BOOK REPORT ON STUART HALL

BOOK REPORT ON STUART HALL

BY ANNIE PAUL.

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The book named “Stuart Hall” by Annie Paul was written based on Stuart Hall’s life.Annie Paul is an India-born writer and critic who has lived in Jamaica for 20-plus years. She is head of the Publications Section at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. Stuart Hall was a Jamaican- British academic, writer and cultural studies pioneer, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1932 and died in London aged 82 in February 2014. It was about his academic adventure, intellectual and political legacy and his life as a son and a friend. He won the “Additional” Jamaica Scholarship as well as the “Rhodes Scholarship” to which he left Jamaica and attended Merton College at Oxford University in England to study literature, learned about culture, pre-colonialism and race. Hall lived in a time were racism and classism was at large, due to parents being “mixed race” which means “black” and “white”. As in terms of racism, this has been an issue over the centuries because the Europeans who were considered “white” were privileged to those who were considered “black” since the Africans worked for Europeans in the plantations and were enslaved and punished to obey them. As for culture the slaves were not allowed to practice their own religion since it was against the “whites” orders. These issues of contributed to how Stuart Hall saw life and how he experienced them, these are colonialization (black culture), social stratification and racial discrimination, social institutions (in terms of family and colonial education), feminism and culture which will be further explained.Firstly, in the book the first theme that was portrayed was colonialism. Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another (Kohn and Reddy). This has been occurring in the Caribbean for decades because of the control by Europeans. Colonialism is almost the same as imperialism because both were forms of conquest that were expected to benefit Europe economically and strategically. This issue occurred variously throughout the book. As seen in the book (Paul Ch. 1) where

pigmentocracy stating that depending on the colour of your skin that’s who has the authority in the society or in the colonies which was generally mostly the “whites”. Hall’s mother, Jessie sole purpose was to get her family to follow the traditions and practices of the white culture. According to Marx manifesto (Paul Ch. 1) “The arguments had a resonance, particularly in societies still under colonial rule where the labouring classes were treated with little respect.” The influences of Marx, Lenin and other communist writers made the young Stuart Hall a socialist for life because these individuals were trying to fight for the justice of the black culture for them to be able to get better working conditions and better wages.Hall had exposure to the black culture, which his mother didn’t allow, when he visited his grandmother and he heard the singing and clapping from the Pentecostal church next to her house to which he felt a “physical closeness” Annie said. Eventually, Hall became disgusted by his mother’s obsession to uphold the British culture and in young Hall’s mind (Paul Ch.1) “… and her colonial outlook struck the young boy as being out of step with what was needed in a society looking forward to independence from Britain.” It was seen “colonialism” throughout the book outlined that colour showed who ruled over who in the Caribbean.Secondly, another major theme was that exposed in the book was social stratification in terms of social and colour. Social stratification is a term used to describe the way people in society are sorted into a hierarchy primarily based on wealth, but also based on other socially important characteristics that interact with wealth and income, such as education, gender, and race (Cole, “The Way People Are Ranked and Ordered in Society”). In history, this has always been an issue because again as seen before colour matters to know where individuals stand in a society. As observed in (Paul Ch. 1) Hall’s parents, Herman and Jessie had different social classes, his mother “Jessie Hopwood came from a well-established Port Antonio family endowed with fair complexion and social capital if not actual wealth.” Whereas his father, Herman Hall originated from (Paul Ch. 1) “… lower-middle-class family, from rural Jamaica,

was not as favourably equipped either with fair skin or social standing.” Also, Hall learned the fact that his family were slave-holders and anti-abolitionist which made him resent his mother and this knowledge conflicted him to whether or not he is accepted by the “whites” but encouraged him to voice his opinion on slavery. Likewise, in the book where Hall’s

