Interior Life
• Alienation, exile
• Hollowness

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Griff! II. Caribbean Community Griff

• A. Griffs distance from community
• 1. Feeling superior to the other blacks
• His British experience and breeding
• Master of Arts
• Control over his wife
• Pretending being affluent (Money is naught all.)

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Griff! II. Caribbean Community Griff

• B. Peoples viewpoints of Griff
• Princess- fooling around/proud/hypocrite
• The stranger- weak/impotent
• Masher (the barman)- Discrimination--
  CanadianGriff---Black

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Griff! II. Caribbean Community Griff

• C. Friday Club
• For Caribbean immigrants-- escape from reality
• (Friday night is forgetting night. West Indian
  night.)
• For Griffnot warm, a place remind of his loss,
  weakness and failure

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Griff! II Self-Contradiction

• Griffs language shows his self-contradiction.
  His speeches and his action are always
  contradicting each other.
• -- He seems not to care about anything, though,
  in fact, he does care.

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Griff! II Self-Contradiction, examples

• I dont come on strong
• (p.233-234) After he knowsthat someone has said
  something about his behavior.
• (p.236--237) When he sees another man hugs wife.
• Money dont mean anything to memoney is naught
  all
• -- He always tells people that money is not
  important to him. However, his favorite hobby is
  gambling.
• (p.229-230) He says this after losing on the
  horse race.

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Griff! III. Gender Relationship

• I. What is Griff's view toward his wife?
• A. keep his wife in control
• 1. drapes his wife in an aura of sanctity
• 2. Griff's wife must dress well, and look sharp,
  even in the house

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Griff! III. Gender Relationship

• B. Griff's vulnerability and doubts toward his
  wife
• 1. Griff stares at his friend, Stooly, invade his
  wife
• 2. The big Jamaican man asks his wife for a dance
• a. The man says, "I thought the missis was
  by-herself, tonight, again."
• b. Masher's words stir up the flame

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Griff! III. Gender Relationship

• II. What kind of woman is Griff's wife?
• A. She is pretty and attractive
• B. She carried burdens of fear and failure for
  his husbands' ambitionless attitude.
• 1. Covering her embarrassment for her husband---
  She never criticized Griff in public
• 2. The way she responses to Griff
• a. She always carries a SMILE on her face
• b. She often says "Griffy, dear!" and "Haiii!
  How?"

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Griff! III. Gender Relationship

• III. The interactions between Griff and his wife
• A. Griff was so centered around his own problems
  that he did not, for one moment, consider any
  emotion coming from his wife
• B. Griff does not understand his wife, especially
  her smile
• 1. Griff was not able to keep things in control
• 2. Griff wanted to kill her smile more than he
  wanted to kill his wife

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Griff! IV. Symbols

• horse racing
• an environment for Griff to seek a sense of
  security
• the feeling of being in control
• Griffs unwillingness to do laborious work

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Griff! IV. Symbols

• A. dress
• . limited understanding of British culture
• . best-dressed man ??adjust his jacket constantly
• ) how much Griff cared about the way he dressed
• ) discrepancy between reality and appearance.

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Griff! IV. Symbols

• B. smile
• . part of the Britishness
• . the smile was shared by others
• . the smile as a mask to cover up the wifes
  burdens

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Griff! IV. Symbols

• C. scar
• . implies something shameful
• . lack of communication
• . the symbolic meaning of covering the scar with
  a scarf
• . the symbolic meaning of the falling scarf
• D. the beach, fishermen, fish