Many critics of The Autobiography of My Mother have noted the unrealistic facets of Xuela's extremist character. His lack of remorse, his emotional detachment, his love of the dirty and "impure" and his all-consuming need for total control over everyone and everything around him give him an almost mythical quality. A more complete and humanistic character would have doubts and flaws that Xuela does not seem to possess. In light of Xuela's deep-rooted resentment of authority, her stubborn love for degraded and unacceptable beings, her intense rejection of the "master-slave" relationship, and, above all, her hatred of British and British culture, many critics embraced the idea. that Xuela is highly symbolic of the conquered and colonized races whose blood constitutes his. There are many complex parallels between Xuela's character and the collective psyche and cultural beliefs of Dominica's "conquered" races. Yet instead of falling into despair, Xuela refuses to gracefully accept her lot in life. Early on, she rejects the imposed cultural perception of herself as inferior. Her description of her teacher is prescient: "a woman of the African people, as I could see, and she found in it a source of humiliation and self-loathing, and she wore despair like a garment, like a coat, or a staff on which she constantly leaned, a birthright that she would pass on to us" (15). Xuela then explains the distinction between Africans and Caribbeans in her Dominica. "My mother was a Caribbean woman, and when they (the class) looked at me, this is what they saw. The Caribbean people had been defeated then exterminated, thrown out like weeds from a garden; the African people had been defeated but survived. When...... middle of paper ......den. She understands it, even if she doesn't share it. Xuela also possesses a deep-rooted need for control over her personal realm, perhaps brought on by. his hatred of British control of Dominica, as well as his unhappy childhood. Above all, Xuela makes it her life's plan to love herself and, as one critic notes, "she does it with remarkable dedication." (Mead 52). Her own body becomes a temple for her, a place to feel safe and loved. Xuela says she loves herself out of necessity, because the world she lives in is cruel and has little love to give her. Xuela's character is difficult to accept, whatever the point of view. She is almost inhumanly resilient and her hatred of everything Western and white is all-consuming. For these reasons, Xuela is sometimes considered an abstraction, a symbol of the suffering of an entire people..