Canadian Experience

The story is the ultimate realisation of a 'black' migrant's futile expectations of a 'white ' country and its people. George is one such person who migrates to Canada from Barbados despite his father's relentless objections to such an initiative. He leaves behind the guaranteed prospective of his father's plantation in Barbados to seek for a Canadian experience. George is fascinated with all that Canada has to offer, in fact, everything that colonial powers offer. That he prefers British system of public education to North-American practice of having co-ed schools serves as a hint to the effects that colonial rule had on its former colonies. Proper dressing while going for an interview , reading english magazines and newspapers(even if it is for job advertisements), watching 'Sixty Minutes' or the American news are all for George, markers of advancement. It is advancement for sure as long as it is not development. Development is inculcated from within and not imposed from above. George is the case of the latter. It is for this reason that he is unable to actually get out of the lift and go to the destined office of the Bank. The very name 'Bank' stimulates a nauseating feeling in him. The writer leaves it obscure as to whether George finally ends his life or just leaps into another self-preoccupation of his.