Cultural traditions appear evidently in Nalo Hopkinson\u2019s \u201cShift.\u201d Although Hopkinson does not follow the traditions exactly, she is still able to stay loyal and represent her culture effectively. She raises themes and questions focusing on racial and cultural contrasts. Specifically, the protagonist Caliban is derived from William Shakespeare\u2019s English work and reclaiming it in the form of Caribbean literature. This exemplifies a contrast in that Caliban is trying to leave his foundational culture behind to pursue life with a white woman. An example of this contrast would be how Ariel, Caliban\u2019s sister tells the reader that the white language is considered the \u201ccolonizer language\u201d and she refuses to absorb and succumb to the privilege that comes with it. Throughout the work, Hopkinson shows the contrast between Caliban\u2019s willingness to abandon his culture and Ariel\u2019s strength in embracing it. Ariel frowns upon Caliban\u2019s desire to pursue such a culture as the white one, \u201cCaliban have a sickness. Is a sickness any of you could get. In him it manifests as a weakness; a weakness for cream\u2026. Him believe say it would make him pretty.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cultural contrast between white and non-white is relevant throughout the whole short story. From the beginning, it is evident to the reader that Caliban is enamored with this white woman he spends time with as he expresses his want for her to kiss him, \u201c…a gleam of amusement in her eyes, and your heart double times, but she kisses you on the forehead instead of the mouth. You could scream with frustration.\u201d Additionally, it is inferred that Caliban could possibly be white at the beginning of the story based on the way he speaks in comparison to the end of the story. Specifically, the differences in the fluency of Caliban\u2019s English appear as follows; at the beginning he says, \u201cYou could kiss me, and make me your prince again,\u201d and at the end he says \u201ctrying so hard to be \u2018island\u2019 like you just come off the boat.\u201d Then the narrator states, \u201cIn your anger, your speech slips into the same rhythm as hers,\u201d meaning Ariel\u2019s cultural rhythm of speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/sub>The textual element of contrast through cultural differences serves the purpose of highlighting barriers and challenges faced when trying to understand and assimilate into different cultures. Specifically, family conflict is highlighted due to the fact that Caliban and Ariel are siblings, and Caliban is attempting to leave behind his familial traditions while Ariel attempts to stop him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This claim derives from the challenges presented by Hopkinson throughout the entirety of \u201cShift.\u201d Family is a very important aspect of Caribbean culture which is highlighted through Caliban and Ariel\u2019s relationship and banter. Additionally, the transition of Caliban\u2019s vernacular and sentence structure also shows the struggle to completely change certain aspects of one\u2019s foundational culture. Overall, Hopkinson uses the demonstration of family, dialogue, and vernacular to demonstrate cultural contrast. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cultural traditions appear evidently in Nalo Hopkinson\u2019s \u201cShift.\u201d Although Hopkinson does not follow the traditions exactly, she is still able to stay loyal and represent her culture effectively. She raises themes and questions focusing on racial and cultural contrasts. Specifically, the protagonist Caliban is derived from William Shakespeare\u2019s English work and reclaiming it in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-icce-post","category-post-group-e"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bc.edu\/uncommonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bc.edu\/uncommonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bc.edu\/uncommonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bc.edu\/uncommonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bc.edu\/uncommonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bc.edu\/uncommonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bc.edu\/uncommonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bc.edu\/uncommonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bc.edu\/uncommonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}