Author Claude McKay, throughout all of his novels, investigates how the concepts of class worked in a world dominated by capitalism and colonialism. His protagonists are black intellectuals, a rarity in their society, who can find symbolism and inspiration in the most complex works of classical writers or the simplest Negro spiritual, yet struggle to find their place in society. In Banana Bottom the protagonist Bita Plant is adopted and sent to England from Jamaica by white missionary benefactors and returns to her home village of Banana Bottom seven years later a beautiful, cultured young lady. Despite the evangelical guidance of her foster parents and friendship with a white squire, Bita is increasingly drawn to the vitality of her more natural culture with its festivals, superstitions, revival meetings, and passionate courtships. Throughout the novel, McKay's character Bita seems to strongly echo the character traits and situations of the...