I was rather struck by the illustrations for The Annancy Stories in that Smith's style of artwork feels much more fluid than anything we have come across thus far. It gives the impression of inky brushstrokes rather than of rigidly controlled lines.

This text stood out for its portrayal of race in colonized Jamaica. When race is a central feature in illustrations it often gives the sense of a one-sided lens in which one group is exoticized and interpreted through their alterity. The gaze of the artist as well as that of the intended audience is crucial to the cultivation of the image's content. The gaze of the audience is an essential feature in any text. Smith's audience was predominantly white and seeking entertainment rather than education as demonstrated through her performances of West Indian folk stories for hire at parties and events. From their perspective, examples of West Indian culture may have been exoticized and transformed into a status symbol, much like the pineapple. What surprised me the most was that Smith portrayed people as fallible irrespective of race. At the time of Britain's colonial power, criticism of white people made by racial minorities would have been hidden. While Smith seems to be presenting her stories in a palatable way for her audience by often invoking a ruling class when presenting white characters, she is subtly subverting their perceived power by portraying people as fallible irrespective of race. This statement of racial equality would have directly opposed social Darwinism, a mindset that was rapidly infecting much of Western thought. Herbert Spencer's works attempted to justify Britain's colonizing power as purely scientific and objective. During the Victorian period, there was a heightened interest in classification and scientific study, and so Spencer's appeal to the purported scientific authority of Britain would have been appealing to many. Another interesting thing I noticed in The Annancy Stories was the demarcation of white characters from black characters through the term buckra. This term evolved from the Ibibio and Efik term mbakara, referring to a European slave master. While buckra came to refer to white people in general, it still bears that heavy connotation of its history. Similarly, history has tended to obscure the wrongdoings of white people and often erase it from the record. As time marches on, the issues of a system based on racist thought become more and more illuminated. The ramifications of Spencer's rhetoric are still being challenged to this day. Smith's subtle challenges to the seniority of white people in a colonial world may seem minuscule in retrospect, but it's an effective contribution to the gradual product of changing the psyche of the populace. Folk stories have the power to shape and challenge paradigms in a way that avoids detection. While it may not have immediate tangible effects, these changes are necessary to cultivate long-lasting change.

The task of Undisciplining Victorian studies will also be a gradual one, as diverse stories and opinions have been intentionally obscured. These stories will be magnified and will become well-known parts of the Victorian canon in time. However, the main challenge will be changing attitudes towards Victorian studies as they have been locked into terminology that is often inaccessible or unappealing to a diverse audience.