The Pain Tree by Olive Senior

1. Who is your favorite character from the story and what kind of background do they come from? Why? (Use examples from Michelle Cliff's essay, If I Could Write This in Fire, I Would Write This in Fire)

My favorite character is Larissa, from the black working-class background, because she represents the kind of values I really love, such as family values, modesty or discretion. I was really touched and sad for her, when Lorraine explained the day she left to England, and she didn't even wait for the gift of Larissa. Larissa was so dedicated to her family, and to Lorraine, even if most of the time it was a "one way relationship".


2. Why do you think Lorraine’s mother mocks the workers that want independence from England?

I think it is because for her, it seems so impossible that they could have the same "free-life" as her. Maybe because she was raised with the idea her skin, and the skin of her family, lighter, would mean they are better than them. She can't even imagine to loose all her advantages, in the society where she lives.

3. What is a “pain tree” and how does it play a role in the story?

The pain tree is supposed to carry the pains of the person who is going to pound the trunk of the tree. It is a symbolic gesture to find some kind of peace about something that hurts the person. Its role in the story, in my opinion, is to show the difference people are dealing with the pain, in one way people like Larissa, and in the other way, people like Lorraine. When the high society of Jamaica is facing to some grief, they can show it, they have the right to do so, and the others who are working for them should not behave differently even if something bad happened to them.

4. What is the meaning of the line “people like me would always inherit the land, but they were the ones who already possessed the Earth”?

In my opinion, it means that people like Lorraine, would always have the material advantages, and a better confort. But people like Larissa are upon this, they know life, peoples, and values, that are important. I think Lorraine says that because in the story she shows how she is ashamed of the way she acted when she was a child, the way she was raised without any consideration for people, or those people.