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tionship with Jenny, and McAndrick’s relationship with Imelda can
be read as symbols for the relationship of Empire and (former) col-
ony, or West and East. These inter-racial relationships are based
first and foremost on the man’s superiority, the woman’s inferiority,
and the man’s possession of and dominance over the woman.
Therefore, Jenny and Imelda represent two things: the female as
oppressed by the male, and the native as subjected to the power of
Empire. There are several theories to support this view. In his
widely known book Black Skin, White Masks (1967), Frantz Fanon
argues that sexual liberty is the privilege of the white man, particu-
larly within the setting of Empire, while a relationship between a
coloured man and a white woman carries an entirely different mean-
ing: “Since he is the master and more simply the male, the white
man can allow himself the luxury of sleeping with many women.
This is true in every country and especially in colonies. But when a
white woman accepts a black man there is automatically a romantic
aspect. It is a giving, not a seizing” (Fanon 1967: 46). Fanon’s
words clearly suggest that sexual relations between a white man and
a coloured woman emphasise imperial assumption of ownership of
colonies and their resources, including, of course, the native wom-
en. This line of argument is developed further by Michael Gorra; he
sees the relationship between a white man and a coloured woman as
having “an element of coercion […] a demonstration of mastery
that replicates in miniature” the relationship between Empire and
colony, while also maintaining that an affair between a white wom-
an and a coloured man “is a sexual union that challenges rather than
confirms the power of the empire itself” (Gorra 1997: 48). Fanon
and Gorra’s arguments thus clearly support a reading of the inter-
racial relationships in Jenkins’s two stories as being symbolic for
relations between Empire and colony as well as emphasizing the
disparity of power in male-female relations under the patriarchal
construct.
Yet the narratives’ tragic conclusions are different in nature and
offer differing interpretations of Jenkins’s treatment of the issues of
patriarchy, colonialism, and the inter-racial affair. Without resisting
in any way, Jenny willingly gives her daughter to McDonald to take
SURRENDER AND SACRIFICE