To a great extent, the plot of Dream on Monkey Mountain is organized by reference to mimeticism and reactionary nativism. It in effect maps the development of the latter out of the former. More exactly, Walcott implicitly isolates three stages of development in the social and personal identity of his characters. Moreover, in each stage he implicitly distinguishes what we might call "popular" and "anti-popular" versions, which is to say, versions which arise out of or in solidarity with the people (or some sub-group of the people) and versions which arise out of an individualist or careerist alignment with the foreign oppressors. (As shall become clear, the "popular" versions do not necessarily contribute to the well-being of the people; the fact that they are "of the people" does not imply that they operate in the objective interests of the people.) In exemplifying these alternatives, Walcott presents us...