Nathanial Robinson Character Analysis

In “Big Islan,” Nathanial Robinson is a port worker who lives in Kingston, Jamaica, with his wife, Clarise. At first, Nathanial is happy with his life and doesn’t understand why Clarise is so determined to move up in the world. Nathanial is illiterate, and Clarise has been teaching him the alphabet with the hope that he can get a higher-paying job or a promotion. Nathanial, however, thinks that Clarise and other people are delusional to think that there would be more opportunities, and that life would be so much better somewhere like England. He cherishes Jamaica’s natural beauty and vows never to leave. He loves working at the port because seeing the ships enter and leave the island makes him feel like he’s part of global society. However, this changes when he sees a photo of the West Indies cricket team in Australia, where they’ve been playing the past few days. According to Clarise, who has read the feature story, the Australian people love the West Indies, and nobody in Australia cares what color your skin is. Inspired and intrigued, Nathanial, who is only starting to get the hang of reading, labors through the story, though he’s never much cared about cricket or sports. When he finishes it, he feels a restlessness he never felt before. It seems the cricket team’s acceptance in Australia, and the act of reading itself, have opened Nathanial’s eyes to how small his island is, how big the broader world is, and what opportunities await him there.