Corollaries of Size: Encumbrances of Childhood in West-Indian Fiction
Keywords:
ChildhoodAbstract
Perhaps the child’s physical and mental sizes contribute more to the position a child is bestowed in a society. Childhood has been viewed as an epitome of weakness and infirmity of both body and soul. This has been the more reason for not holding the child in high esteem. Children have been mistreated all over the world mostly because of their physical weakness. This study is based on the premise that a literary writer has a wide range of narrative agents to choose from. Literary artists discriminate in the choice of both subject – matter and technique. When a writer thus makes a selection, it is assumed that he opts for what is best suited to articulate his vision or ideological perspectives on a multiplicity of concerns. A writer’s preference in terms of character-types should therefore never be taken for granted but rather should be perceived as a vehicle through which the writer lays bare his/her message. Marjorie Boulton (1954) asserts: “a story or essay will achieve an effect on the reader by selection of some aspects of the subject” (p.109). Characterization in Literature is therefore a deliberate enterprise aimed at achieving certain goals.
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