47 pages • 1 hour read
George LammingIn the Castle of My Skin
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1953A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Barbados is a Caribbean island nation that’s also known as Little England. One of the novel’s narrators, a young boy named G., lives in Creighton’s Village, Barbados. The chapter opens on his ninth birthday, and G. is sad because rain is flooding the village. His mother talks to a neighbor through a window, and the adults comment on how rain on a birthday is auspicious: “and they flattered me with the consolation that my birthday had brought showers of blessing” (9). Despite this, the fact that his birthday falls during flood season isn’t a blessing to G.—it’s an annual letdown that affects the entire village. “It was my ninth celebration of the gift of life, my ninth celebration of the consistent lack of an occasion for celebration” (9). Creighton’s Village is densely populated, with both houses and businesses sharing tight quarters. The streets are of limestone or sand, and streetlamps mark where people congregate. The roads have English names, and the villagers on these streets often take so much pride in their street that they squabble with people from other streets. There’s also a public bath for men and women. Though life might be quiet or noisy on any given day, the floods change everything.
As the flooding continues, G. ruminates about his upbringing, saying, “My father who had only fathered the idea of me had left me the sole liability of my mother who really fathered me” (11). Though her voice isn’t the best, G.’s mother begins singing until the entire neighborhood sings along with her. G. then asks more questions about his family. Later, his mother gossips with her neighbor about Mr. Foster, who was carried away on his roof in the flooding because he refused to abandon his house. G. then goes outside and plays with his pet pigeon. He feeds the pigeon castor oil, but the pigeon dies. G. buries the pigeon, feeling shameful. G. and his mother later prepare for bed, and he imagines seeing a demon in the darkness, which he chases away. His mother reminds him that the inspector will arrive the next day to check their water container. In bed, he thinks about Pa and Ma, who are the oldest people in the village. They’re so old that no one knows what their real names are. G. falls asleep thinking about his birthday being washed away in the flood: “And my birthday drifted outside in a fog of blackness that covered the land. […] My birthday making its black departure from the land had been blessed with showers whose consolation was my blessing” (14-15).
Chapter 2 Summary
G.’s mother bathes him in the backyard, while the village kids peep through the fence and make fun of his nakedness. His mother uses a skillet to pour water over him, and she also wields it as a weapon, scaring the kids whenever she hears laughing. Some of the kids are too rough with the fence, however, and a portion covered in pumpkin vines breaks. As G. stands naked, his mother mourns the pumpkin vine. The culprit turns out to be a kid named Bob. Bob’s mother demands that he apologize. Though Bob tries to act serious, he can’t help laughing because G. is standing there wet and naked. His apparent refusal to feel remorse angers his mother, who then hits him so hard that he falls into G.’s yard. She threatens to beat him and lunges at him. In her anger, she too breaks the fence. “My mother dragging Bob away narrowly escaped, but the woman was thrown forward into the yard where she lay half-conscious” (18). The neighbors know that she will seriously hurt Bob if she catches him, and so Bob is whisked into hiding in G.’s house.
G.’s mother notices him standing naked and the neighbors laughing at him, but G.’s too afraid to move because his mother hasn’t given him permission. Seeing his actions as negligence, she takes a switch and tries to whip him, causing more laughter. G. manages to escape inside the house, where he finds Bob hiding. G.’s mother then joins Bob’s mother in the yard, and they are later joined by Miss Foster. Miss Foster relates how a young boy named Gordon tried to sell a chicken to a white man who was dressed nicely for work. The man didn’t want to buy the chicken, but before Gordon could leave, the chicken defecated on the man’s clothes. Then older boys, including a boy named Trumper, made fun of the man. The women lament how the young aren’t respectful anymore. Inside, Bob and G. hatch a plan to secure Bob’s freedom. Bob decides to play “bear,” a game where one places sacks over one’s body and imitates a bear. Bob eventually gets away, and the women continue gossiping. G. comments on their similarities and differences:
Miss Foster. My mother. Bob’s mother. It seemed they were three pieces in a pattern which remained constant. The flow of its history was undisturbed by any difference in the pieces, nor was its evenness affected by any likeness. (24)
Creighton’s Village is home to around three thousand people. It was once a sugar cane estate that was passed down to generations of Creightons. The Creightons are now the English landlords of the village. They live in a large mansion that sits atop a hill overlooking the village. The mansion is surrounded by thick, wild woods, and the landlord employs overseers to patrol the woods for poachers and thieves. These overseers are from the village and “were fierce, aggressive and strict” (26). The overseers think of the other villagers as lowly and conniving, while the villagers accuse the overseers of putting on airs for the white landlord. This animosity works in the landlord’s favor because it underscores their belief that blacks are not to be trusted. This infighting also causes blacks to see their own people as the enemy. There’s also a constable who patrols the village at night. After the floods, the landlord ascertains the damage. He’s considered above reproach by the villagers because he instills the idea of greatness in them, thus holding “benevolent protection” over them (29).
Other village scenes are depicted, including men’s public bath, where young boys get in trouble for engaging in lewd acts and are escorted out. In another scene involving a rite of passage, younger boys watch as older boys place pins on train tracks. These pins are flattened when the train goes by, and are later wielded as knives. The chapter ends with the three mothers in G.’s yard. The women chat about the flood and Miss Foster’s house. They laugh at how Mr. Foster was carried away on his roof. Miss Foster then relates her own story: The day after the flood, she went to see the landlord and got into an argument with the overseer. He told her the landlord couldn’t do anything about the weather. The landlord, however, heard her troubles and invited her to tea. He also gave her money for her troubles. Miss Foster beams as she relates this story. She also recalls how she put the overseer in his place by telling him that he was no better than her. The women ruminate on life as the chapter ends.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
The first two chapters underscore the importance of community. As the novel’s introduction explains, “The narrative is both singular and collective; it is about one boy among other boys and the village community in which they are raised” (ix). When we first meet G. on his ninth birthday, the village is suffering from flooding. G.’s mother gossips with her neighbor, and the women comment on how auspicious rain is on a birthday.
In this very first glimpse of village life, G. isn’t alone. There are three people: G., his mother, and the neighbor. In the second chapter, G. references the fact that things in the village take shape in groups and pairings—thus underscoring the village’s collective nature—when he says, “Three. Thirteen, Thirty. Boys. Three. Thirteen. Thirty Knives” (31). Throughout the second chapter, G. references this collective existence. Another example of the community’s prevalence takes place when G.’s mother begins singing and the rest of the neighborhood joins in. The first two chapters also flesh out some of the people and places that make up Creighton’s Village. In this way, readers glimpse individual lives at work and play, yet these individual lives are encompassed by the larger framework of the collective village.
