Identity

The author explores the individual’s search for identity in short stories including “In Flux,” “Under the Ackee Tree,” “Odd Jobs,” and “Splashdown.” In “In Flux,” Trelawny’s second person point of view narration enacts his detachment from himself throughout his childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. In “Under the Ackee Tree,” Topper’s second person point of view enacts his struggle to understand himself in the wake of leaving Kingston, Jamaica and settling his family in Miami, Florida. In “Odd Jobs,” Trelawny’s struggle to find work and his falling out with his father further challenges the way that he sees himself. In “Splashdown,” Cukie's fraught relationship with his father acts as the background for his search for identity. In each of these stories, the central characters find themselves caught between social, cultural, and familial divides, and thus straddling multiple versions of self at once.

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