Throughout Jamaica Kincaid’s memoir, My Brother, grief takes on a large role. It’s one of the most beautifully written themes within the storyline in my opinion. Given the rich symbols (gardening, ants, and especially the sinner and saint image) and themes, it was difficult for me to choose something specific. I kept it short and simple.
This quote sums up my thoughts on the memoir: “The day was cold, it was the middle of January, the sun was shining. For me such a thing is a paradox: the sun is shining, yet the air is cold.”(Kincaid 102). To me, the entire memoir is slightly paradoxical. In addition, this seemed like a tangible way to image grief. Other people are happy, smiling, while you watch, immersed in your sadness. You walk outside and its sunny and …show more content…
He in a shack in his mother’s yard, with nothing sturdy left behind. His thirty-three year old life, marked by shame and hidden identity, ends like a plant wilting before it can bloom.
My major question at first read was why? Why bother writing this memoir based on someone you don’t love? It’s still puzzling, of course, but I’ve got a bit of a better grasp on it.
The act of writing the memoir was therapeutic, essential to the grieving process. If Kincaid didn’t write about her experience, I don’t think she would have survived: “I became a writer out of desperation, so when I first heard my brother was dying I was familiar with the act of saving myself: I would write about him. I would write about his dying.” (Kincaid 196).
The writing out of desperation theme made the narrative make more sense to me. It isn’t linear, and I noticed that certain episodes repeated (such as the young boy’s funeral scene with the vomiting mother, Kincaid explaining her father and family structure, and Mr. Straffee’s funeral parlor). By writing in this style, it seems like Kincaid is right in the moment after Devon’s passing. She’s rapidly recording her thoughts to make some sense of the