Ways of Sunlight is a collection of short stories that encompasses many of Samuel

Selvon’s best stories written throughout his lifetime and pulled from various different literary

works. Selvon is a key figure of the West Indian Literary Renaissance because he opened the

door for West Indian literature to gain an international audience while inspiring and influencing

many well known Trinbagonian writers through his characterization, his humor and the “calypso

ballad” style while also criticizing the ethnic division in the caribbean using his experience as a

foreigner and his Indo-Caribbean perspective.

Selvon engages in characterization that focuses on the struggles of life and people’s

reactions to them and seeks to highlight both the strength and weaknesses of his characters which

make them feel authentic and relatable. Such an example can be observed in the short story The

Village Washer where the characters of Ma Lambee and Ma Procop are introduced. Ma Procop

was first introduced by her talents as a “washerwoman”,the prioritization of her exceptional

abilities and diligent work ethic as a woman who had endured the hardships of slavery were

emphasized before he gave any consideration of her physical attributes. This creates the surface

of her characterization which is only then expanded upon with distinctive physical characteristics

like her knees that were described as being “bent like a bow”. However, her true character is

revealed only in her reactions. First, her reaction to the War saw Ma Procop diminishing her

standards of handiwork and raising her prices in order to take advantage of her customers.

Selvon's portrayal of Ma Procop subtly implies her greediness and unkindness, without explicitly

stating it. She was never described as greedy or unkind by Selvon, only her actions and reactions

were put on display for the reader to find characterization. This style of characterization was

chosen by Selvon due to his interest in people’s reactions as mentioned in his interview with
Kenneth Ramchand where he stated “I would say that my interest would lie more in my

characters' reactions to issues and situations than in the issues themselves.(1982)”. A character’s

reactions show a deeper level of characterization that cannot be reproduced through the use of

flowery language and surface level description thus creating characters that are more authentic.

Furthermore, Selvon uses the reactions of conflicting characters to contrast their

characteristics. This is evident in the character of Ma Lambee, a washerwoman who comes in

from another town and eventually takes all of Ma Procop’s customers due to her superior service

and general kindness. Unlike Ma Procop’s reaction to the war of being selfish and greedy, Ma

Lambee reacts with kindness and selflessness to the village. The contrasting responses exhibited

by the two characters exemplify the concept of conflicting attributes typically attributed to a

protagonist and antagonist, without necessitating explicit declaration. Consequently, both

characters successfully surpass the conventional roles of a protagonist and antagonist, emerging

as genuine individuals.

Selvon would portray profound societal concerns such as immigration, employing a blend

of humour and the distinctive "calypso ballad" style. He deviates from the conventional method

of addressing grave societal matters with a tone of seriousness and sincerity, opting instead to

tackle these subjects with a touch of humor, a choice that is then substantiated by his “calypso

ballad” writing style. The emergence of this writing style can be attributed to its resemblance to

the characteristics commonly associated with calypsos as Susheila Nasta describes the oral

calypsonian ballad as “ well known for its use of a subversive irony, the melodramatic

exaggeration of farcical anecdotes, racial stereotyping, repetition for dramatic effect and the

inclusion of topical political material(2012)" which are all elements present in Selvon’s short

story Down the Main. The focus of this narrative does not lie on the political subject of
immigration; rather, it centers on the characters' approaches in addressing this matter. This

manner of promiscuity towards subject matters is also a prevalent element in calypsos as many

songs are known to “dance around the topic”. Similarly, the story exhibits the presence of racial

stereotyping through the use of character names such as Ling Ping, a Chinese shopkeeper, and

Lalsingh, an Indian. This stereotyping is used not to offend but rather to add humour to the story

as it continues to comment on Trinbagonians immigrating to Venezuela in search of a better life.

There are many more instances of Selvon applying calypso elements in this story such as in the

irony of Fredrick underpaying Enrique when he promised he would not but Subsequently, Selvon

effectively depicts a significant societal problem in a manner that is comprehensible, engaging,

and appealing to the majority of readers. It is this ability to demonstrate a deep understanding of

a topic in a way that is humorous and easily understood by the masses that is common in Calypso

and praised by Birblalsingh when they said “what one misses of intellectual interest and

technical control in Selvon's work, one gains in humor, compassion and ultimately

pathos(1977)”.

Selvon leverages his personal struggle with his Caribbean identity in England to advocate

for the creation of a cohesive national identity and to lend his support towards this cause. Despite

the presence of ethnic divisions within the Caribbean, namely Indo-Caribbean and Afro-

Caribbean, these divisions are not apparent to outsiders who perceive both groups simply as

Caribbean. Selvon shows his Caribbean experience with such division in his short story Three

Into One Can't Go where he portrays the character of Changoo, who is of Indian descent and

who struggles to find his place in a society that is dominated by Afro-Caribbean culture. This

story mostly criticizes the segmented and isolated population of Trinidad and Tobago citizens at

the time as seen in his other short stories like Holiday in Five Rivers where the village was
mostly made up of Indo-Trinidadians. In contrast, his stories that take place in England show no

such ethnic division between characters such as in Calypso in London where the St. Vincent

Afro-Caribbean character MangoHead is friends with two Trinbagonian characters of Afro and

Indo Caribbean descent. Hyacinth M. Simpson sees Selvon’s London-based fiction as “Selvon’s

investment in collective national and regional identities as opposed to more singularly ethnic- or

island-based ones(2016)”. This is evident in Calypso in London where Caribbean characters of

varying origins and ethnicity are perceived the same by the Englishmen as they collectively

strive to combat the impending loss of their cultural identity to the English. Selvon shows this

assimilation of culture through the character’s language use where most dialogue is written in

standard English except for a few Caribbean lexicals like “Limin”. On the other hand, Selvon

shows the resistance that is possible through unity when all three characters came together to

write a calypso, a symbol of the Caribbean.

Ultimately, Selvon crafted a unique writing style that captured the attention of many

Caribbean and foreign readers while also inspiring many writers. The incorporation of both

humor and the components of calypso within his literary works enabled him to construct

storylines that addressed significant societal matters in a manner that was both pleasurable and

effortlessly comprehensible for readers. Many of his characters are distinguished not by mere

adjectives or descriptions, but rather by their actions, thereby enhancing their genuineness.

Utilizing his unique perspective as a Caribbean individual residing outside of the region, he

advocated for the establishment of a cohesive Caribbean identity.

Houlden, Kate. Sam Selvon's "The Lonely Londoners" (1956), White Sexual Desire and the
Calypso Aesthetic. Journal of West Indian Literature, vol. 20, no. 2, 2012, pp. 24–37.

Simpson, Hyacinth M. “Is all o’we one?”: Creolization and ethnic identification in Samuel
Selvon’s “Turning Christian." The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 53.1 (2018): 169-185.

Birbalsingh, Frank. Samuel Selvon and the West Indian Literary Renaissance. ARIEL: A Review
of International English Literature 8.3 (1977).

Selvon, Samuel. Sam Selvon talking: a conversation with Kenneth Ramchand. Canadian
Literature 95 (1982): 56-64.

Selvon, Samuel. Ways of Sunlight.