Toycie Qualo

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Toycie Qualo is a secondary character in the 1982 novel Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell. She is the best friend of the title character and girlfriend of Emilio Villanueva.

<i>Beka Lamb</i> 1982 novel

Beka Lamb is the debut novel from Belizean writer Zee Edgell, published in 1982 as part of the Heinemann Caribbean Writers Series. It won the Fawcett Society Book Prize in 1982 and was one of the first novels from Belize to gain international recognition.

Zelma I. Edgell, better known as Zee Edgell, MBE, is a Belizean-born American writer who has had four novels published. She was an associate professor of English at Kent State University.

Contents

Character overview

Toycie is a 17-year-old senior at St. Cecilia's Academy in the beginning of the novel. An exemplary student, she aspires to raise both herself and her aunt out of their run-down house and the poverty it signifies. Toycie is seeing Hispanic student Emillio Villanueva, and it appears that everything is going for her.

The term Hispanic broadly refers to the people, nations, and cultures that have a historical link to the Spanish language or the country of Spain, depending on the context.

When Emilio impregnates Toycie and refuses to sanctify their relationship, Toycie loses her interest in school and any ability to function whatsoever. The strict Sister Virgil, St. Cecilia's principal, becomes aware of Toycie's situation, and she immediately expels Toycie, citing an unacceptable lack of modesty for the expulsion. However, Emilio, a student at St. Anthony's, does not appear to face any consequences for his part in the pregnancy. Toycie withdraws from all her former associates and settles into a depressed state. This eventually leads to an accident causing a miscarriage, a stay in the local mental asylum, and ultimately her death during a storm in the Stann Creek Valley (a mango tree fell, crushing her skull while she is wandering about during the storm).

Mango fruit, use Q3919027 for the species; Q161807 for the genus

Mangoes are juicy stone fruit (drupe) from numerous species of tropical trees belonging to the flowering plant genus Mangifera, cultivated mostly for their edible fruit.

Role in the novel

As Beka remembers, Toycie was her best friend and confidant, mainly because she understood Beka's travails. But the two friends slowly drift apart due to the attentions of Emillio Villanueva and Beka's new drive to succeed academically (a pursuit Toycie had encouraged her in).

To some reviewers, Toycie's plight as a victim of teenage pregnancy has implications for both the social and ethnic development of the nation of Belize. Professor Ervin Beck of Goshen College, Indiana, claims that the novel presents and confirms the Mestizos' increasing dominance of education and economic affairs in the colony, explained by the girls' feeling that "panias" have it better than they do. With regards to Toycie herself, Beck claims her desire to "raise her colour" inevitably brings her into conflict with Emillio and with accepted social standards in the colony, not to mention at her school. Beck also notes that the interplay between Toycie and Emilio foreshadows the dominance of Mestizos in Belizean culture, even dismissing the People's United Party's Central American leanings as indicative of a culture moving away from English influence to Spanish, despite Britain's legal hold on the colony. Ultimately, though, Toycie's main influence is on Beka, who rededicates her life to education after losing her friend and obeys the call presented by her principal below:

Teenage pregnancy pregnancy in human females under the age of 20

Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in a female under the age of 20. Pregnancy can occur with sexual intercourse after the start of ovulation, which can be before the first menstrual period (menarche) but usually occurs after the onset of periods. In well-nourished females, the first period usually takes place around the age of 12 or 13.

Belize country in Central America

Belize is a country located on the eastern coast of Central America. Belize is bordered on the northwest by Mexico, on the east by the Caribbean Sea, and on the south and west by Guatemala. It has an area of 22,970 square kilometres (8,867 sq mi) and a population of 387,879 (2017). Its mainland is about 180 mi (290 km) long and 68 mi (110 km) wide. It has the lowest population and population density in Central America. The country's population growth rate of 1.87% per year (2015) is the second highest in the region and one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere.

Goshen College private liberal arts college in Indiana, United States

Goshen College is a private liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. The institution was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, and is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. U.S. News and World Reports ranks Goshen as a top-tier regional college in the Midwestern United States.

We women must learn to control our emotions, Mr. Lamb. There are times we must stand up and say "enough" whatever our feelings. . . . The women will have to decide for a change in their lives, otherwise they will remain vulnerable. (120)

Anthony Sylvestre, an attorney writing for the Belize Times in 2007, coined the phrase "The Toycie Syndrome" to refer to the crime of infanticide, or concealing the death of a child. Of course, Toycie had actually lost the child to a miscarriage by the time of her death, but Sylvestre uses the emotions that befall Toycie as a metaphor in describing the emotion behind child concealment.

Infanticide is the intentional killing of infants.

Metaphor Figure of speech

A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas. Antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and simile are all types of metaphor. One of the most commonly cited examples of a metaphor in English literature is the "All the world's a stage" monologue from As You Like It:

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