mother prohibited the relationship between Patricia (his older sister) and her boyfriend (a medical student from Barbados) because of his skin colour being black and Jessie was against it because her efforts of make them upkeep the expectations of a “light complexion” family.Patricia had a nervous breakdown and went into depression, she was never the same after this she never worked again and she didn’t get involved romantically again, Hall saw this as “… a disease of colonialism” (Paul Ch. 6). The content proposed that it does matter how much wealth, colour and race mattered to be how individuals would be seen in society.At this point in the book racial discrimination was clearly portrayed. Racial discrimination refers to unequal treatment of persons or groups on the basis of their race or ethnicity (Pager and Shepherd). This was shown when Hall’s mother didn’t approve of her daughter’s alliance and insisted that she ended her relationship as it was not what she was taught in her British upbringing. Hall was taught the British way of life by his mother but in England at college he would be tolerated but not welcomed because of his colour as by the fact that he was considered a “colonial” (Paul Ch.2). In Jamaica Hall had more privilege as he was considered brown but now at college in England there is a difference, as he is considered to be black. He found it difficult to be able to fit in without losing himself in the process as well as his black culture. This issue of racial discrimination occurred where a couple had an where the woman was a Swedish and her Jamaican husband experienced where a group of whites known as the “White Riots of 1958” attacked the husband until his West Indian friends showed up to rescue him, “By the next day a jeering two-hundred-strong white mob was at large waving sticks and butcher’s knives, shouting “Down with the niggers!” and “ Go home,

you black bastards!” ” (Paul Ch. 5). Alternatively, it became difficult for Hall as well when he wanted to settle down in England, “Racism was rife in Birmingham…” (Paul Ch. 6).Furthermore, another theme that has been displayed in this book is social institutions.Social institutions refer to a miscellany of social forms, including conventions, rules, rituals, organisations, and systems of organisations (Miller). Colonial education is a major factor here since the colonized where forced to follow the culture as well as traditions of the colonizers. Colonial education prevents the colonized from practices their own culture and traditions and lean them towards the colonizer’s way of life. This is identified in the book when Hall encountered than the teacher at Jamaica College purpose was to transform the locals in order for them to take over for the British, “The curriculum was designed to inculcate students into British ways of thinking and living and consisted almost exclusively

of traditional subjects taught to English schoolchildren.” (Paul Ch.1). It was also exhibited when Hall as a teacher excised the inequalities in the education system (Marxism). Hall thought to himself that the issue was in the secondary education itself, “It is ridiculous to talk of economics prosperity working, in the natural course of events, to break down established barriers between social classes. Class distinctions based upon attitudes, taste, education, and tooted in the educational system itself…” (Paul Ch. 5). Hall was a well-educated man, his parents encouraged this so throughout his academic journey he received the Rhode Island Scholarship which illustrated social mobility and he received his undergraduate degree in English Literature. Later on, in the book, Hall’s sister was deemed the responsibility take of their older brother who had completely gone blind at this point. This theme was also shown when Hall’s married his wife Catherine and they were an interracial couple, since there of different ethnicities others gave them hostile treatment and made in difficult for them to find a home to rent and settle in Birmingham. As much as this was social instituted it was also an act of feminism, which created a major issue.

In addition, another theme that was documented throughout the book was feminism.Feminism is the belief in full social, economic, and political equality for women. Feminism largely arose in response to Western traditions that restricted the rights of women, but feminist thought has global manifestations and variations (Brunell and Burkett). This has always been a problem in society as women are not considered equals to men and the problem arose rapidly as times passed. In Birmingham where Hall settled with his family, the Feminist Movement in the Caribbean evolved by the end of the 1970’s. The feminism centre in Birmingham brought up questions, “…forced Hall to realize that despite his fine-tuned awareness of the inequities of class and, increasingly, race, on the gender front he, like many other left leaning men, had been curiously unresponsive and insensitive to the concerns of women.” Women were expected to uphold the responsibilities of taking care of their family and doing household chores, so when Hall and his wife Catherine visited his home in Jamaica, his mother didn’t approve of her lack of help, “…but young Catherine soon found herself on the wrong side of the matriarch, Jessie, after objecting to her speaking ill of the household help in their presence.” (Paul Ch. 6). The context formed a realization of how women rights should be acknowledged as much as men but also not dictated by their gender on what they should be doing in life.Alternatively, one more theme that collectively was shown throughout the book was