Tess Meyers Sugar Cane Alley

    Sugar Cane Alley is a film that deals with the daily struggles and futures of sugar cane workers. It focuses on Jose, a young and exceptionally bright boy who wants to make a future for himself. Because of Jose’s guidance from both this grandmother and mentor Mendouze, he understands that his current situation doesn’t have to be permanent and tries to make a future for himself by getting an scholarship to an elite school. Although everything doesn’t go right for Jose, for his mentor Mendouze dies in the very fields that he’s trying to escape, and Jose gets wrongly accused of plagiarism, he eventually attains his goal of attuning the school with the help of the adults in his life. This goes to show that everybody needs some help to succeed. While Jose had the help of mentors, teachers, and his grandmother, it seems as if other kids in the village are left to basically fend for themselves while the adults work tirelessly in the field. Because they are left with no instruction or hope, they will wind up working the the fields next. They just want to be kids, as seen when they all get drunk and accidentally start a large fire, but don’t realize how much is at stake because of how little they have. They are seen laughing and having fun, not worrying about the consequences of their actions. In order to make it out of their situation they don’t have time to be kids. Jose is able to succeed because he is more mature due to his knowledge and increased adult interaction. He understands the importance to succeed in school, of work and community, as demonstrated when he offered to help out in the fields when he wasn’t being forced to work, and for his community gaining more knowledge, as seen when he teaches Carmen to write. Jose is lucky in this sense, for it seems as if many kids don’t have a chance to make it out.

    Jose’s story of successes may seem like a story of hope, but it can also be used to show how hopeless the worker’s futures are. They aren’t slaves but they aren’t really free either. They are born into an endless cycle of hard work and low pay, where is takes a lot of work and connections for one boy to be able to attend high school and have a chance at breaking the cycle. When Mendouze is discovered in the field, the workers don’t seem overly sad, but seem to have a sense of understanding and comradery like they know that there is no way out and that the same thing may happen to them one day, too. While Mendouze’s death proved the existence of a cycle will eventually effect all of them to some, it seems as if the death acted as a sign to Jose that the cycle needed to be broken, and inspired him to succeed for both himself and for Mendouze.