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Analysis Of Midnight Robber

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The hybrid context of myth and modern technology in Midnight Robber creates possibilities of agency in physical, psychological and linguistic divergence and duality. The central trope of this agency is Tan-Tan and her “Robber Queen” persona. It is a corollary of the tale of the “Robber King” which is a classical masquerade from the Trinidad Carnival. The King would wear exaggerated robber costumes and stop people in the streets and tell them a fantastic tale in exchange for coins. The wordy tale would be about him being the son of an African prince who’d been subsequently stolen into slavery and brought to a land full of strange-looking people. He had later escaped and became a robber in order to survive. This particularly Trinidadian metaphor for the exiled hero becomes a model of identification for Tan-Tan, who suffers exile and alienation. The Robber King is legendary for being good with words, manipulating which he would spin outrageous and fascinating stories instantaneously. Consequently these traits of confidence in speaking, flair to command attention and self-assurance in ones worth, fascinates the quiet and almost invisible Tan-Tan. The persona of the Robber Queen becomes both an agency of empowerment and an act of resistance for Tan-Tan. She carries her unborn child while meting out vigilante justice in the guise of the Robber Queen consequently bringing about a subtle transformation in the social fabric of New Half-Way Tree. “Resorting to maroon-like living in
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