The sugar cane and cotton plantation that the Planter owns symbolizes colonial rule in the Caribbean. Sugar cane and cotton were commonly grown on Caribbean plantations, and the cruelty with which plantation owners treated the people who worked producing these products was notorious. When Gros Jean goes to work for the Planter, his choice to work on the plantation represents more broadly Caribbean and black men’s choice to participate in the colonial system. Ti-Jean, instead of counting all of the sugar cane on the plantation as the Planter has asked him to do, demands that the plantation workers burn down all of the crops and the master’s house. This represents not just the destruction of the singular plantation, but rather is a cry to dismantle the system of colonialism that imprisons and mistreats the Caribbean population.
The Plantation Quotes in Ti-Jean and His Brothers
“Remember what the old son of a leaf-gathering beggar said? He said that working for the Devil was the shortest way to success. Well, I walked up through the bush then I come onto a large field. Estate-like, you know. Sugar, tobacco, and a hell of a big white house where they say the Devil lives. Ay-ay. So two next black fellers bring me up to him. Big white man, his hand cold as an axe blade and his mind twice as sharp.”
“Other people want what I have, Charley, and other people have more. Can’t help myself, Joe, it’s some sort of disease, and it spreads right down to the common man.”
The Plantation Symbol Timeline in Ti-Jean and His Brothers
