"Ghett'a Life" Film Review

1. Who was your favorite character (s) from the film? Why?

My favorite character from the film was Big Toe. I mean, he is like the definition of best friend. He was always covering Derrick in order to help him achieving his dream, even when it was a dangerous thing to do because of the pression of the dons and the gangs. He also helped Dawn when she was injured, and even when Derrick was mad at him, he still supported his friend.

2. How does the film compare to the other Jamaican films from the 70s? (Besides visual effects, think about the plot and character development).

I think this film is more rich in its characters and its development. In the other movies, the main character was the most important and all the other characters were almost incidentals. Many of the characters of the others movies just appeared in a pair of scenes and had zero development. Derrick is the protagonist in this film, but I think there are a lot of characters more interestings and more developed than him. In the other had, I think the plot is way more understandable and legible, because in the other films it was a little confusing to keep up with the story.

3. How are woman portrayed in this film? Is it a little or big advancement compared to the films from the 1970's?

There is a pretty big advancement in the role of the woman in this film, compared to the other films we saw. Dawn Thompson was one of the main characters of the film. In fact the plot couldn't advance without his participation, unlike the other films in which the women played only secondary roles and weren’t very important for the development of the story. Dawn is a very relatable, charismatic and powerful character, a thing  we couldn't see in the other old jamaican films. The other female characters in the film are more like “this secondary characters”, but yet they are way more relatable and have much more participation compared to “The Harder They Come” and “Rockers”.

"The Pain Tree" Story Review

1. Who is your favorite character from the story and what kind of background do they come from? Why? (Use examples from Michelle Cliff's essay, If I Could Write This in Fire, I Would Write This in Fire)

I liked Larissa sooo much. I really did. She was a black working class woman who always stood up against life adversities, and I value that so much.I think in this story you can see much of the class or race divisions Michelle Cliff talked about in his essay. In fact, Lorraine-Larissa relationship was pretty similar to Zoe-Michelle's. But in this case, I really hated Lorraine for never saying to Larissa what she really think not only of her, but of the social system in which they lived.

2. Why do you think Lorraine’s mother mocks the workers that want independence from England?

Because she definitely don't want to lose all his privileges she obtained because of her inherited social position and his lighter skin. If Jamaica gets the independence, his life would never be as easy as it was back then; she didn't even care of the colonial oppression, because she had converted into an oppressor too.

3. What is a “pain tree” and how does it play a role in the story?

A pain tree is a tree in which Jamaican people hammer nails into it, in a metaphor to transfer their pain into the tree, and release all the suffering.

In the story, Larissa attend to this pain tree and Lorraine found out. The pain tree showed the difference between classes, because not all people suffer the same way; the pain tree was for oppressed people, and had a story about abusses, and Lorraine knew it at the moment his pain didn't leave her by hammering a nail into the tree, and had to wait several years to finally understand why she was in pain in the first place.

4. What is the meaning of the line “people like me would always inherit the land, but they were the ones who already possessed the Earth”?

I think Lorraine said that because the natives possessed the earth. And the conquerors steal those lands and distribute them between those who had their favor: the jamaican oppressors. And even when she didn't knew at first, Lorraine was an oppressor too, and that I have to recognize to her: She does an excellent auto critic about it, about how the same jamaicans  became oppressors, some in a passive way (like her) and other in an active way (like his mom), about how some of his own people had to suffer for years, and about how the colonialism destroyed the peaceful life his ancestors and all the “people who possessed the earth” had.