anthology: checking out me history.

Question 1

what is the purpose and meaning of the text?

Answer 1

• autobiographical.
• dramatic monologue.
• uses Caribbean dialect bas a means of expressing his own individuality and cultural heritage.
• speaker believes its impossible to know your identity if you don’t know about your history.
• use of Caribbean dialect and phonetic spelling to deliberately isolate European reader.
• last line suggests that he feels his history is not created yet and he wants to make sure it can’t be taken away.

Question 2

what is the context of the text?

Answer 2

• born in Guyana in 1949 when it was british Guiana.
• Caribbean. mum- Portuguese and dad- black.
• worked as a journalist and teacher before moving to britain in 1977.
• poetry examines culture and identity.

Question 3

language and structure: explanation and quotes.

Answer 3

• repition of ‘dem tell me’, emphasises ‘dem’ white people eurcentric power/ education system tell about eurcentric history an culture.
• have to ‘check out’ his history himself.
• no punctuation- creative of education.
• rebellion against regiment structure of poem and structure.
• not going to stop until his goal is achieved, working hard.
• italicises and indents the segments of black history to show they have been left out or isolated.
• rhyme sounds similar tot hat of a nursery rhyme, education of youth, impressionable, priorities are wrong, nursery rhymes aren’t useful but taught as opposed to black history, sheltering children from reality of black history.
• ‘dem’, 3rd and 1st person narrative- create confrontational feeling between him and European education.

Question 4

key quotes.

Answer 4

• ’ no dem never tell me bout dat.’
• ’ wha dem want to tell me.’
• ‘bandage up me own eye with me own history, blind em to my own identity.’
• ‘de cow who jump over de moon.’
• ‘i carving out me identity.’
• ‘but now i’m checking out me own identity.’
• ‘ole king Cole was a merry ole soul.’

Question 5

what does this pair well with?