Fear, Sufferation, and Mythology in the Metamorphosis of Ivan to Rhygin.

Mythologies have long reigned supreme in the Jamaican psyche. While there are supernatural stories such as Rivah Mumma, of note to Jamaica's history of resistance to colonialism and enslavement are antiestablishment figures like Nanny and Tacky, then colonial outlaws. More and more popular imagination is consumed by heroics of Hollywood figures such as the legendary outlaws in westerns. Utilizing Cultural Studies textual analysis, this paper explores the transformation of Ivanhoe "Ivan" Martin to Rhygin, from poor country boy to working-class urban dweller to desperate outlaw dying on his own terms. The music and language used in The Harder They Come (dir. Perry Henzell, 1972, Jamaica) will be analyzed to explore this transformation. This paper takes the view that mythmaking was the response to sufferation with fear straddling both sides of the divide—that of the wealthy and powerful whose power the poor fear; and the poor who collectively or individually and legally or illegally rise up against the system that would seek to keep them oppressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]