Mcgregor's Journey

Rahmaan Hameed

1281252

English LEC B09 Wi14

Chowdhury

March 24, 2014

Historical Significance of Race in Pauline Melville’s

“McGregor’s Journey”

In Pauline Melville’s short story “McGregor’s Journey”, a lonely Scottish construction worker that goes by the titular name, McGregor, is shown to dabble in the empty void that his life has succumbed to. The chief plot of this story is to showcase the mental and emotional state of a man lost in his own misery and lonesome, as well as to paint a stark image of the racial disparities of the time. Early in the story, McGregor is shown to sympathize with his sorrows by drowning them in whisky, as well as lending a helpful opinion to a young father convinced that his newborn baby will “never get a home of his own” (304). This pessimistic state of pondering can allude to the economic disparities of the times in conjunction with the racial tension between white and coloured/black members of society. In contrast to the depressive state that McGregor experiences in each passing character he meets, the image of a poor black woman dancing all by herself, as drunk as he, is able to jump out at him with a sense of life amongst a backdrop of weariness. The sense of hope portrayed by this vagrant dancer shines in contrast to the robotic, monotonic nature of the white characters Mcgregor encounters, enough for him to profess to the woman, “You are the first person I have seen all day with a big smile on their face…I love you for it” (308). This idea of meeting someone who shares his passion for life can be seen as a sign of hope not only for himself and his loneliness, but also for the aspirations of the coloured community during this sensitive time. By the end of the story, however, McGregor and this enchanting woman are to go their separate ways due to the sense of hostility instilled in the coloured youth peering in their direction: “Them could jus’ think ‘Here is another white man who think he own a black woman like all...