way toward a more transformed identity. Ultimately, he decides to go in a more violent direction with the Calvary Nine and ends up in jail. Aldrick considers his dragon costume and his two-day performance in Carnival to be his magical route to helping himself and "the little fellars in the Yard". At first he believes whole-heartedly that his performance is capable of bringing about transformation, but gradually he becomes disenchanted and chooses to follow the Calvary Nine route to nowhere. Logan posits that Aldrick's "annual donning of the dragon costume in remembrance of the ancestors" and his next move of joining the Calvary Nine "which parallels the ritual of his dragon costume, is equally futile". Aldrick had no real strategy or plan to support his wish for transformation. "Both the ritual dragon dance/costume and the open rebellion without a plan or definite goal constitute that postcolonial moment that is devoid of any tangible and positive results because it is lacking in thoughtful action: the ritual subject is stuck between two realities, betwixt and between the past and the future." Nadia Johnson on the other hand believed that Philo had developed a strategy vis-à-vis his calypso performances that yielded immense progress in terms of his personal transformation of identity and indirectly produced similar benefits to his community on Calvary Hill. Although previously described as a "Judas" because of his "betrayal" of the non-possession ideology of the hill, by the end of the novel, it is Philo who returns to his origins hoping to continue his life. If the performer is effective, what is his strategy or "thoughtful action". What is highly significant in this process is which of these performances is effective and what makes certain performances more effective than others. colonialism and poverty are other themes highlighted in a large proportion in the novel Reviews Describing the novel as "a landmark, not in the West Indian, but in the contemporary novel", C. L. R. James also said: "The Dragon Can't Dance is a remarkable canvas of shanty-town life in which Lovelace's intimate knowledge of rural Trinidad and the Carnival as a sustaining cultural tradition are brilliantly brought to life." Most critiques and reviews of The Dragon Can't Dance have proven to be positive. "Aside from a few review notices of his first two novels, Earl Lovelace had received little critical treatment until the publication of The Dragon Can't Dance. Since