*Themes Highlighted In The 1st Six Chapters of Beka Lamb*

In the first six chapters of the novel "Beka Lamb," a number of themes such as death,political reform,maturity,poverty,success, failure,racial discrimination and phoniness are highlighted.From the first page of this novel,we are able to see several images of death such as Beka's memory of the wreaths at her great granny's funeral and the slapping of mosquitoes. Later in the book the theme of death is re-enforced when we learn about the death of Beka's friend Toycie and also when Beka's grandmother,Miss Ivy solemnly reminisced about a polar bear that once came to Belize and died.
The themes political reform and maturity seem to be closely linked to one another as throughout the novel, a parallel transformation occurs between the changes in politics as well as the changes in Beka.These changes in Beka are initially acknowledged in chapter one when we learn that Beka changed from what her mother called a flat-rate Belize creole into a person with "high mind."It was also inferred by Beka's gran that, "long befo time Beka would never have won the contest."Another sign of Beka's developing maturity is when she decided to no longer tell lies.This was signified with the cutting down of the bougainvillea vine which was used as a representation of Beka when her father compared her to this vine stating that she was all flash and no substance. Beka was so upset by the cutting down of the vine that she vowed to never plant another thing again.This symbolized the termination of her constant lying.
The political reform which occurred at the time of Beka's changes were due to the People's Independence Party as they introduced universal adult suffrage and there was an improvement in the education that the Belizeans received. Politics also played a major role in the lives of Beka,as she had dreams of becoming a politician, as well as her grandmother who was very concerned and involved in the transformation of her country's society and economy.
Poverty was one of the more prominent themes as there were many references to this throughout the six chapters such as the insistent grumbling of frogs and the nervous continuous shrilling of crickets which were signs that something wrong was transpiring and that all was not well in Belize.Another example of this would be the leaning lamp-posts,the rusty zinc rooftops as well as the weathered wooden houses depicted in chapter two of the novel.Also,throughout the novel we continuously encounter discomforting descriptions of the scenery such as "slop bucket and swampy hole."Due to these unsettling circumstances,there was a brain drain, which we see when Beka's granny Ivy explains to her that the doctor returned to England and that nothing lasts in Belize.This was because the Belizeans had hopelessness,depression and harsh living conditions to cope with and the metropolitan country was quite the opposite as it had hope,higher education,opportunity and growth.
The dream in chapter 2 of the novel is a technique used by the author to symbolize the occurrences in Beka's mind and life.This is where the themes success and failure are detected as, in Beka's dream,she is on a bridge where there is filth and excrement below it.This bridge acts as a symbol which represents the overcoming of obstacles and the filth and excrement are a symbol of failure and stagnation and the fear Beka felt when it came to failing.Also,Beka saw success as not only a way out of poverty but as a method of overcoming the grief she felt due to Toycie's death, as it was seen in this novel that Beka is less stressed and her pain is subsided through her success.
Racism is is also identified in this dream when the sailors called out to Beka "Jump nigger gial,jump! We'll ketch you! " There is also some evidence of racism at the beginning of chapter one where Beka was continuously cautioned that the prizes would go to bakras,panias or expatriates,those who were considered to have a much higher status than the creoles in Belize.There was also the statement made by Beka's mother about Vellor, the supposed "half-crazy coolie woman," and racism was once again detected when we learnt about the various clubs which only accommodated a specific race.
Lastly, we are introduced to Beka's phoniness in chapter four and we are able to understand that her phoniness,displayed in this chapter is linked to the lies that she so often told which portrays her character to be something that she is not.We also see that due to Beka's mother's desire to keep up with the latest "styles",there is a clash between her and Beka's father who desires nothing more than to have Beka be proud of who she truly is without all of the flashiness.The phoniness and airs were no longer a part of Beka's behaviour as she matured out of that when her father cut down the bougainvillea plant.