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The Dragon Can't Dance is a novel by Trinidadian author Earl Lovelace, set in a slum in Port of Spain. The novel centers around Aldrick Prospect, a man who spends almost the entire year preparing for the annual Trinidad Carnival, where he plays 'dragon'. Aldrick's interactions with the other people who live in his neighbourhood (including Fisheye, a local hoodlum, and Pariag, a rural Indian who has moved to the city to get away from his familial heritage) form the backdrop for his (and their) individual struggles for self-definition in a society dominated by its racial divisions and colonial inheritance. The story culminates in Aldrick and Fisheye, along with a small number of followers, hijacking a police van and taking two police officers hostage. The events surrounding the hostage-taking, and the aftermath of the event lead the reader on a journey through the colonial psyche, and expose the deep seated problems of a society that still has not reconciled itself with its colonial past and racial divisions.
