Brother Man

1) A brief  biography on Roger Mais

Roger Mais was a Jamaican writer that saw Rastafarianism as a way of showing spirituality and resistance to his normal middle class life. As a Jamaican writer he created many books and plays besides his famous book Brother Man. Roger Mais used his characters to show how life in the Jamaican ghetto is not always easy. His main character Brother Man is a Rastafarian and is seen as a prophet. According to Kwarme Dawes, Mais saw Rastafarianism during the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties as a significant development in Jamaica. Furthermore Kwarme Dawes stated that " Mais hass preserved for us the purer version of Rasta, Rasta as a devotional force, Rasta as a voice of peace and love....Rasta as something deeply rooted in the Jamaican capacity for suvival." From this we see Roger Mais as a true Jamaican visionary writer who tried to visualize the true way of Rastafarianism.

2) Critics state the book Brother Man " creates the claustrophobia of the ghetto by rarely leaving the walls of the small rooms in the community or the walled in yards where people live in close quarters." this states that critics see this novel as one showing the side of the Jamaican ghetto as a place where people live close to one another and the setting is a good place to show a sense of humbleness to the main character Brother Man, and the way Mais puts Brother Man almost as a Christ figure give the book a sense of reality to what the people in the ghetto would put to someone who is very spiritual which is a prophet.   

3) The religous Aspect of Rastafarianism is the worshiping of one god which is called Haile Selassie I or Jah Rastafari and they believe in the trinity as God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit. They believe that the incarnate of Jesus the Holy Spirit lives within Humans, hence the reason for them saying "I and I". 

Literary Devices

Forms of Prose Fiction

Novels- A long fiction almost always concentrating on character and incident and usually containing a plot.

Novellas- It is applied to a story some what longer than a short story but not long enough to be considered a novel.

Short Stories- A small prose fiction which concentrates on a few characters or often one single character which lacks a complicated plot and leisurely description.

Element of Prose Fiction

Narrative Techniques- This is simply the technique in having narrative skillls or styles of writing used by the author.

Point of View- This refers to the way in which a narrator approaches his/her material (characters,action,setting) and the audience.

Characterization- The way in which a writer creates characters in a play or narrative so as to attract or repel sympathy.

Setting- The time, place, environment and surroundings. Circumstances of an event of a play or story.

Theme- The abstract subject of a  literary work that is its central idea which may or maynot be explicite.

Plot- The arrangement or plan of incidents in Literary work ( novels, dramas, play).

Style- The characteristic manner in which a writer expresses himself or herself in the particular manner of an individual literary work.

Literary Devices

Imagery- A word or sequence of words that refers to any sensory experience.

Symbol- A visible object or action that suggests some further meaning in addition to itself.

Irony- A manner of speaking that implies a disrepancy.

Satire-Writing which diminishes its subject in the eyes of the reader by using ridicule and arousing contempt,hatred,scorn or disgust usuallly to highlight.

Allusion- This is a literary device that creates ideas and information in the reader's mind with a word or two.

Structual Devices

Stream of Consciousness- A common narrative technique in the modern novel ( an attempt to convey all the contents of a character's mind eg. feelings, thought,mind)

Interior Monologue- An attempt to convey in words the process of consciousness or thought ( as a means of narrating a story).

Flashback- A term borrowed from films. A sudden jump back in time to an early episode or scene in a story, novel,play, or film.

Foreshadow- The use of hints that suggest events that are to come.

Time Frame- A given interval Especially in relation to a particular event or process.

Motif- Some aspect of Literature ( a type of character, theme,image) which reoccurs frequently.

Juxtaposition- The use of two themes,characters,phrases,words or situations for comparison or contrast.

Types of Fiction

Fantasy Fiction- A story that could not happen and is not realistic

Humour Fiction- A story created to make the reader laugh.

Science Fiction- Tjis story is based on science and usually tells about events that are supernatural.

Mystery Fiction- Fiction stories that are usually realistic, about a mysterious event which is not explained or a crime that is not solved until the end of the story to keep the reader in suspense

Folk Tales - These fictions are stories with no known creator and is passed from generation to generation and usually has a meaning behind of it.

Historic Fiction- These are stories which take place during a particular time period in the past. The setting of the story is based on past event but the characters are fictional.

Romantic Fiction- This story deals with the mutual attraction between a man and a woman and normally has a happy ending.

Western Fiction- These stories are set primarily in the American West around the second half of the 19th century and features heros with rugged handsome features.