To some reviewers, Toycie's plight as a victim of teenage pregnancy has implications for both the social and ethnic development of the nation of Belize. Professor Ervin Beck of Goshen College, Indiana, claims that the novel presents and confirms the Mestizos' increasing dominance of education and economic affairs in the colony, explained by the girls' feeling that "panias" have it better than they do. With regards to Toycie herself, Beck claims her desire to "raise her colour" inevitably brings her into conflict with Emillio and with accepted social standards in the colony, not to mention at her school. Beck also notes that the interplay between Toycie and Emilio foreshadows the dominance of Mestizos in Belizean culture, even dismissing the People's United Party's Central American leanings as indicative of a culture moving away from English influence to Spanish, despite Britain's legal hold on the colony. Ultimately, though, Toycie's main influence is on Beka, who rededicates her life to education after losing her friend and obeys the call presented by her principal below: