The Story Archive

The Polished Hoe

Austin Clarke · 2002 CE · Novel · Caribbean · Contemporary

On one August night in the 1950s, Mary-Mathilda, a field-hand's daughter on the Barbadian island of Bimshire, sits down with the police sergeant and confesses to a killing. Her answers widen into the whole history of the Bellfield plantation, its white owner and the colonial order she has served. The author is Barbadian-born and Canadian, and the book won the 2002 Giller Prize.

Open The Polished Hoe in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Attributes

Genre
HistoricalPsychological
Theme
ColonialismClass & InequalityRace & IdentityGuilt & ConscienceJustice & Revenge
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
HeroineFallen Woman
Form
ConfessionSingle DayFrame Narrative
Symbol / motif
The EstateThe Sea
Conflict
vs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
RealistElegiac
Culture / tradition
Caribbean

Closest analogues