If I Survive You

The question of cultural identity, which takes place in the context of immigration, touches all the main characters of this series of short stories. Trelawny is this collection’s protagonist; his search for identity features most prominently in almost all of its stories. However, Escoffery also allows the reader a glimpse into how immigration has affected Topper’s and Delano’s sense of cultural identification and identity development. As this collection of stories is character driven, this theme—like the other themes—plays out largely within the space of character development and interpersonal interaction.

As the son of Jamaican immigrants, Trelawny spends his childhood in a series of near-constant negotiations between American and Jamaican cultural identification. His parents, his father in particular, would like him to retain a connection to their cultural past; Topper in particular is chagrined to see his son mimicking the affect and mannerisms of his African American classmates. Topper strictly differentiates between Jamaican and African American identity, and does not want to see Trelawny aligned with the habits and customs of a group of people for whom he has very little respect. However, Trelawny has few options available. His desire to identify with the African American students at his school stems largely from the lack of acceptance offered by any other groups: He is “too Black” for the Hispanic students; not Jamaican enough for his brother’s Jamaican friends; and confusing to white students, who tend to place him among African Americans despite his light skin. White students reconsider their categorization only when they realize that his family is Jamaican: Can he really be African American if his family isn’t from the United States? For Trelawny, racial identity is inextricably linked to cultural identity. His sense that he does not fit into any category is compounded by his mixed cultural identity. Even in Jamaica, he is treated as an outsider.

For Delano, identity development seems a little bit easier. Born in Jamaica, he never loses what his parents think of as Jamaican cultural identity. As a student, he hangs out with a group of Jamaican boys who, because he was born in Jamaica, accept him as one of their own. He shares his musculature, athletic build, and ability to perform manual labor with his father, a set of identifications that seem to further cement his status as Jamaican, rather than American. His speech patterns mimic his parents, contrasting with the Americanized cadence of his younger brother. Given these qualifiers, which provide him with a clearer identity, Delano therefore never looks for acceptance among African American classmates as his brother does. He develops and strengthens his connection to Jamaica through his interest in reggae. As a musician who performs a style of music that is arguably more identifiably “Jamaican” than anything else, he fits neatly within “Jamaican” as an identity category. The symbolism of the ackee tree is an overt nod to Delano’s Jamaican heritage. He not only gifts a tree, a symbol of Jamaica, to his father, but also has a taste for its singular flavor, a flavor that is often unpleasant to outsiders. Trelawny, in contrast, detests the ackee fruit. In this dichotomy can be observed how fully Delano embodies Jamaican identity and how little Trelawny does.

In Topper’s case, Escoffery ultimately reveals the source of much of the father’s anger and bad behavior: Topper, much like his sons, struggles with cultural identity as the result of immigration. Topper never feels at home in the United States. He is labeled as Black by many of the people he encounters, but he feels markedly at odds with African American culture. He is prejudicially dismissive of Black Americans, and although Jamaica’s violent climate is what prompted him to emigrate, he remains unhappy in the United States. His displeasure intensifies as he struggles with the impact that immigration has on his parenting. He strives to instill in Trelawny an understanding that, although the boy might be growing up in the United States, he is Jamaican and should remain connected to Jamaican cultural practices, beliefs, values, and customs. However, Topper’s frustrations make him a harsh, judgmental, and unfair father, pushing Trelawny away as much as American culture pulls him into its orbit. Much of the discord between Topper and Trelawny stems from the disappointment that Topper feels in his Americanized younger son. Although Topper’s favoritism is not morally defensible, when contextualized against the backdrop of immigration, it becomes part of the complex intersection between immigration and both identity loss and development.