Checking Out Me History Flashcards
what is the poem about?
the narrator is talking about his identity and how it links to his knowledge of history, he was taught about British history but not about his Caribbean roots
‘dem tell me Wha dem want to tell me’
the pronoun ‘dem’ is indicative of the shapers of history, the juxtaposition of pronouns is suggestive of the speaker taking back power from ‘dem’ and possessive pronoun ‘me own history’ reinforces this idea
‘dem’
caribbean dialect, rather that ‘them’ presenting identity
‘checking out’
colloquial language and implies speaker is going to seek out the truth for themself
‘bandaged’ ‘blinded’
metaphorically presents his lack of knowledge as a type of disability (not allowing him to see his own history)
‘with vision’ ‘beacon’
images of light and vision contrasts with the blindness of his formal education
‘spoon’ ‘maroon’
the simple rhyme scheme emphasises the silliness of the white history he has been taught
‘see far’ ‘dream’
semantic field of inspirational terms applied to nanny maroon
‘healing star’ ‘yellow sunshine’
metaphor links her to the wider universe. images suggest light, hope and warmth
‘dem tell me dem tell me wha dem want to tell me’
repeats phonetic lines from first stanza - reminds us of the narrators anger
‘identity’
emphatic final word - sums up the main theme. He’s going to use his own history to create his identity
what themes are in the poem?
power of humans, anger, identity
the power of humans in ‘Checking Out Me History’?
the speaker of the poem is angry that the people in charge of his education have given him a one-sided history. ‘blind me to me own identity’ shows how the speaker feels he’s been treated badly by those in power
anger in ‘Checking Out Me History’?
the speaker is angry with British society for giving him an education that ignored his Caribbean heritage
identity in ‘Checking Out Me History’?
the speaker feels his personal identity has been shaped to much by Britch national identity. He believes that learning about key figures in Caribbean history will help develop his true identity
