José, the protagonist, is a young man of African origin living in Black Shack Alley with his grandmother, M'Man Tine. The people who work in the sugar cane harvest are the close descendants of recently freed slaves – they live in conditions of slavery-like poverty due to the wealthy, ruling white class. Catholic imagery runs throughout the film – notably, M'Man Tine keeps a portrait of Jesus Christ in her cabin in Black Shack Alley, and later, above her bed. This portrait serves as a visual cue to the extent of French colonialism and an iteration of French power: the idols of white religion hang in the homes of oppressed black peoples. Perhaps Jesus, for M'Man Tine, represents the notion of life after death and a means of escaping the physical and psychological labor of the cane harvest, in the same way that the Things Fell Apart converts sought comfort in