The setting of novel Here Comes The Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn

One of the major characters is Margot, who works at the Palm Star Resort. During the nights, she would sacrifice herself to having sex with men to get the money she needed to provide for her family. Margot is the sister of Thandi and daughter of Delores. Thandi is the family’s hope of becoming wealthy and in hopes of her going into medical school. However, as Margot is doing sacrifices for Thandi’s education, she aims to be an artist but gets shut down by her mother Dolores and Margot.

Thandi tries to meet her family’s expectations but also tries to lighten her skin color because her classmates have a lighter skin color. She started to do a treatment to lighten her skin color. Throughout the novel, Thandi just wants to feel love and acceptance.

Delores also makes sacrifices to provide for the family. She dreams for her daughter Thandi to go to medical school and bring wealth to the family.

Margot works at a resort in Montego Bay where she works as a desk clerk during the day and during the night, she prostitutes to the rich men who visit. Both Margot and Delores sacrifice for Thandi’s education in hopes of becoming a doctor to get them out of poverty. Even though Thandi loves art, she feels pressured to meet her family’s expectations. She also wants to fit in with her classmates who have a lighter skin color. She then goes to Miss Ruby for a treatment to lightening her skin.

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As she struggles to fit in school, Thandi meets Charles who tells her she is pretty. Later on, Margot accepted an offer Alfonso gave her to the boss of the prostitutes at the hotel after he discovered what Margot has been doing during the evenings.

When she tried to negotiate with Alfonso of becoming the manager, he refused and planned for another woman who was a former Miss Universe to be the manager. She then sets her up to get caught in bed with another woman, which allowed Margot to take over the position as manager. As Thandi was beginning her relationship with Charles, she soon reveals she was raped by Clover. Charles then seeks for Clover to fight him for what he has done to Thandi when she was younger. As they fought, Clover had a heart attack which caused his death and Charles gets accused of his death. Charles has no choice but to fled since a reward has been offered for his capture. When Thandi met with Jullette, Charles sister, Thandi finds out of her sisters’ job as a prostitute. She also finds out Margot set a price for Charles capture. In the end, Margot is living her own paradise but lost everyone who she was really close to including her sister. One of the major themes in Here Comes The Sun would be a sacrifice.

For instance, Delores sacrificed Margot for “six hundred-dollars bills…The man took Margot somewhere…” (Dennis-Benn 202). This made Delores think about the wealth she would bring home in order to pay for her daughter’s school expenses when she allowed the strange man to take her towards the docks. It connects to the theme since she is sacrificing Margot in order to get the money she needs since Delores only makes money off items she sells to a tourist. Margot states, “For all I have done for you, sacrificed for you.”, when she sees Thandi and Alfonso together (Dennis- Benn 339). The reason Margot states she sacrifices herself was due to Margot having sex with the people who would stay at the hotel in order to give Thandi a brighter future. The sacrifices Margot has done demonstrates she wanted to give Thandi a chance to have a brighter future when Margot did not have the opportunity to have a bright future.

A major social issue would be colorism and sexual orientation. Thandi tried to lighten her skin color in order to fit in society. Not only did she try to fit in a society, but she wanted to be accepted for having lighter skin color. She even went to Miss Ruby for skin treatment. Sexual orientation is an issue since being a homosexual isn’t acceptable. We see this in Verdene’s past relationship with a girl Akua. When Verdene was caught with Akua, Verdene fled leaving Akua behind. Akua was then gang raped, beaten, naked and died for being homosexual. The author also described if a man was found with another man, he would have been arrested, mutilated and then buried. This demonstrates how society doesn’t accept those who are homosexual. Critical Summary: The Yellow Wallpaper The short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman takes place in a colonial mansion far away from society.

The narrator of the story, whose name could be Jane, is a new mother who is going through postpartum depression. She has an imagination her husband forbids her from having in order to “cure” her. Since she refuses his treatment, she imagines the house and the wallpaper into something sinister and becomes obsessive. John is a doctor who tries to treat the narrator, but instead makes it worse. He has an authoritative role as a husband and enforces her to hide her emotions. The narrator lives in a colonial mansion and questions herself about how they were able to afford to buy the mansion and the emptiness of the house. She is suffering from postpartum depression as well as in her marriage. John believes he is treating her by forbidding her from doing any activity, which includes writing. She has a secret journal she hides from John where she writes her thoughts down. When she hears her husband’s footsteps, she quickly hides her journal. She then complains to John to get the wall redone but refuses to so. Later on, she describes to John about the people walking around their mansion, but John turns her down. As she goes back to writing in her journal, Johns sister interrupts her writing.

The obsession of the yellow wallpaper keeps growing to the point she rips the paper off in order to free the woman that is trapped inside the pattern since she saw how they were trapped as if they were behind the bars of a cage. At the end she becomes insane where she feels like there are many women creeping around and coming out of the wallpaper which makes her feel trapped. When John opens the door the narrator “creep over him” (Gwynn 68). The social issue Charlotte Perkins Gilman describes is gender role and social expectations. Gilman demonstrates male dominance based on John’s character. Males during the 1800s treated women as children and men held most of the positions as a physician. She also shows how women’s health was not taken seriously. Society also expected women to be housewives and submissive. We also see the way John turn the narrator’s imaginations and fantasies down when she tried to talk to John. The narrator represented how women were being treated during the 1800s. This story was written during the time women suffrage was taking place.