The Child-narrator as an Instrument of Criticism: Zee Edgell’s Beka Lamb

Abstract

One of the narrative techniques at the disposal of the writer is the use of the childnarrator. This technique which usually features in the bildungsroman or novels that trace a child’s development from innocence, gullibility and comprehension to when he starts losing his innocence and begins to learn the true nature of the world can be used to attain diverse ends. One of such ends is that they can be made to convey socio-political critique. In this type of situation, the child provides a façade behind which the author hides and makes his critique of his milieu so that the world and growing process of the child are of secondary interest. An example of this type of use is seen in Zee Edgell’s Beka Lamb. The metaphor of the school-child then implies the nation as the meta-text and the child protagonist as the representative of the larger society. Consequently, just as the young protagonist, through whom the author mirrors the general situation of her society matures and overcomes her problems in this novel – Beka Lamb – there is hope that the newly independent nation of Belize which the text represents will also triumph over her difficulties. The methodology of the research is to first scrutinize the primary test – Beka Lamb – and then have recourse to relevant critical materials in an attempt to sharpen the focus of the arguments.