Toycie Gial!

697 Words3 Pages
In the novel ‘Beka Lamb’, author Zee Edgell shows how racism, poverty and politics in Belizean society worked destructively on the life of Toycie. Set within a colonial society, Edgell presents themes such as racism and poverty which helped led to Toycie’s death. This character who seemed confident and self assured slowly breaks down, though the reasons for this is played on both sides of the fence. Edgell uses the typical adolescent relationship to show the changes in Toycie. Her relationships to Emilio, a young pania and from a racial group who, as Beka constantly reminded her “scarcely ever marry creole like we” Toycie’s relationship with Emilio is a negative one. Caught up in the relationship, she gives her body to Emilio in exchange for his love. Her feelings towards him are emotional though Beka views him with distrust. “You’ll wind up with a baby if you’re not careful, Toycie Qualo!” Beka again reminds her of her situation but Toycie refuses to consider Beka’s opinion about him and states “It’s nobody’s business but my own”. Ironically, her failure to look at her and Emilio’s relationship, which is private, is now business of that of the community and her school who both now have to deal with her unexpected pregnancy. Emilio only used Toycie, said “he could never marry anybody who played around with him like I did”. The impact on Toycie from the relationship is decisive, since Emilio provided her with a personal relationship with a male that she never had before. Toycie’s parents are absent and she is raised by her aunt. The absence of a relationship with her father is replaced with one with Emilio, so when he leaves her, she is crushed and this is the start of Toycie’s breakdown. Rejection from Emilio, someone she trusted is damaging along with the fact that she is pregnant. The way Emilio treats her reminds her of how her parents treated her. Her father
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