Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: Even though Morris grew up in America, her father kept Jamaica alive for her through the language, the food, and the music. But she still wants to go there as an adult so she can "learn to see it through my father's eyes" (187). According to the essay, what couldn't she see about Jamaica without going there? How does the place change her "composite view" of Jamaica? Does it become more beautiful--or more 'ugly'? (to use terms from Jones' essay).
Q2: Morris gives us a brief history lesson in her essay, and would probably argue that you can't understand the 'conversation' of Jamaica without learning some of its history. Why does she feel this history is important? And why is it often ignored in the tours of the island, which focus on a "tourist fantasy of sun, sand, and sex" (190)?
Q3: The tour guide takes great offense to Morris' questions about the history of the estate, and says, "Americans always come here and want to make things personal...Slavery finished a long time ago; there is no point in crying about the past. Nobody want to talk about that anymore" (196). Is it wrong to make the past personal? Do you think Morris is trying to impose her own American viewpoint on Jamaican culture? How does her father--who is Jamaican--feel about this?
Q4: Morris also writes that "Black history in the Americas is fleeting and ephemeral. It slips through one's hands like water" (192). Why is Morris' own history "like water"? Why is it so hard to hold and examine? Related to this, why does she also say "slavery produced a void in black social memory" (196)? Even though we know the history of slavery, why is it so difficult to know and to study?
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