ersonal and social development is influenced by the antagonisms rather than the complementarity expressed among the island's variant religious beliefs and practices. Jamaica provides again a particularly volatile mix of elements. The indigenous culture of the island has repeatedly been attacked by its colonizers who sought to instill in Jamaicans a fervent spirit of Christianity, that is, of a civilized religion. The superstitious practices of legendary island figures such as the eighteenth century sorceress or obeah-woman Nanny was to be discouraged (Cliff, 1995, p. 14).
These three primary issues of race, religion and colonization will provide a grid against which Clare's development can be traced. However, these three factors will not always be viewed as necessarily the dominant or exclusive factors helping to shape Clare's identity formation. Rather they are introduced briefly here to offer a schematic overview of some of Clare's earliest life influences.
Recent systems theory contends that human behavior is shaped by "a multiplicity of factors, both internal and external, operating in transaction" (Longres, 1995, p. 16). Derived from functionalist theory, systems theory seeks to deal with individuals within a social service setting as "interdependent systems interacting in complex larger systems, as persons-in-situations, persons-in-environment" rather than as "isolated, self-contained entities" (De Hoyos in Longres, 1995, p. 17). To this end, Clare must be seen as a child struggling to come to know herself within a familial and cultural setting which often seeks to suppress information about her past which might be of value to her. Cliff's novel presents Clare as a girl who is beginning to split her psyche between a rational and British-oriented approach and one which longs to embrace the mystical roots of her past.
In the Tabernacle the black church which her mother attends the narrator indicates that no on...