Shifting Perspectives in Patrick Chamoiseau's School Days

I really loved reading this book. I feel like part of the reason I enjoyed reading it was the way the author played with prose, narrative voice and point of view. The prose felt really active and alive. I think part of this was the Respondeurs, but I also think it had to do with the changing perspective. It was like watching a one-man play--the narrator switches from observing the little boy, to being the little boy, to being his current self looking back, to a collective perspective, to talking to the little boy. We discussed in class the effect different perspectives has on the reader. A first-person present point of view has vitality and urgency but it can also feel overwhelming or claustraphobic. A third person point of view looking back is able to reflect and notice things from both the child and the adult perspective. This narrative distance allows the reader to take in the story without feeling 'trapped' in it, but it can also feel heavy handed.

Patrick Chamoiseau did something unique that we haven't found in any of the texts we have read so far. Most of the book is written from a very close third person perspective "the little boy" instead of "I".  This technique gave both the immediacy of a child's perspective while including the narrative distance that reminds the reader we are observing a scene from the past.

"Discovery: he held the chalk with his entire hand (either one), like a dagger." (21)
"The little boy had never considered the world from this angle." (40)

This perspective felt almost like watching a movie, or a theater performance. The reader is invited to watch, to listen, to absorb the feelings, colors smells, to react, but the narrative distance is always implied. In a way, I felt more 'included' as a reader because I felt like the narrator made himself know. The reader is sharing the wonder, the joy, the disappointment vicariously along with the narrator.

The shifting point of view also added to the visibility of the narrator. Chamoiseau consciously includes the problem of memory when recreating scenes from the past:

"Man Saliniere, I have only the wispiest memory of you. Your name. Your genteel manners. Your benevolent patience. My hands clapping while you sing." (29)

"My first Teacher...What did you look like?" (39)

These first person reflections are interjected into descriptive, active scenes from the past. The details, the imaginative descriptions, the emotional resonance all make these scenes real. The inclusion of these reflections reminds us that they are reconstructions, representations of the essence of the experience. This also gave the book the feeling of a play; we know the scenes are intentionally created to tell a story. The narrator speaks directly to the characters as if time has frozen.

"Monsier le Directeur, I speak of your silences, your bearing, your neatness that was proof against all perspiration in spite of the sun's hammering," (72).

The ability to manipulate time and distance (go back in time/freeze time/talk to one character at a time) emphasized the power contained in authoring ones own history. The narrator is able to speak directly to Monsier le Directeur through the medium of the book--something he could never do when he was a boy. The roles are reversed--le Directeur is unable to respond instead of the boy. The little boy is the keen observer, the intelligent authority. I felt like there was a remarkable sweetness to this technique. Monsier le Directeur is humanized, taken beyond the larger than life command he had over the children and we see him as an adult navigating a strange and hypocritical post-colonial world. We also glimse the teacher in this way so that we see that everyone is acting within a larger social and cultural context.

The narrator also aligns his experience with one that is shared. When the boys are waiting in line to
get their immunizaiton shots, the narrative switches to a plural perspective.

"Waiting in line, we could hear stifled cries." (111)

The reader is reminded that although the narrative tightly follows the little boy, his frustrations, shame, excitement, wonder, must also be echoed in the boys around him. Each of the boys has his own perspective and reacting to the specific experiences Chamoiseau describes. The stifling of language and shaming of identity, the legacy of colonial racism, the collision of cultural values is an experience Chamoiseau illuminates in the particular, but also reminds us of its immensity.

There are also a few times, often in the hectic intensity of the playground in which the narrator uses "you".

"As you approached the traingle, the enemy went right for you. If his mab touched yours, your stake was a goner (and so was your joie de vivre)." (99)

The lines have a natural urgency in describing the rules of the game. It is almost as if the reader is being prepared to participate in the game. At the same time, this participation happens from a distance, we can taste the intensity but the consequences are not ours. This perspective also reads as the older narrator talking directly to the little boy. The author is embodying the boy, drawing upon his memory.  He speaks directly to his boy/self near the end:

"There's the odor of bleach, the smell of fresh paint that ushers in the New Year...Camphor means sickness..Do you remember the dreamy meloncholy of vetiver?" (112)

The book contained the conversation between the author and his boyhood self, between the author and his environment, between the author and the authority figures in his life, as well as between the author and the reader. The shifting perspectives created a more whole scene, more intact and aware of what is missing. As a reader, I felt like I had the safety of narrative distance as well as the urgent vivid aliveness of the first person present. There is also a sense of humor infused within this distance; the author reveals the ridiculousness and hypocricy of things that are high-stakes to the child self. I was able to see through different lenses without feeling 'stuck'.  School Days mirrored worlds past and present within the embrace of a visible narrator, rituals (like the Repondeurs) and particular voices and the result was mesmorizing.