The action of In the Castle of My Skin is historically specific. A documented incident that contributed to the momentum of independence for Barbados was a 1937 labor strike that turned into a riot. So severe were the riots that there was a British commission of inquiry that led to various social reforms, but not until 1962 did Barbados obtain independence ("Barbados," 1975). Thus the narrative of In the Castle of My Skin is located in a context of incipient change, just as G, the novel's coming-of-age hero, is situated on the brink of life change. But the theme of change is also situated in a context of modern colonialism and class warfare, with the white landowners who own G's village, the Creightons, in the position of the master colonizing class and G. and his people the colonized.
Significantly, the culture of Barbados is also owned by the British, with the village school being devoted to turning out loyal little Englishmen of color. The entire environment, in other words, has been colonized, with the colonists and not the natives in charge of replicating in a tropical setting the ethos of the mother country. In a curious way, the social structure presented in the novel is given ironic treatment by the title. Consider the adage, "An Englishman's home is his castle." In In the Castle of My Skin, the budding little Englishmen by no means own even their most personal selves. Gradually, as G grows in self-awareness, he finds that he does have a castle and that its identity is bound up with his/its skin color. In other words, he begins to own his identity.
The process of coming into his own skin, as it were, is linked to G's exposure to Pa, who embodies African folklore and indigenous islander heritage, and to Trumper's American experience, which reveals and valorizes modern black culture in a way that the village school does not. Indeed, such exposure is partly culpable in G's decision to leave Barbados for Trinidad to become a t...