The effects of imperialist countries on their colonies are evident up to the present time. In the book, Laughter out Place, the author has clearly recorded the current situation and way of life in former colonies. The author adopts various writing skills to communicate their themes to the reader by creating characters like Gloria and then giving them human qualities to pass their information accurately.
The narrator has visited Rio in Brazil where they are doing an academic research about spread AIDS among poor women of Rio. The reader is able to learn various things from the narrator which can be associated with former colonial masters.
Economic disparities within the communities in Rio are very high. The social classes are divided between the upper class, the middle and the lower class (populous). The lifestyle within the classes is very high. The middle class and the upper class are able to afford a decent living because they have better jobs and sources of income because they compose the elite. The protagonist’s journey from Felicidale Eterna is an example of the differences in the lifestyle evidenced in the type of houses different social classes reside in. The poor on the other hand live in extremely less advantageous suburbs. They have large families compared to the elite and therefore more mouths to feed. For example one of the main characters in the story, Gloria has around five children plus five that she has adopted from relatives. This makes the persona say, ‘I could not help but notice the number dark skinned women and children begging among the revelers on the beach’. Pg 23, line 30. Dark women were most affected by poverty because white was considered superior to black and hence they could not easily get jobs like white women. This is an example of racial prejudice originating from colonial ideology.
Politically, men had more freedom compared to women because the colonial government never involved women in the affairs of the country and this situation was continued even when the locals took over the leadership of the country. The narrator observes, ‘the history of Rio de JeJaneiro has been intimately connected to the lines of slaves, ex slaves and domestic workers since the beginning of the colonial period’pg 34 line 50.
Politics was majorly dominated by the elite class and the poor were not involved in any way in the country’s leadership. The narrator observes ‘concentration of economic and cultural capital led to unequal levels of political capital and, ultimately through an elaborate symbolic struggle between classes’ pg 44 line 9.
The inequalities in Brazil and Rio are wide and strong. Few organizations led by religious movements are plying are a very minimal role in reducing this inequalities by socializing and uniting members of different classes together.
The government especially that led by radical leaders is trying to reduce this disparity left in Brazil by colonial government and propagated by the post colonial governments. Feminist movements are also playing their role of educating the women about their rights and freedoms in the society. For example in sexuality article, pg 12, women are told that they can free themselves from violence against women they can choose to have or have no sex with their husbands and a right to use contraceptives’.
