fertile relationships that act as conveyances of our history and culture. With the systematic, long-term destruction of the memory of Trinidad's past, the identity and self-worth of its people are set adrift. Other interpretations of the deeper meanings In The Dragon Can't Dance, the hope for personal and community transformation is at the heart of the novel. After researching numerous analyses of the novel, several significant and more profound meanings appear to rise to the surface. These deeper meanings consist of the importance of "performativity" as it relates to cultural resistance, the strategy of the performer (or the lack thereof), and the viability of transformation available to individual or group identities when no adjustment is made to fit in with current day norms or standards. As with other post-colonial populations, Trinidad's society represents a culture of resistance in response to the tyranny of slavery and colonialism in general. Although this expression of resistance is prevalent and observable in daily life, it is especially evident during Carnival and its performances where large audiences are in attendance. According to Nadia Johnson, "the performativity of Trinidad's carnival becomes an outward expression of Calvary Hill's need to transform their social conditions. The characters respond to and resist their social conditions through their individual performances during the carnival season: Fisheye's steel band performance, Aldrick's dragon dance, and Philo's calypsos". If transformation of identity is the goal, then it is critical to assess which performances are effective in contributing to the transformation. Mawuena Logan, in her article "Postcoloniality and Resistance in Earl Lovelace's The Wine of Astonishment and The Dragon Can't Dance" refers to Frantz Fanon, who describes "the postcolonial subject" as being in a "zone of nonbeing, an extraordinarily sterile and arid region, an utterly naked declivity, but – where an authentic upheaval can be born - a liminal space". Performing one's way out of this liminal space and transforming identity into an "aggregated or consummated" form is a complex process that requires time, but the reward is true freedom. Our first performer, Fisheye, chooses to use his steelband music as his "agent of cultural resistance in Carnival". He regards this music and anyone involved with it as "sacred" and has no patience for those who he believes try to commercialize it. In fact, he withdraws from the steelband group in protest. This action causes him to deprive himself from future opportunities to perform his