Representations Of Masculinity And Femininity In Miguel

Street Essay, Research Paper

Representations of Masculinity and Femininity in Miguel Street

It has been said about V.S. Naipaul’s novel Miguel Street that “One of

the recurrent themes… is the ideal of manliness” (Kelly 19). To help put into

focus what manliness is, it is important to establish a definition for

masculinity as well as its opposite, femininity. Masculinity is defined as

“Having qualities regarded as characteristic of men and boys, as strength, vigor,

boldness, etc” while femininity is defined as “Having qualities regarded as

characteristic of women and girls, as gentleness, weakness, delicacy, modesty,

etc” (Webster). The charcters in Miguel Street have been ingrained with the

pre- conceived notions of the roles that Trinidadian society dictates for men

and women. Naipaul not only uses these notions to show the differences of the

sexes, but takes another step in telling anecdotes of characters showing their

anti-masculine and anti- feminine features. This will lead to the discovery

that our definitions of masculinity and femininity prove that those

characteristics apply to the opposite sex in which the women often act like men,

and the men often act like women. All of this will be discussed through looking

at both male and female characters in the book as well as the boy narrator of

the book.

Finding examples of manliness are found with great ease considering that

12 of the 17 stories in some way deal with the theme of manliness (Thieme 24).

It doesnt take long before the first example, a carpenter named Popo, is

introduced. In the chapter titled “The Thing Without A Name” we are told that

“Popo never made any money. His wife used to go out and work and this was easy ,

because they had no children. Popo said ‘ Women and them like work. Man not

made for work” ( Naipaul 17). This attitude immediately makes Popo stand out

from the rest of the men of Miguel Street. Hat (a character that will be

discussed later) deems Popo as a “man- woman. Not a proper man” (Naipaul 17)

because Popo’s wife makes all the money. From this brief description of Popo,

the reader quickly learns as to what makes a man manly on Miguel Street. Popo

has no children which questions his virility. It is also important to notice

that Popo’s wife has no identity except that of being Popo’s wife. We only

first learn of her name, Emelda, through a calypso. An illusion is created that

Popo’s wife is just another one of Popo’s possesions. “Popo’s Wife” sounds no

different than Popo’s tools or Popo’s car.

Popo’s wife leaves him, and this change affects him as well as how the

other men look at him. Now “He smelled of rum, and he used to cry and then grow

angry and want to beat up everybody. That made him an accepted member of the

gang” (Naipaul 18). This even forces Hat to admit that Popo “is a man, like any

of we” (Naipaul 18). This change makes him closer to the others, merely because

he drinks and desires to beat up people. Later in the chapter he is sent to jail

for stealing furniture, which upon his return, “He came back a hero. He was one

of the boys” (Naipaul 21). Jail is yet another form of what makes a man more

popular and more manly.

Morgan, the pyrotechist, differs from Popo in that he has 10 children.

Morgan also beats his children regularly. But yet he is not well liked on

Miguel Street. He is a tiny man, who tries very hard to be funny, but is only

laughed at not laughed with. He is married to a Mrs. Morgan, a big spanish

woman, who like Popo’s wife is only identified as being someone’s wife. One

night, Morgan is caught by his wife sleeping with another woman. The fighting is

heard by most on Miguel Street and they can see that Mrs. Morgan is doing the

beating this time. She is heard saying, “Leave the light on. Come, let we show

the big hero to the people in the street. Come, let we show them what man really

make like. You is not a anti- man , you is real man. You ain’t only make ten

children with me, you going to make more with somebody else” (Naipaul 70). As

the narrator says , “For the first time since he came to Miguel Street, Morgan

was really being laughed at by the people” (Naipaul 71). The sarcasm in Mrs.

Morgan’s ‘real man’ statement, shows an example of how Morgan is seen by even

his own wife as an example of anti- masculinity in his weakness, while Mrs.

Morgan shows her anti- feminism in her strength.

The chapter about Hat, is the second last one in the book, which makes

this character unique. He is the only one to who we have already gained a

character sketch of. Just like the narrator, Hat has been involved in most of

the chapters. Hat’s character provides us with a kind of spokesperson for all

the people on Miguel Street. It’s his comments that stay ingrained in the

reader’s mind when thinking of other characters. Such an example of this is the

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